A huge movement of woodswallows is going on just now, with at least four
species present in the Lockyer Valley over the last couple of days. Mostly
White-browed, with plenty of Masked mixed in, and a few Dusky.
White-breasted are usually around, and I don't think they're caught up in
this mass movement. David Geering posted a note about seeing large numbers
around Karara; I was out there on Tuesday (10th September) and during the
day met with four or five noisy chattering flocks each of at least several
hundred White-breasted and Masked Woodswallows at different locations.
Squatter Pigeon and Plum-headed Finches in the same area.
Plenty of Spotted Harriers are around too at present. We came across four or
five in the Traprock on Tuesday, and we're getting them at Abberton every
day just now.
Azure Kingfishers are chasing each other up and down the creek, and our
first Sacred Kingfisher of the season turned up on Wednesday 11th September,
and just a couple of days later their calls are once again an all-day
every-day part of the Abberton soundscape.
Glossy Black and Red-tailed Black Cockatoos continue to be regular here. We
found a party of Red-tailed Blacks feeding in a roadside bloodwood the other
day - I'd been wondered what they ate when they couldn't find any White
Cedar. The Glossies seem to be faithful to Allocasuarinas.
Seasonal changes include the return of Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and the
occasional Marsh Sandpiper. Banded Lapwings and Ground Cuckoo-shrikes are
nesting in adjacent paddocks (the Cuckoo-shrike uses a tree - the Lapwing
doesn't). Little Lorikeets and White-throated Treecreepers are nesting in
similar holes at similar heights in similar trees, not quite adjacent, but
almost. Rufous Songlarks have begun to turn up around the valley, saw four
the other day. Plum-headed Finches are still faithful to the same patch of
dead (frosted) lantana, from which they launch their sorties into
surrounding paddocks.
Rose Robins and Red-capped Robins have now left us till next winter, but
Baillons Crakes have returned to the pond at Forest Hill from which they
have been absent all winter.
Bill Jolly
"Abberton",
Lockyer Valley, Queensland.
Visit our website at http://www.abberton.org
Email:
Ph: (+61) 7 4697 6111 Fax: (+61) 7 4697 6056
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