Hi folks,
I went to Woodlands HP yesterday and parked at the new carpark off
Providence Road, near Weeroona Cemetery. After covering the old Greenvale
Village dam and adjacent areas, I crossed over into the high-fenced "Back
Paddock" and headed for a couple of areas where I formerly (during the 1970s
and early 1980s) used to find the Speckled Warbler and sometimes the
Southern Whiteface. No luck with those, but for the first time since I
started visiting this area in the late 1960s, there was a flock of at least
12 White-winged Choughs in the very south-east corner of the Park, near the
pedestrian access gate on the path from Moonee Ponds Creek. They seemed
quite at home and allowed me to approach them without much fuss before
moving north and upstream along the small tributary that runs south from the
west flank of Gellibrand Hill.
This species is yet another that has appeared at this park over the decades.
Other successful colonists have included the Crested Shrike-tit, Grey
Shrike-thrush, Brown Thornbill and Crested Pigeon. I live in hope, that one
day treecreepers, the Hooded Robin, the Diamond Firetail and the like will
also appear and stay!
Other birds of note were a magnificent pair of adult Peregrine Falcons
perched in a tall stag (dead tree) and a little further away a Wedge-tailed
Eagle perched in a live eucalypt overlooking, in the distance, Tullamarine
Airport. A plethora of thornbills included the resident Yellow and
Yellow-rumped (both abundant here), several solitary Brown (rare here), one
flock of Striated (very rare here) and the similar-sized Weebill (abundant
at present). Also present were many robins, including the resident
Red-capped (common here), and the Scarlet and Flame (both seasonally common
here). One group of at least four apparently female Golden Whistlers and a
lone White-eared Honeyeater (very rare here) rounded up the birds of
interest.
At the dam adjacent the south-east corner of the Park were: a pair of
Australasian Grebe, a lone Hoary-headed Grebe, two Black-fronted Dotterels,
a pair of Pacific Black Duck and a group of six Australian Wood Duck. In
all, some 44 bird species were observed in just over two hours; over a
hundred Eastern Grey Kangaroos seen and one young Jacky Lizard found under a
piece of tin.
All the best,
Charlie
Charles Silveira
Melbourne
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