Wednesday 11 February 2009

I should have realised it was gonna be a poor afternoon's birding. After 5 hours of glorious sunshine this morning, the cloud came over as soon as I left work, and it was raining on and off by 15:00hrs. Sometimes I get really peed off, there was also disturbance at the lake area, the tree nursery and Migrant Alley!
Anyway, before greenie starts telling me to gat back on the happy pills, lets take a look at the positives for the day.............
1) It's now light in the morning on the way to work, hurrah, more birding time!

2) It stays lighter longer in the evening now, hurrah, more birding time!

3) I saw a CORMORANT fly over the lake area, hurrah, a new species for the month

4) I saw both MAGPIE and CARRION CROW carrying nest material today, hurrah, spring is coming!

I'm sure i'll get a few more days like today between now and and the coming of the first spring migrants, lets hope they aren't too frequent.

On the 'Big February bird Count' front,I managed to find PIED WAGTAIL late yesterday afternoon, it was feeding on the small paddocks to the front of my house. Nothing added today however, I'm hoping to add afew more over the month, 40 seems a good target.
One thing I noticed while scanning from the bedroom window, was a eucalyptus tree that was fruiting, it had loads of berries on it, now, does anyone reckon Waxwings like eucalyptus berries ? No jokes about waxwings with colds please !

5 comments:

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Don't read too much into birds carrying nesting materials .
About 3/4 weeks ago , before the big freeze , I read areport of Collard Dove sitting on nest .
Glad to see you are coming to terms with the tablets .

Warren Baker said...

I'll only take one pill then Greenie,
I'm obviously getting too carried away with my optimsm. :-(

FAB said...

Just be thankful that you can get in some birding (before / after work). It took me nearly 2 hrs to travel 12 miles to work today & there was nothing flying about!

I believe Waxwings have a very catholic appetite for many berry varieties as well as insects - so anything is possible if they have scoffed everything else.

Warren Baker said...

Sounds like a nightmare journey early birder!
i'll keep an eye on the eucalyptus berries......watch my blog!

Anonymous said...

Warren, it always lifts the spirits when you see signs of the oncoming breeding season.

Can`t wait to see the back of this month.