Birdpedia – Australia – Weekly Digest

The following is a digest of Sightings Reported on Birdpedia for the period Monday, October 26, 2020 to Sunday, November 1, 2020:

Area: SA

Location: On our Rockleigh property

Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus) (5) We have been hearing bee-eaters for weeks, but never managed to see them. I was doing my last Backyard Bird Count about 6.30pm on a very chilly windy day, with very poor light, and 5 bee-eaters turned up, and proceeded to frolic around in the trees just 20 metres from me.

Straw-necked Ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis) (20) Straw-necked ibis have appeared in ones and twos for a couple of months, despite us being 25km from the Murray and nearby wetlands. Today we saw one group of 20 cruising around high in the air, then the next day it was a group of 10. Our neighbours saw 2 grazing on the rocky slope near their shed.

Restless Flycatcher (Myiagra inquieta) (1) Having 20 minutes to sit in one spot (Backyard Bird Count again) I heard the familiar “zip” then several musical calls I had not heard before, and had plenty of time to sit and wait. The flycatcher appeared and perched on a low horizontal branch not far from where I was sitting, seemingly looking at me. It then performed a serenade of several calls (not the “zip”) while perched. Performing for me ? I checked the bird app and found that the restless flycatcher has several very different calls, as well as “zip”

Reported by: Barbara and Peter Bansemer on Tuesday, October 27, 2020

———————————————

Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Location: In the Adelaide Botanic Garden

Hardhead (Aythya australis) (9) A pair of hardheads with 7 tiny ducklings (dark brown, the spitting image of mum and dad) were sitting in small puddles between rocks in First Creek near the conservatory. Hardheads aren’t common in that part of the garden, so this was an especially good sighting.

Australian Wood Duck (Chenonetta jubata) (8) A friend told me she had just rung the garden duty officer to report ducklings stranded in the lily pond. The water level is about 20cm below the wall around the pond, and they were too small to get out. The parents were sitting on top of the wall. The duty officer said this was the second time he had been called out this morning to rescue these ducklings. Solution – a plank of wood to serve as a ramp. When I went to look, the ducklings were sitting on the ramp – I think there were about 6 but wasn’t game to get close in case dad attacked me.

Reported by: Barbara and Peter Bansemer on Wednesday, October 28, 2020

———————————————

Need more information about a sighting? Login and contact the poster directly.

Receive sightings via email or SMS immediately they are posted.

Not a member of Birdpedia? Membership is free and gives you access to information for over 230 countries.

To sign up go to the Birdpedia Web Site (www.birdpedia.com/).

To find out more about Birdpedia and what it can do for you, see ‘What is Birdpedia?’

———————————————

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail message is intended to be received only by persons entitled to receive the confidential information it may contain. E-mail messages to clients of Birdpedia may contain information that is confidential and legally privileged. Please do not read, copy, forward, or store this message unless you are an intended recipient of it. If you have received this message in error, please forward it to the sender and delete it completely from your computer system.