Birding at home

Hi all

After another cancelled pelagic from Port Stephens yesterday and yet another perfect corresponding day on land, Dave Stuart and I decided to make the most of the day we had set aside and decided to go birding at my place. We were able to have an extra 2 hours sleep in and birded from 8 A.M. to noon. Neither of us had any huge expectations of what the day might reveal. I have lived here for 16 years and have a home list of 135 and it has been a while since adding any new birds. Yesterday we added 6, 7 if you count the Russet-tailed Thrush I found dead in the garden on our return, presumably having hit the window !!

Starting from the house the usual locals were quickly seen : Noisy Miner , Common Myna, Australian Magpie, Magpie-lark, Eastern and Crimson Rosella, Galah and Australian Wood Duck. Moving onto the first dam we saw a lone Little Black Cormorant , rare for here, usually LPC. The next dam had a few Black Duck , a couple of Grey Teal , 2 Masked Lapwings and Cattle Egrets. Two immature Dusky Moorhens at the next. The lower spot where I have recently recorded Red-backed Fairy-wrens revealed only Superb Blues.

The country then climbs up a fairly steep hill with a few gullies of Bladey Grass, Lantana and Blackberries. Again no other Fairy Wrens but a party of 4 Southern Emu-wrens showing well in the sun . From the small to the large, we turned around and disturbed a Wedge-tailed Eagle from the ground and we got really good views as it circled above us , giving us the evil eye but decided we were too big to eat. A Nankeen Kestrel was the only other raptor seen, even though I have recorded 11 species of raptors on our place.

As we panted to the top of the hill we could hear Thornbills calling and there were several Striated and Brown Thornbills feeding in some tall Eucalypts which were alive with birds , no blossom but presumably Lerps/insects were in abundance. First new bird was a female Crested Shrike-tit quickly followed by a Shining Bronze-cuckoo which flew out to some Milk weed and caught a Wanderer Butterfly caterpillar and then sat in the brilliant sunshine in front of us and proceeded to devour it. Next was a Fan-tailed Cuckoo and a White-throated Treecreeper , all in the same tree. A party of Variegated Fairy-wrens and Red-browed Finches were feeding on the ground around us. Grey Shrike-thrush , Silvereyes, Lewins and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters plus Spotted Pardalotes were also present.

We then followed the ridge line down from the top of our property which, whilst quite sparse in trees and undergrowth itself , borders on the neighbours which is quite heavily treed with Ironbarks and Eucalypts and a lot of understorey of Lantana. There were large numbers of Brown Gerygone , a few Yellow Thornbills a couple of Golden Whistlers, and several parties of both Superb and Variegated Fairy-wrens , totalling around 30 in number. Finally ,as we reached the end of our walk along the top was a family of 6 Red-backs completing the 4 “Wren” day for our property. There were also several Grey Fantails and we also heard ( for the first time ) Bell Miners on the neighbouring property. Red Wattlebird , Eastern Spinebill, Eastern Whipbird ( new ) , White-browed Scrub-wren and Pied Butcherbirds were also seen along the top.

Back at the house we were greeted by another Grey Fantail ( rare around the house garden ). Figbirds were calling and Lynn had seen Satin Bowerbirds on the back paving. All up, 52 species .

This morning there were 30 Welcome Swallows sitting on the back fence and another first for the garden , a female Golden Whistler near the back door. The Australasian Pipits which were conspicuous by their absence yesterday were also around . Also around were King Parrots and Pied Currawongs that we hadn’t seen the day before.

Another perfect day today.

Cheers

Dick Jenkin

DUNGOG

Lynn and Dick Jenkin

Tashkent Friesians

PO Box 92 Dungog NSW 2420

02 49921158

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