April has swept out of Abberton with a flourish.
A Pink-eared Duck was here on 26th & 27th April, bringing the house list to
201, (and the verandah list to 196). Since the rain, the garden has been
alive with passerines, Golden & Rufous Whistlers, Leaden Flycatchers,
Eastern Yellow Robin, Yellow Thornbills, plenty of honeyeaters - too much to
list.
(Despite which, when Tom Tarrant and Gavin Goodyear came here for an hour or
so a week back - there was very little about! There's something spooky about
Tom's visits - it took him around five or six trips here before a Speckled
Warbler came out for him, a resident breeder which appears on every one of
our monthly lists for the last several years - but hides when Tom turns up.
I'm beginning to wonder if it's a time of day thing. An early start, some
birding around Samsonvale as well as en-route, and arrive at Abberton just
as everything goes into siesta mode?)
Wedge-tailed Eagles have been low over the house and garden regularly for
the last few days, and Little Eagle is becoming frequent too, as it does
every Autumn and Winter. Elsewhere around the other day, there were six
fairly red Black-tailed Godwits, Pacific Golden Plover and a heap of
Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, a few Pallid Cuckoos and Swamp Harrier.
But as I said, the month finished with a flourish here yesterday, when a
short walk around the garden in the late-afternoon was rewarded with four
Ground Cuckoo-shrikes, a party of Plum-headed Finches dropping in to roost,
and finally, in the gloom, an Australian Hobby hurtling down to sweep up a
Double-barred Finch. Back on the verandah we scoped the Hobby on a tree
across the creek as it ripped into its final meal for the day - and what a
stunning bird it was, pausing from time to time to stand boldy upright, its
rufous underparts highlighted by the setting sun.
And the new month has begun in similar style, with an Azure Kingfisher
glistening in the early-morning sun on a mid-creek post as I snuck my first
look at May through a window around 6am today.
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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