If planned burns have occurred in the Kedron brook wetland complex (or
Boondall / Tinchi Tamba wetlands), may be investigating? These areas are not
that far from forested foothills to the west, 'as the eagle flies'. Also
possibly a juvenile moving around?
________________________
Stacey McLean
email:
phone: 0468413810
____________________________________________
Aquiring and managing land with high nature conservation
values. Visit: www.wildfund.org
____________________________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
Sent: Thursday, 17 May 2018 2:00 AM
To:
Subject: Birding-Aus Digest, Vol 55, Issue 17
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Today's Topics:
1. Fwd: Wedge-tailed Eagle (Judith L-A)
2. Once more around the Balsfjord)) (Willem Jan Marinus Vader)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 16 May 2018 16:12:53 +1000
From: Judith L-A <>
To:
Subject: Fwd: Wedge-tailed Eagle
Message-ID: <>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Interestingly, Debus says the Wedgie is an ?eagle of most terrestrial
habitats except intensively settled? areas, with ?intolerance of human
activity?. Notably, we are at the beginning of the Wedge-tail?s breeding
season.
Judith
SEQ 500m
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Judith L-A <>
> Date: 11 May 2018 at 2:08:20 pm AEST
> To:
> Subject: Wedge-tailed Eagle
>
> - Noon 10 May 18
> - Brisbane northern suburbs
> Attracting attention wheeling & rising over suburban Clayfield, a single
Wedge-tail ? pursued & harassed by Torresian Crows.
>
> A marvellous mystery for the locals!
>
> Judith
> SEQ
>
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 16 May 2018 08:38:57 +0000
From: Willem Jan Marinus Vader <>
To: birding-aus <>, "Birdchat
" <>,
"" <>
Subject: Once more around the Balsfjord))
Message-ID:
<
com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
SPRING AT LAST IN TROMS?; ONCE MORE AROUND THE BALSFJORD
I have lived in Troms?, N. Norway, for 45 years now, and every spring I
drive at least once 'around the Balsfjord', the fjord penetrating southwards
from Troms? for some 100 km's; I must have reported about this trip many
times to you already, so please tell me if this becomes a surfeit. This year
my trip was 2 weeks later than in most years: my car was snowed under until
a week ago, and Riet, who was here for a week, does not much like long car
drives (It is c 250km). We have had a lingering winter, with lots of snow,
but 2 weeks ago it got nice and sunny---one day 23*C, almost unknown of here
in early May--, and all the snow has disappeared in record time. Now my walk
to the museum is snow free, and there are only some rests in ditches etc
left. The birch forest here is not yet green, but the Rowans (Mountain Ash,
Sorbus) have leafed, and the birches, the dominant trees here, will soon
follow----they were looking quite green already along the Balsfjord, where
it often is a
little bit warmer than here on the island.
Also yesterday the weather was quite nice, in spite of a somewhat
threatening weather forecast: mostly sunny, and 15-16*C. The later date this
year made for some differences: the always more arctic and usually
ice-covered Ramfjord was now already ice free, and all the flocks of sea
ducks (Scoters, eiders, Long-tailed ducks) that concentrate on the Balsfjord
in spring, i.a. to feast on Capelin eggs, had already disappeared. When I
started (8.30, I often do not manage to be out early) the Pied Flycatcher
was singing lustily in the garden (They nest in nest boxes), and I also
heard Greenfinches (of course) and the newcomer Blue Tit. The trip starts
out along the main road south (E8) for some 30 km, and the usual suspects
join the day list: Common Gulls live up to their name and are everywhere,
Hooded Crows and Magpies are common, Fieldfares rattle and scold, while the
fjord yields Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, Oystercatchers and Common
Eiders (and the odd Mallard), but n
ot yet any terns, while the cormorants of winter have left to nest
elsewhere. At 81, I need most of my attention on the road, so only the most
conspicuous birds are noticed.
The above-mentioned Ramfjord, a side fjord of the Balsford, stretches
east-west, and I drive around it. There is this time a year an enormous
difference between the two sides: while the forest on the south-oriented
north shore is already quite green, along the secondary road on the other
side of this fjord there are still large patches of snow, and the birches
here are bare. But it is here I get my first positive surprise: a Ring
Ouzel flies across the road in front of the car. This is not a rare bird
here, but they almost seem to be somewhat allergic to roads and are
therefore seldom seen.. My first stop is at the mouth of the small
Andersdalen river, just when I get back to the Balsfjord itself. Here,
somewhat earlier in May, I often spot wintering Yellow-billed Loons
(White-billed Divers), but they have gone now, and I have to be content with
Redshanks and Curlews this time.
