We?re off on a bit of a birding trip at the end of next month, and I ended
up spending a lot of today having to try to revise things after one of the
airlines rescheduled a flight so as to bring it 3 minutes inside the minimum
connection time they allow! So, a busy afternoon tied to the computer, with
no birding breaks.
But around 4pm, when a Grey Shrike-thrush and two or three Yellow-rumped
Thornbills turned up to bathe in the pool outside my window, I just couldn?t
resist. So I picked up the camera and headed out onto the verandah to try
for a photo.
Psychologically, I was already focussed on the birds around the pool, and
had already stepped boldly out, in full view of the creek, when I spotted a
Black Bittern standing on a small bar of exposed creek-bed straight down
from the house. We?ve been getting Black Bitterns frequently of late ? or
maybe just the one Black Bittern repeatedly, but always in flight, passing
along the middle of the creek in either direction to settle somewhere out of
view of the house. If I had only glanced down to the creek through the
window before I stepped outside I would have been able to photograph him ?
but there I was, just beginning to think about lifting the camera that was
already in my hand, as the bittern spotted me and took to the wing, off
upstream.
I carried on and got a few pics of the birds in the pool, then a bonus as a
brilliantly orange-breasted female Leaden Flycatcher joined them for a few
splashes. A gorgeous sight, all of them together.
Only five minutes, and I still had the flights to resolve, so I really had
to get back to the problem, but a group of 6 or 7 Red-tailed Black Cockatoos
dropped into our fruiting White Cedars, making little mewing sounds to each
other as they tucked in. Closer to the house, a couple of Spangled Drongos
were kicking up a much louder fuss. We had about 10 drongos here the other
morning ? they can turn up in any month of the year, but it?s always in
February and March that we get them in numbers like that.
I actually had my hand on the door to go back inside when Eileen called to
me that she had just seen something biggish and darkish drop down close to
this side of the creek bank. Just something half-seen, but too big for a
pigeon, and dark. Maybe the Black Bittern back? No, it turned out. A very
big, female, Brown Goshawk lifted up from the creekbank and cruised into a
tree on the other side. We?ve been getting three Brown Goshawks in the
garden over the last few weeks, two immatures and one well-marked big
female. The two brown imms can be separated from each other by the amount of
white each has around the face, and one has begun to show the lower barring
on the breast which the other hasn?t yet. The two younger birds are not
usually here together, but a few days back they both appeared in the same
tree, and some sparring ensued. Just a bit of chasing about, but they didn?t
seem to have any intention of tolerating each other.
So, back to the schedules, and birding through the window by my desk, which
is a big fixed pane. Great for birding, but not for photographing. I think
I?ll have to get it replaced with something that opens, then I might be able
to get some of the shots I miss now.
Bill Jolly
"Abberton",
Lockyer Valley, Queensland.
(27º 34' 21" S; 152º 08' 21" E)
Visit our website at www.abberton.org
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