Local Birds - Seen anything new lately?

By John Gras, Delatite Landcare Group

Spring is definitely here; widespread flowering, including of some forest trees is well underway and summer migrant birds are now making regular appearances.  That is undoubtedly the case at our place in Boorolite and we look forwards to this annual influx and increased activity.  Birds are intrinsically interesting, they can be stunningly beautiful to look at, clearly have personalities, although not all nice; some are a bit cryptic; others are downright rare to find.  So, it’s a particular delight to come across an unusual species and for me this has happened three times in the last two weeks.  What started as a Landcare Wildflower Walk ended up with a relatively rare sighting of nankeen night heron (pictured here) roosting during the day near one of our dams.  Probably not so good for the frogs come dusk though.

Delatite Landcare Group has also just begun a new season of local bird-walks, part of its goal of helping build awareness and sustainability of our natural environment and its ecosystems.  My other two unusual sightings came from the first of these walks which coincidentally was also at Boorolite. Our group of birdwatchers were treated to a feast of bird activity and over a few hours of Saturday morning we were witness to 41 different bird species; even though a good number remained unseen but identifiable by their calls. That is about double a normal day’s casual count for this location so already it’s getting good.  My second delight though was my first close-up encounter with a male scarlet honey eater when he briefly visited our Jacaranda.  This is Australia’s smallest honey eater and is beautifully coloured blood-red, black and white; they are occasionally seen in the Mansfield area at this time of year but spend much of their time at tree canopy level and are more likely heard than seen.  The final part of my bird trifecta was a shining bronze cuckoo, close up, which also ventured into the same tree just a few metres away; his glossy bronzy-green wings and back, and barred chest were unmistakable.  He’s not quite so unusual around here, but again is much more likely to be heard than seen. All up for me bird-wise, it’s been a good couple of weeks.

Let us know at Up2Us of your interesting bird sightings and better still, look out for the upcoming Landcare Birdwatching activities and join us in our bird quest.