Yesterday my daughter and I walked up part of the Darebin Creek Track, but found few bird of interest till we turned away from the Ring Road into the Thomastown East Reserve, where many native plantings augment a few ancient Red Gums. A large flock of Sparrows were feeding on the grass, but flew to bushes and trees. Some seemed to have spotted cheeks. I was able to definitely identify at least two Tree Sparrows among the numerous House Sparrows. They are now far less numerous than they used to be in the suburbs.
This Reserve has been planted up as Growling Grass Frog habitat by the Shire of Whittlesea and we found a lot of native birds besides the usual Red Wattlebirds and Noisy Miners. Superb Fairy-wrens, Yellow-rumped Thornbills, New Holland Honeyeaters, a couple of Weebills hovering at gum canopies and a Black-shouldered Kite. Definitely worth checking, and the best part of a rather suburban walk.
Melway Reference – Map 9,E9, near Murchison Way.
Anthea Fleming ===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
