Dear fellow birders,
A month ago my family and I headed out to stay on a farm NW of Parkes
(Central W NSW) for a week's holiday. These are the questions I have from my
birding there. I will attempt to get a trip report together and posted soon,
but first the questions:
1. Mystery owl: As we were driving up to our house on the farm at night (8
or 9 pm I think it was) we saw a mid-sized owl grey with white breast,
sitting on a wire fence. Perhaps 15" or 45-50 cm. Drove past it with a
crying baby desperate for sleep, and then went back with my boys later. It
flew off low over the grass when we were perhaps 15 M away.
Any takers on what kind of owl that might have been?
2. Hovering something -- brown we think -- Brown falcon? Not a Nankeen
Kestrel -- we are familiar with those.
2a. What birds in Aus hover? I only know of the Nankeen Kestrel, the
letter-wing and black-shouldered kites, and now the brown falcon, according
to one book. Any others?
2b. Any takers on what this bird might have been?
3. Juvenile cormorant sitting on a dam (???) -- colour was all wrong for an
adult -- too pale, but it had pied cormorant patterns and dived like one. I
take it this is normal for juveniles? I couldn't find juveniles in my few
books.
4. Blue-Faced Honey Eater -- carrying large bits of food found on trees and
ground -- not appeared to be nesting material.
Is this normal? I realise that many honeyeaters are not strictly
nectar-eating. . .
5. A babbler ???? -- grey-crowned or white-browed -- but a _buff_ breast and
face.
They looked like grey-crowned babblers in my book, and I've seen one on the
farm (and in the grounds of Dubbo Zoo) before.
HOWEVER, where there should be white on the face, neck and breast, these
were clearly buff. Also the underpart of the outer wings were buff. The two
face stripes were black, and the stripe over the top of the head was grey.
Their call was raucous, and there was a small group of 5 or so in low
branches, on lower parts of trees, and on the ground. Turned out they had a
nest -- large and twiggy like a babbler's, but it appeared to be open at the
top -- I think -- but it was hard to get a good view of it.
Any help on what this was?
6. mid-sized Parrot with dull green breast -- ??? ~ size of red-rump Seen
briefly from below.
My friend the farmer whose farm we were at, says superb parrots show up
there. Having never seen one, I'm not sure about them.
What would be the likely suspects in the Parkes area?
7. Brown falcon (??) -- A dark falcon high up in the branches of a dead tree
next to a dam -- I suppose a brown, given that blacks are 'rare'.
No photos. Does that sound most likely?
In the afternoon, I followed (again with my seven-month old strapped to my
chest!) a repeated, almost parrot-like call in some trees in a paddock.
Finally got there to see a bird of similar size to a Blue-faced honey eater,
though not so thin in body shape. (BFHE was right near it, making harsh
noises at me.)
Mystery bird though -- one flew off to a nearby tree, where it continued to
call to the remaining bird, who returned its call. The call was a
single-note at a time from each bird, immediately replied to by the other.
The back and wings were dull olive, and the breast and neck were plain
white.
Couldn't figure it out from my books either.
Next afternoon, walking the same sleeping girl, I had more time to study it.
Seems to be a pair of immature Blue-Faced honey-eaters -- which might
explain why the blue-faced came around them and squawking at me.
7. But why the major variation in calls between the melodic, single-note
immatures and the adult -- I realise she (?) was warning me off, but do
adults also make these melodic single-note calls?
8. Early one morning I saw high on the top of a tree a strange green parrot
with red wings. A red-winged parrot, I think? At least that's what it loked
like to me with binoculars. However, when I looked at my grainy photos later
(they wre up high) they looked more like the green back and rump of male a
red-rump. It was a parrot on its own, which is not quite the norm for a
red-rump.
Are red-winged parrots common in the N Parkes area? They are on Neville's
Schrader's list (available from the Parkes tourist info centre). But I don't
know if they are rare or common there. The NSW National Parks web site maps
show them as generally much further north. I tend to suspect it was the
red-rump, as that is the most likely thing I saw.
9. One morning I had a long walk up the hill behind us with a baby variously
happy and alert, fussy, and sleeping on my chest in her carry pack. Ever try
photography with a child on your chest who is interested in the camera? It
was lovely having the time with her though.
Highlights of the walk were nice photos of more bluebonnets -- this time the
race haematogaster -- yellow-vented. So now I've got photos of red- and
yellow-vented on the same property. And some of the red-vented appear to
have red both in front of and behind the legs. Pictures in my books show the
red only behind the legs. . .
Do the races of bluebonnet parrots interbreed and have clineal
characteristics, or just stay separate?
10. Also was walking in 30-50cm thick grass, I twice stumbled upon another
unknown:
The first time, I flushed a pair of small (15-20 cm?), fawn-coloured birds
not 10 feet (3 metres) away from me and watched them flutter off to grass 20
metres ahead. So I walked that way, got distracted by a pair of pied
butcherbirds, and then suddenly heard one of the birds behind me. Turning
around, I saw and heard one of the birds not a metre behind me! Why it
bothered calling out with something as large as me there I can't imagine,
but I watched it quickly go into the grass and never saw it again. The song
went 'did-li-dit, did-li-dit', I think. (Don't you just love trying to
describe or comprehend bird calls written in script? Largely a useless
exercise I reckon!)
About an hour later, I flushed two more and got a much better look. Fawn
backs, white underparts. They flushed from the grass, flew again only 20 M
or so ahead, and then disappeared into the grass.
Any takers on what these might have been?
Thanks in advance for any tips on my questions. Being a novice and usually
birding in spare moments without more experienced birders, I love this list!
Cheers, and happy birding,
Gordon Cain
Schofields (Blacktown)
NW Sydney
and a final PS:
11. Does anyone know why my e-mails to this list always end up with double
spaces between every paragraph/carriage return? This list is the only place
I encounter that.
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