It's been a cold winter here in the Blue Mountains. My birdbath froze
solid and for a couple of weeks last month it barely thawed out -
even by the end of the day it still resembled a little ice-skating
rink! You could almost see the confusion on the faces of the younger
currawongs when their beaks touched the ice as they tried to drink.
The older currawongs had it worked out. They got their water from the
small shallow birdbath meant for scrubwrens and thornbills, which
happens to be in a more sheltered part of the garden and didn't
freeze as often. The past 2-3 weeks have been balmy by comparison and
the frosts less frequent now.
No matter how cold it is, one of the very best things about winter
here is the lyrebird song. June being the height of lyrebird season,
during that month I made a few morning trips up to Mt Victoria where
there are some particularly virtuoso birds. In a gully near Pulpit
Rock is a male who mimics at least 22 different bird calls, including
all the usual lyrebird favourites like Eastern Whipbird, Crimson
Rosella, Gang-gang, Pied Currawong and Golden Whistler, as well as
things like the Brown Thornbill, White-eared and Yellow-faced
Honeyeaters, a juvenile currawong being fed, and the hawk-alarm call
of New Holland Honeyeaters. I also heard it mimic a couple of calls
that I haven't heard any other lyrebird do: Rockwarbler and
Red-browed Treecreeper. Several times it mimicked two whipbirds
calling in unison - something that I've heard whipbirds do
occasionally with only the slightest difference in timing to reveal
that it's two birds instead of one. I was also quite amused to hear
when this lyrebird mimicked Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo, it was
answered by a distant, real YTBC.
Although the female lyrebirds will still be engaged in nesting
duties, the males' display has all but petered out now. At the same
time the Satin Bowerbirds are renovating their bowers and gearing up
for spring.
Cheers,
Carol
Carol Probets
Blue Mountains NSW
(100km west of Sydney, altitude 1000 metres)
http://www.bmbirding.com.au
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
