Month: May 2019

Watching the Baltimore skyscraper nest-cam? Really amazing. And the nest pair history (recapped in the Comments) is quite surprising.  Judith – https://explore.org/livecams/falcons/peregrine-falcon-chesapeake-conservancy — JudithLA

I wonder if anyone can assist with an identification as my reference books are not accessible. This morning a green 'parakeet' flew over and landed in a nearby tree. It was green overall. The bill was pinkish red, the head green, no collar was evident, chest and belly green suffused brown (not as clear green as … Read more

Thanks, all. Here we go! – still current, apparently, for those with access through Science Direct – Andersen, M.J.; Hosner, P.A.; Filardi, C.E.; Moyle, R.G. (2015). "Phylogeny of the monarch flycatchers reveals extensive paraphyly and novel relationships within a major Australo-Pacific radiation". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 83: 118–36. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2014.11.010. — JudithLA

The limited history in my house of this species’ classification is summarised in Simpson & Day 1988 – as ATTACHED – where Magpue-larks are grouped among Australian mud-nesters & just before the Corvids (where Cayley had associated it), “in a new Family with the New Guinea Torrent-lark”; & with a footnote pointing towards possible future inclusion … Read more

Driving between Wilmington and Melrose  SA yesterday I observed a white faced heron standing next to a  kangaroo carcass.  I did not see the heron eating the carcass but that was the distinct impression formed as to why it was standing there.  It did not strike me as haphazard or coincidental behaviour. We are in … Read more