A warmish morning before 8 o'clock and promise of a hot day ahead. In the car park at Mt Taylor, as eight COG members gathered for a wander in the woodland, a single Brown-headed Honeyeater chirruped through the foliage while the infamous Waramanga koel wailed in the distance. Suddenly a goshawk streaked across our line of vision and hid deep in foliage for a minute or two before disappearing into the nearby timber before anyone had an opportunity to get a good look at it. With ripe mistletoe everywhere we were on the lookout for painted honeyeaters in what ultimately turned out to be a honeyeater free zone. The Mistletoebirds certainly knew when they were on to a good thing though, and were noisy, active and visible around several good stands of their favourite fruit. As a breakfast treat the humans found it pretty good too!
We spent a while sorting out Yellow Thornbills from Weebills from Yellow-rumped Thornbills, and ensuring Double-barred Finches were not, in fact Speckled Warblers. From the distance came the ringing call of a Grey Currawong but it was not to be seen. Fortified with a handful of ripe cherry ballart we then descended to the gullies on the southern side of the hill as Tree Martins circled overhead. A male Leaden Flycatcher was at his most resplendent here and we later picked him up feeding a fledgling trying very hard not to be seen on a nearby sapling. While lamenting the relative absence of Noisy Friarbirds this year, one, then two then half a dozen appeared and raced up the hill to noisily despatch an equally noisy but very shy raptor - either a Collared Sparrowhawk or Brown Goshawk. Superb Fairy- wrens, Grey Fantails, a couple of Speckled Warblers and a Dusky Woodswallow or two kept us busy in this area. A noise, which could have been a triller came and went before any of us could pin it down. Up the hill a bit and we pursued a mob of White-winged Choughs, with their deep iridescent green showing up in the sunlight, before coming upon some kurrajongs in full flower. A look through the magnifying glass revealed an absolutely beautiful little blossom, barely picked up with the naked eye. With the day rapidly heating up, we retreated towards the carp ark again, with a close encounter along the way with a splendid Rufous Whistler and his bride, together with Tree Martins darting in and out of nest holes. Rosellas, crimson and eastern, were active and numerous as were Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Pied Currawongs and Laughing Kookaburras. As we were dispersing, we were again tantalised by the car park hugging goshawk.
It was a fairly typical and enjoyable Mount Taylor morning for this time of the year. 29 species in all, plus the kestrel I saw on my walk home made it a pleasantly rewarding meander.
Doug Laing