Hi all,
My thanks to everyone who gave me info on Sooty Owls and Glossy Black
Cockatoos. I had a wonderful sunny week at Wonboyn in beautiful spring
condition. The wattles and many wild flowers were in bloom and there had been a
lot of rain some weeks ago to keep everything looking good.
Sadly there had been a lot of wind too and this had blown down many trees and
branches over the walking tracks I normally use. This certainly had not hurt
the local bush greatly but it turned out to put a major dampener on my
perambulations. After my first day of detouring into the heath to get around
fallen branches etc I found that a race of very small ticks had also benefited
from the good weather – and about 12 or so had decided I tasted as good as any
other passing warm blooded food source. The rest of the time was spent walking
the wider roads and tracks well clear of anything that may have harboured these
ravenous beasts.
Birding highlights included having Lyrebirds, Wonga Pigeons, Satin Bowerbirds
and Whipbirds on the back lawn list and watching the resident Sea Eagles cruise
past as I sipped tea on the veranda and watched Lewin’s Honeyeaters feeding
within 2 metres of my feet. Spotted Quail-thrush were regularly seen along the
edges of the roads as drove around.
I did not find any Sooty Owls but there was, sadly, a Masked Owl dead on the
road just out of Eden. The Glossy Black Cockatoos did perform though once I
found the tree that they were currently feeding in. After a stakeout of about 2
hours they finally arrived to feed at about 5:00 pm.
I also did the Eden Pelagic on a nice, large, stable boat and I recommend it
highly. Not only did the birds turn up but so did a couple of Hump-back Whales
that fed near us, and a hundred or so Common Dolphins that rode both the swells
and our bow wave – spectacular!
Thanks again to everyone
Jen
==============================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:
=============================
|