After this the road curves around and we enter a birch forest, with alders,
poplars, rowans and the occasional planted spruce, on a quite steep slope.
Here again the microclimate must be excellent, as the forest looks
definitely green, and in addition to the thousands of Coltsfoot, that grace
the road verges everywhere just now in our area, there are also Caltha in
the ditch, the many 'minrates of Equisetum arvense and the quickly growing
'soldiers' of the fern Struthiopteris, that always remind me of soldiers on
parade. There is birdsong here, but much less than I had expected (By now it
is 10 am): Norway's most numerous bird, the Willow Warbler is also dominant
here now (I heard the first one only 3 days ago; how lucky we are that this
bird has such a pleasant song strophe!), together with the Redwing, whose
song strophe here is quite different from the birds I Folkeparken in
Troms?---it is very much a 'dialect songster', and in addition I have noted
that the dialect in
Troms? this year has changed quite a bit from what they sang here a few
years ago.; but all the birds in Folkeparken sing the same strophe.
Gradually some other voices make themselves heard: Pied Flycatchers (the
cabins here often have nest boxes), Great Tit (ditto), Chaffinch, Brambling
(just arrived) and Dunnock---and of course the irrepressible Fieldfares,
clearly much more content themselves with their scratchy songs than we are.
As every year, from the steep rockside above comes the conversation of the
local pair of Ravens.
My next stop and traditional walk is in an area along the fjord with
farmhouses and fields, in addition to coppices. I notice that House Sparrows
have invaded the area, and apparently the nest boxes, and also miss out on
the Bullfinches and Woodpigeons that I often see here. A pair of European
Golden Plovers barrels over, calling; they remain the only ones this day. At
the farm where I park there are as yet no swallows, but A Starling is
singing from the roof.
The secondary road along this 'peninsula', much the worse for wear after the
winter, as most of the smaller roads are here, ends back up at the E8, and
as there are no sea ducks here anymore, I drive quickly (One of the few bits
around here where one is allowed 90 km/hr) to the bottom of Balsfjord, where
I follow the old road along the fjord bottom; no sea ducks there either, but
a pair of Goldeneyes in a small river mouth---all the rivers and streamlets
are greatly swollen because of snow melt in the surroundings mountains.
Traditionally I continue some 15 km inland from the bottom of the Balsfjord
(at Storsteinnes), where I swing off to a small country road along the lake
Sagelvvatn (=Saw River Lake), at some 150m asl. This lake is mostly ice
covered as yet, but the ice is dark and 'rotten' and won't last long
anymore; pity I can't send pictures. In some open areas, where small
rivulets debauche, there are Mallards, Wigeons, and a beautiful regal Arctic
Loon. Where the lake ends and empties itself into the Sagelva, I have a
further traditional stop; I have often seen Dippers at the bridge here, but
now the water is much too high, and also the local pair of Horned Grebes is
clearly awaiting lower water: they were lazying on the shore. To my
surprise, 3 Sand Martins (Bank Swallows) hunt over the lake here, and I was
happy to hear a Yellowhammer sing; this species is decreasing alarmingly
also here.
This is the furthest point of this day's trip, and I return via the
Malangen-peninsula, where besides the here always common Greylag Geese, I
see little new. Earlier one had to take a ferry in order to come back on
Kval?ya, the large island between Troms? and the sea, but since a few years
there is a long tunnel under the sound here, which makes it much easier. The
final stop is the wetland of Tisnes, about which you must by now have heard
much more than you ever wished to know. The staging flocks of Red Knots, on
their way to Greenland and Canada, have apparently already left, but there
were some Ruffs, a pair of Teal, more Wigeons, many Redshanks and geese, and
for the first time ever here, a Temminck's Sandpiper, usually seen near the
airport in Troms?. The last bird of the day (nr 39, numbers here do not
really count up fast) is a lone Barn Swallow that I saw enter a barn here.
30 more km's on Kval?ya, the long bridge to our island of Troms?ya and home
again around 5 pm w
ith the feeling that spring has come in Troms? also in 2018.
Wim Vader, Troms?, Norway
------------------------------
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