Birdpedia – Australia – Weekly Digest

The following is a digest of Sightings Reported on Birdpedia for the period Monday, December 9, 2019 to Sunday, December 15, 2019:

Area: SA

Location: Adelaide botanic garden

Little Grassbird (Megalurus gramineus) (1) The little grassbird has been calling from the rushes surrounding one of the storage ponds next to First Creek wetland for a couple of months. It has never shown itself so far.

Australian Reed-Warbler (Acrocephalus australis) (1) Today the grassbird was joined by an Australian reed warbler, which I have never heard or seen there before, although the reeds and rushes are thick and ideal habitat. It was not doing its usual hiding track, rather hopping between the tops of chopped-off rushes calling the meanwhile.

Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus) (2) Black cockatoos have been flying over the botanic gardens for weeks, in ones and twos, and also over nearby suburbs. A couple of days ago one flew south across North Terrace, and today two were flying over St Peters College towards the botanic gardens.

Australian Wood Duck (Chenonetta jubata) (1) While walking over one of the lawns a female wood duck rushed at me and attacked my leg ! I had failed to notice the 8 tiny ducklings and their dad grazing on the grass.

Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae) (2) I was given the unenviable task of getting rid of a large juicy caterpillar that had been caught eating small plants in the new seed orchard. So I tossed it to a grebe, that made a quick grab. Whether the grebe actually ate it I couldn’t tell. Anyway, it would not be eating any more plants

Volunteering in the botanic gardens always brings some entertainment from the birdlife. Last week I had to chase off a family of magpies determined to uproot seedlings in the seedbank nursery.

Reported by: Barbara and Peter Bansemer on Wednesday, December 11, 2019

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Date: Friday, December 13, 2019

Location: On our Rockleigh property

Hooded Robin (Melanodryas cucullata) (2) Species number 90, a pair of hooded robins ! Our neighbour to the north has seen hooded robins on his place, but this was a first for Crooked Tree.

Also present was a restless flycatcher, which is an occasional visitor, 2 common bronzewings, also not common, and rainbow bee-eaters were calling but not seen. The white-browed babblers were there and can probably be counted as resident as they are almost always seen. A group of about 6 red-rumps made an appearance.

But only 16 species were seen, including a raptore that was probably a brown falcon but too far away to be sure. Numbers of each species were low, probably due to the dryness of everything. Something (rabbits ? roos?) has eaten leaves off our fire-break succulents, and roos have eaten down the bullrushes in the springs in the adjacent water reserve. There is not a blade of green grass anywhere

Reported by: Barbara and Peter Bansemer on Friday, December 13, 2019

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