On a crisp, cloudless morning, just three of us set off to explore the foothills of Mt Majura. A Fantail Cuckoo was calling and we headed in it’s direction.
We were soon surrounded by Spotted and Striated Pardalote calls, but, as elusive as ever to pinpoint, it took a while to find and view both species. Groups of small birds were about, with many calling, and interesting to relate them to their calls.
Highlights were a Little Eagle who, with a small rabbit in his claws, flew out of a gum tree close by but alighted on a dead limb only seventy metres away. Also seen, a gathering of six Grey Shrike-thrushes, not calling, but flying and hopping energetically from low branches to logs and in and out of shrubs.
Other pleasures were the seven Speckled Warblers seen and one of those sunny, endlessly blue, particularly bright days which can turn the familiar into standouts. A male Superb Fairy-wren with his glistening black and intense blue plumage was stunning. The clarity and range of colours on a male Common Bronzewing was also attention grabbing, especially his wing covert with it’s deep bottle green sheen flecked with small and large brilliant, glinting, yellow spots.
Pat, who lives nearby, invited Rosalind and myself to coffee and biscuits in her backyard garden. It topped off an enjoyable and fairly successful bird watching morning with 28 species recorded and 3 recognised but not sighted calls.
Brian Scales