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I dropped into the Mouth of the Powlett River again
this afternoon on the way home from Wonthaggi to see if the Bittern I saw there
last week was still there. There had been more rain, therefore the water
level over the paddocks had risen further. I also presume the river
still hadn't broken through to the sea yet (which is why the water is backing
up).
There was no sign of the Bittern, unfortunately,
but there were a pair of Grey Butcherbirds fishing the shallows
from the fence posts sticking out of the water. They were accompanied by a
pair of Noisy Miners. I couldn't work out whether the the
Miners were teasing the Butcherbirds or trying to shoo them away.
Sometimes the Miners were chasing the Butcherbirds, sometimes vice versa.
Is this typical behaviour for either of thees species? I saw Miner eating
a worm it had fished out of the water.
There were numerous wetland species in the water
over the paddocks including Swans, Grey and
Chestnut Teal, a single Great Egret among the
flooded saltmarsh, a few Little Black Cormorants on fenceposts
surrounded by floodwater, and the sodden paddocks hummocks made into islets by
the floodwaters hosted Masked Lapwings, Magpie
Larks, Common Mynahs and Starlings in
large flocks. I disturbed a pair of Pipits from the side
of the road as I pulled to the side at one stage and heard some very
musical tones from the bushes but failed to find the culprits. It might
have been Cisticolas, as I have seen them in the area before.
Elizabeth Shaw
Surefoot Explorations
Phillip Island
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