We were lucky enough to see the Franklin's Gull in Adelaide last Thursday
morning, before it apparently disappeared. Made the overnight dash well
worth while.
On the drive back to Mildura, we were astounded by the number of Emus seen
between Renmark and Mildura. There were several hundred, maybe more than
500, seen in groups of 50 or more spread along most of the open farmlands on
the North side of the Sturt highway.
The interesting thing is that this is just a few kilometres south of the
Murray River and all of these birds must have swum the river to get down to
this area. I read a posting recently about Emus swimming, but this must
have been akin to those wildlife scenes we see of the vast herds of
Wilderbeest fording the Zambesi (or whatever)!!
There is no doubt that the dry conditions North of the Murray are forcing
more and more birds to look for better conditions. We have also seen many
Emus in other areas around Mildura, there are hundreds of Pelicans and
thousands of Silver Gulls at various points along the Murray River around
Wentworth and Mildura and there are still a hundred or more Black-tailed
Native Hens on the Mildura Golf Course.
Bob Cook
Mildura, Vic.
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
