Just 100 metres or so up the road yesterday I came cross a party of seven
Banded Lapwings sheltering from the heat of the day in the shade of a
roadside gum tree. Four adults, and three young - all of them beautiful, and
all of them photographed from my big portable hide on wheels.
The Bush-hen was calling solidly again last night, and we often get to see
it around dusk. A few evenings ago, when my friend Howard Petersen rang me
from Mt Tamborine I could hear the Bush-hen outside, so I took the phone
onto the verandah and Howard was able to hear clearly the insistent calling
of a bird he's never seen - not quite a tick! The very next morning, he
rang back, offering the phone up to his open study-window and shared with me
the sound of his local Albert's Lyrebird, calling very noisily in his
garden. Good fun, this proxy birding!
Three Red-tailed Black Cockatoos came over yesterday, the first for a couple
of months, an unusually long absence. The hot weather of the last few days
has led to day-long activity in the bird-baths - Speckled Warblers,
Variegated Fairywrens, Chestnut-breasted Mannikins, and lots of others all
seemingly co-operating to share the relief of a thoroughly good soaking in
the shade of a wattle tree on days that have scorched to over 40 degrees.
Striped Honeyeaters and Grey-crowned Babblers were busy at another birdbath,
keeping Pale-headed Rosellas waiting a safe distance away, alert for a gap
in the activity that might allow them to snatch a quick dip.
Plum-headed Finches are becoming regular over the last week or so, but they
rarely favour the bird baths.
I shall make an effort to get all my latest photographs on to the Abberton
website in the next 24 hours. I really want to share the Spotted Harrier
that landed alongside the car the other day, and yesterday's Banded Lapwings
were truly beautiful! I'll drop a note advising as soon as I've got the
website up to date.
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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