Good afternoon Birders,
yet again I'm housebound with a sore shoulder, but the combination of
codeine and some quality passive birding has helped the time pass
rather quickly. The views afforded by sitting really still for a long
period are very hard to beat and it's been god to have a really good
look at what the local birds are up to.
The Crested Pigeons are looking surprisingly magnificent, with what
appears to be fresh plumage sparkling in the sun. One bird has been
sitting in the bare branches down the back for the last 3 days
grooming and inspecting. The Satin Bowerbirds are up to something too.
We usually have a resident female in the yard and rarely see the
males; blue males seem to prefer the gullies at either end of the
street. But yesterday I watched a beautiful male dislaying and calling
for 5 minutes, dancing around inside the neighbours conifer.
Eventually he was swooped by the Noisy miners and dissappeared. Then a
skinny female snuck out the bottom of the tree, followed by another;
all told 6 female bowerbirds were there, slack jawed and amazed
watching the shiny blue bird dance.
King parrots are prolific and obvious at the moment, 2 or 3 feeding in
trees near by, and flocks of up to 10 flying through regularly.
Honeyeaters are passing through in small loose flocks, pretty sure
they're mostly Yellowfaced, but I haven't nailed the call yet. A
confused Wonga Pigeon spent the day bobbing and wandering around on
Dick's roof, the first I've ever seen here. I was awake early enough
to see the Glossy Blacks pass through on their regular route to
feeding grounds and up late enough to hear a female powerful calling
down near the river. Despite what I would have thought was horrible
weather for gliding flight, the Square Tail Kite has been seen
regularly and as usual the Noisy Miners don't like it. I have found
though that the magpies up the road are the best lookouts, they have a
low whistle when it's serious, the miners go off at the trains
sometimes. So yes, it could be much worse.
EB
--
Evan Beaver
Lapstone, Blue Mountains, NSW
lat=-33.77, lon=150.64
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