What kind of quails, I wonder.
Peter Shute.
Sent from my iPhone
> On 25 Feb 2014, at 6:47 pm, "Bill Stent" <> wrote:
>
> Hi all, I was going through some old papers the other day when I found this.
> It was written by my grandfather in 1985 about the birds of the local place
> (I now live in his old house). He's referring to the period between the
> wars, I'd guess, although he didn't make that plain, it's just a memoir. He
> lived in the area between 1918 and 1992.
>
> My question is what are these birds? I didn't start birding until after he
> died, so I never talked with him about them, apart from when I was a very
> young kid "helped" him milk his cows on what is now Hays Paddock. I think I
> know most of them, such as the Laughing Jackass, rather obvious really, but
> what is a Tomtit? We do occasionally see Black Shouldered Kites or Collared
> Sparrowhawks, but I have no sightings of Pallid Cuckoos.
>
> Bill (junior - my grandfather's name was also Bill)
>
> The Glass Creek area and Hays' farm used to be a veritable Eden of birdlife.
> In the Springtime at sunrise I have counted up to 30 species of birds. The
> Pallid Cuckoo or Brainfever Bird, so called for its plaintiff insistent
> call, and the Laughing Jackass were prominent, as was the Butcher Bird with
> its melodious rich notes. The Mudlarks had their mud nest in the gum tree
> near the cow shed, the Willy Wagtails nested over the creek in the willow
> trees, the Teal and Black Ducks were on the edge of the creek in the furze
> bushes. The Reed Warblers, Tomtits, Goldfinches and Silvereyes were in the
> shrubbery, not forgetting the restless little Blue Wrens with their dun
> coloured harems. The Rosellas nested in the big gum tree near Newberry St
> where also the Sparrow Hawk and the Blackshouldered Kite made their base.
> The Magpies nestled in the gum trees further down. The Diamond Sparrows had
> little burrows in the creek bank for their nest. Once I saw a tiny Chat
> feeding a young Cuckoo about four times its size.
>
> The Skylarks during the day were a delight to the children. They would fly
> singing and spiralling upwards and then suddenly, closing their wings, drop
> silently like a stone to earth. There were also Plovers, Blue Cranes, Quail.
> Wattle Birds, Robin Red Breasts, Crows and the occasional flock of Ibis and
> of course the Blackbird and Thrush songsters. Colonies of little Fire Tails
> and Bell Birds
> still exist around the billabong at Burke Rd Bridge.
>
>
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