Gloucester birding

Dear birders After 12 years living here, my garden bird list is still growing. The latest arrival was an Emerald Pigeon on 29 Dec foraging on woodchip paths at the back. This is my first sighting since coming here as they appear to have become very rare in this area – they used to be seen fairly often early to mid 90s in Copeland Conservation Reserve but not since I’ve been living here. Another new bird for the garden list (but not locally) was a White-winged Triller, and yesterday an escapee – a lone and sad Barbary Dove. Also 2 Black-necked Storks were reported to me seen somewhere between Craven and Stratford end Nov/start Dec. About this time 2 were seen at Hexham Wetlands. A Frogmouth was sitting on two chicks on 1st December and my garden nesting Red Wattlebirds fledged two chicks 11 Nov. They are now breeding again and the Koels are VERY noisy. Local gum trees have flowered well and attracted flocks of Musk and Rainbow Lorikeets, and a few Scaly-breasted. Cattle Egrets are breeding for the third time in the small dam opposite the Gloucester Sales Yards, south Bucketts Way with a few chicks already forming creches, and many tiny chicks and eggs. After a very dry spring, they must have sensed the real rain coming as started nest building mid November – before that we had a couple of very tiny showers which evaporated almost immediately as it was so hot. However on having a look yesterday, it seems few nests contain 3 chicks, more have 2 chicks and quite a few have 1 chick. Last season there were mainly 2 and 3 per nest – I guess the extreme heat could be the cause as it’s been very hot again and food may be in short supply. So, happy birding in 2015 to everyone. Penny in Gloucester