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| Rufous Fantail [P. Jensen] |
A total of 17 birders, including a
couple of newcomers, braved the warm conditions in Yurol State Forest this
morning. And they had to work fairly hard as the birds were few and far between
and often difficult to see in the overcast and gloomy conditions. Cameras were
primed and ready for action but not many shots were actually fired, with a male
Orchard Butterfly probably the easiest subject of the day. We were thererfore
able to utilize our aural senses and test our call and song identification
skills with 15 of the 38 species recorded at bird call being heard only. A
flock of 30+ White-throated Needletails during morning tea won the prize for
the most prolific species, whilst most present got to see a Collared
Sparrowhawk fly over the trees. Rufous Fantail, White-throated Treecreeper and
Cicadabird presented themselves close to the track, but Brown Cuckoo-Dove and
Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove called from afar. A few got to see Black-faced Monarch
, Golden Whistler and Grey Shrike-thrush but Rufous Whistler was only heard.
Cuckoos species were also light-on, though 3 Eastern (Pacific) Koels kept
reminding us of their presence.
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| Orchard Butterfly [P Jensen] |
Over morning tea we
hypothesised the low diversity of species and thought that the basically
uniform habitat , lack of obvious food sources ( no flowering plants/trees )
and no close-by water sources were likely contributing factors. Nevertheless it
was an pleasant outing with members enjoying each others company as they
swapped birding tales.
Russ Lamb
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