Thursday was a rare thing for me, a non-birding day. A day set completely
aside for catching up with overdue work in the garden.
So, down to the creekbank to tackle the task of spreading as much as I could
manage of a giant thirty-five cubic metre pile of forest mulch, all without
a pair of binoculars - that's how serious I was.
Well, there were two spoonbills there when I arrived, one Royal, one
Yellow-billed, but I ignored them and got stuck in. It was a scorching hot
day and I made frequent stops for no better reason than to catch my breath,
and to sneak glances at several pairs of Striated Pardalotes visiting their
neat creekbank excavations, or at the pair of Rainbow Bee-eaters who spent
the entire morning to-ing and fro-ing from a low branch overhanging the
creek, intermittently exploring the same attractive sandy loam building
site. Dollarbirds were doing the same sort of thing around holes in a big
dead tree just across the creek from where I was shovelling, wheel-barrowing
and raking mulch.
Yellow Thornbills and Mistletoebirds proved regular companions, a Spotted
Harrier cruised close by overhead, a pair of Sacred Kingfishers were noisily
courting, churring at each other and flashing around at great speed. A tight
party of Little Lorikeets sped by upstream - but I just kept my head down
and stayed on-task. I did see a female Koel drop silently into a big tree,
where she managed to remain un-noticed and undisturbed by the local birds.
But when a Collared Sparrowhawk shot into view shortly after, in hot pursuit
of a speeding Fairy Martin, everything in the garden seemed to know about it
and a hush descended, broken only by the sound of my squeaky wheelbarrow.
Gradually, the pile of mulch was transformed into a 10cm thick carpet across
the designated area. Gradually, I wilted more and rested longer. A pair of
immaculate Black-fronted Dotterels tended to three tiny offspring on the
shingle bank from which the creek has receded more and more during this
ongoing drought. A few days ago there were four of these miniature bundles
of fluff, until an Eastern Water Dragon took the opportunity to grab one. It
seemed like karma when I saw a Great Egret do the same to a dragon the next
day.
Channel-billed Cuckoos zoomed by at intervals throughout the morning,
usually two at a time, in single file, invariably with a Magpie in puny
pursuit. I just read the other day that as well as parasitising Crows and
Currawongs, Channel-bills sometimes select Collared Sparrowhawks to host
their young. What a bird! I wonder sometimes if their raucous call is as
much as anything an irresistible mechanism which serves to encourage
potential hosts to leave their nests unattended
There were various fairywrens and scrubwrens, ducks and darters, gerygones
and thornbills, cisticolas and reed-warblers, all sorts of birds for
company - but it was a non-birding day and I tried not to get diverted.
Despite the ever-present entertainment, I'd had enough by 1pm, and I headed
back up for lunch and a recuperative afternoon, leaving rake, shovel,
wheelbarrow and birds behind me, awaiting my next day-off.
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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