I'm not sure whether Autumn is a meaningful concept in the tropics.
Here, it is the start of the dry season after a rather dry "wet"
season. We did, however, have a day of rather drizzly rain a week ago,
not enough to cause run-off and replenish wetlands but apparently enough
to stir up the hormones of wet-sensitive nesters.
On Sunday, a Pacific Baza was doing its spectacular tumbling display
over my backyard and a Masked Lapwing was getting protective over a
young addition to the family at the Town Common. Yesterday, a
Bar-shouldered Dove was busy collecting nesting material in the front
garden. Today, I saw two Black Kites carrying twigs. One of the kites
was taking recycling seriously by collection from the rubbish tip. The
Rufous Owl continues to be vocal at around 4:00am, and I though I heard
a more distant one answering it on Monday morning.
Other birds are behaving a more autumnal fashion. There seemed to be
quite a few Fairy Martins passing north at the weekend and on the day of
the rain, I saw about 100 Black Kites drifting northward over
Townsville. The Rainbow Bee-eaters and Dollarbirds are still around,
but I haven't seen or heard any Koels or Channel-billed Cuckoos for
about a month.
Cheers,
Ian
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Ian Montgomery, Townsville, North Queensland, Australia
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