Gluepot after the heat

Hi all, Spent a day at Gluepot yesterday where it was a cool 34C, after many 40-45C days over the last fortnight. One day recently when I was out there it was 44C which didn’t make for very pleasant birding. It did attract lots of birds to the water troughs though, and this was the case (to a lesser extent) yesterday. A flock of Regent Parrots has taken up summer residence in the reserve and frequents the water troughs. We found a partly-eaten Regent Parrot near a bird hide, possibly the victim of a Brown Goshawk that has been frequenting that particular site, with both food and water easily available! We saw 5 Major Mitchells, their numbers also seem to be on the increase, no doubt because of the availability of water. We also had a Scarlet-chested Parrot, they’re still around as are the ‘usual’ residents – Striated Grasswren (whose numbers are way down), Red-lored Whistler and Black-eared Miner. The vegetation is still looking dense (as far as that goes for mallee + understorey) as a result of 2 years of high rainfall, but it’s starting to look pretty dry now after little winter/spring rain. A decent downpour would be good some time soon! A full list of the day’s sightings can be found here: http://www.eremaea.com/BirdlineRecentSightings.aspx?Birdline=12 And some photos I took during the day are now in my 2013 photo album on my website (see link below). cheers Peter *