April 2012 – Page 2 – Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST

So many places to go, so much to do, so little time.

When I first started looking at birds at Woodlands, I ran into a birdo, Ray, who shared with me a lot of his knowledge of the area. One bird he pointed out was the White-throated Treecreeper and its distinctive call. It is alway such a pleasure to hear them, and find them among the trees. The one Ray and I would find was a female, and for several seasons she didn’t seem to have a mate, then last season she turned up with a mate and eventually produced two young. But since then I have only be only to find the female.

I heard her calling in the long creekline off Gellibrand Hill, and after a few minutes was able to find her hard at work. After following her about for about 15 minutes, I didn’t find any mate or young, so she might be back on her own. But nice to see her again.

Also ran into a family of White-winged Choughs. Or more accurately they found me and sped off with great alarm calls. But then they settled down to feed and I was able to get within lens distance. Lighting wasn’t so good, and I was hoping to get some pics of them with the lovely wings spread out. But no such luck. They are such a a dumpy looking bird, yet they seem to glide about as if on gossamer. They have an elegance about the way they touch down for landing.

This one was in preening mode.

First day of April and the weather just keeps getting better. Dorothy and I had taken the morning to visit Westgate Park, right near the huge bridge over the Yarra. It used to be a city dump, and has been reclaimed, and with lots of volunteer work it is being turned into a little wilderness Oasis just a short trip from the CBD. More power to those who thought it a good idea and all those who worked to bring it back to such great shape.

In the afternoon I needed some retail therapy and on the way back stopped at the Providence Road carpark and met Peter Tompson who is a great contributor to the Victoria Birdline. We have a good chat about the Black Falcons at WTP, and another birdo friend, Richard turned up, and even more discussion ensued. Richard has a very extensive and annotated bird list going back about 20 years for the area, it even includes sightings from one of the park rangers at the time.

We walked down to the Backpaddock, and found our taxes had been at work, and the old gate had been repaired and now actually closes. Good work team.

Richard went off further down the range, and I did a quick scout about and found a pair of Red-capped Robins in the sunshine. This pair are starting to reclaim their territory. At the moment I haven’t been able to find most of the other pairs. Hopefully they are still about, just hiding. No sign of Flame Robins yet, but with the amount of food available everywhere, perhaps they will only pass through this year.