We took a look around between Toowoomba and Oakey on Wednesday, during the
course of which we met with large numbers of raptors. Not a particularly big
species count, but a lot of individuals.
During the course of the day, we estimated at least 30 Nankeen Kestrels,
either hovering over paddocks or sitting on roadside power poles.
Black-shouldered Kites were in similar numbers, doing the same sort of
thing, though their hovering looks much harder work and is in a different
plane to the kestrels. There must be a lot of suitable food out there on the
Darling Downs at present.
Not much doubt about what the Black Kites and Whistling Kites swarming
around the ponds and yards behind the Oakey Abattoirs were after. There were
at least 15 to 20 of each of those scavengers. A few Brown Falcons were
soaring above them, and we met with 5 Wedge-tailed Eagles at various
locations during the day. Plum-headed Finches at Oakey and near Jondaryan,
and we encountered a lightly-wooded paddock with more than 100 White-winged
Choughs working their way through it.
Back in the Lockyer Valley on Thursday, a look at the some of the grazed
fields that a couple of years ago were swampy lagoons turned up only
dry-country birds, such as 9 Ground Cuckoo-shrikes at three spots spread
over about 2km. There were scores of Dusky Woodswallows about, and we
couldn't miss a Tawny Frogmouth at a surprising daytime roost - a 4 inch
long stem of a broken branch, sticking out at right angles from the bare
trunk of a eucalypt, just 8 feet or so from the ground. My mailbox is better
hidden!
At Lake Atkinson there were 5 Black-tailed Godwits (a little late maybe?)
along with several Red-necked Avocets, a host of Yellow-billed Spoonbills, a
few Whiskered Terns, Caspian Terns and large numbers of both Great and Pied
Cormorants, as well as all the ducks and other waterbirds one would normally
expect to find there, including lots of Australasian Shovelers.
Two Wedge-tailed Eagles and a White-bellied Sea-eagle at Abberton on Friday.
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
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
|
