All our spring migrants are back at Abberton. Koels have been around for
more than a week, on Friday we heard our first returning Channel-billed
Cuckoo, and our first two Dollarbirds swept past the verandah late on
Saturday afternoon.
Yesterday, Torrresian Crows were chasing noisy Channel-bills as if there had
been no off-season at all to their sport; pairs of Sacred Kingfishers are
calling to each other - not only the loud "Here I am" announcements which we
will be hearing all day every day for months to come, but also their softer
churring communications, doubtless of a more intimate nature.
Several pairs of Rainbow Bee-eaters are here all the time; I'm fairly sure
they're nesting in a steep bank close to the creek, but I'm keeping out of
the way for now. Rufous Whistlers are similarly paired up, and very noisy
about it; a Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo is repeating his thin call incessantly
from a creekside tree, but Koels remain mostly early-morning 'singers' at
present.
This morning, I've been watching an Azure Kingfisher at its immaculate
best - blues so rich that I really don't know how to describe them. I know
there are 16 million colours in the computer, so I could find its hex-code,
but I'd much prefer a word! Sometimes when you glimpse a fairywren way off,
too far to identify, there's a flash of a particular brilliant blue that
tells you that it has to be a Variegated, not a Superb. What's the name for
that wonderful brilliant blue?
Scope here for a thread on favourite colours - add the coral underwing on a
Bar-shouldered Dove, the plum on the crown & bib of a Plum-headed Finch, the
blue of a Satin Bowerbird's eye, the buffish flank on a Speckled Warbler,
and I really love the green on the rump of a female Red-rumped Parrot. Lot's
more.
I've just put another set of new photos on the Abberton website, along with
a paraphrase of some of the above. I'm going to have to start culling the
older images soon, or stop taking new photos...
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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