A Trip in the Grey Box at Eynesbury

Posted in Australasian Grebe, Australian Wood Duck, Brown Falcon, Brown Treecreeper, Grey Box ForestTagged , , , , , ,

Been a long time between posts, I know.  Hope you remember me!

But the excuse—I’m going to use—is that we just haven’t been doing much that is reportable.

Long term readers may remember that the blog was originally set up to record the bird activity at Grey Box forest at Woodlands Historic Park.  Quite a few things have changed, in the park, and in my birding life, and in my life since those humble beginnings.
It has been said more than once, sometimes kindly, others not, that I have Grey Box sap running in my veins. Put me in a stand of Grey Box and my heartrate, breathing and all other out of contol faculties calm down.
So when EE said, casually, ‘Why don’t we go to Eynesbury”, on a sunny morning, before you can say, “We’re off” we were!

After all the rain, Eynesbury Grey Box looks a treat.  Plenty of green and still good water laying about in the usual dry water courses that cross the forest.

We had hoped to see Speckled Warbler, Diamond Firetail, Sacred Kingfisher and Jacky Winter.  In descending order of importance.
We also had hoped to hear the forest ringing with the sounds of Dusky Woodswallows that regularly return to nest in the area.
However Grey Box is not always forthcoming and in the end we had to admit, that today was not going to be our day.

But here’s a small selection of the action.

Plenty of Tree Martins. Just about every available hole had its families.

 

A new Brown Falcon for me. A dark morph male used to work in this area, but time has allowed a new encumbant. The same technque however was being used.
It would glide from one perch spot to another and pick off a recently fledged starling or martin along the way.

 

Satisifed, it had plenty of time to digest its meal before making another foray

 

That looks like a suitable meal.
We often think of Browns as being a bit lumbering or labouring in flight. But, given the right conditions they can put on a turn of speed and manoeuvrability that rivals their more agile cousins

 

Just what ever small pond needs. Maned Duck. I still think Wood Duck is so much better.
I also suspect she was out for a bit of stretch from nesting as he was sole guardian of the pond as we returned

 

The Brown Treecreepers are feeding the first of their young, and look to be having a good season.

 

Getting all your duck(lings) in a straight line.
At first we thought they must have been orphaned, but the male Chestnut Teal quickly came out and gathered them all up.
This is another ephemeral pond, and the first time I’ve seen water in it in over 10 years

 

Galahs are also fledging their recent young.

 

This was the find of the day. The little Aussie Battler has set up a nest in a tiny, narrow arm of the main lake at Eynesbury. It’s right by a walking track, and she didn’t seem at all concerend at our presence.

 

A bit of a show-off.
There are several captive peafowl at the Old Homestead. Hard not to resist a look at those amazing tail markings. Excuse the rubbish bin.

14 thoughts on “A Trip in the Grey Box at Eynesbury”

  5. Great to have you back David 😊 I have also been having a break and now back. Love your pics as usual but it is always a joy to see the Aussie battler nesting, it is a struggle for them against predication. Hope weather improves for you, it has not been a kind year for birders.

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    1. Hello Ashley, I think one of the main reasons I began to struggle with the blog words was the change to the new WordPress Editor. I must more like to concieve the words down the page rather than dividing it up into what is essentially individual unconnected pieces.
      Also the theme I’m still using has been sun-setted and is not completley compatible with gutenberg.

      I did this one using the old Editor, and once I got started it just flowed down the page.

      The numbers of Little Aussie Battler nest we see that are predated or abandoned is quite high. I often wonder how the species survives.

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      1. Hi David,
        I found the block format quite challenging as many other older bloggers also shared with me. You do need a suitable theme to use it. I use to try and alternate between classic and block by playing with code, and still do but not as much now. It reeked havoc with my website pages when I changed over and had to make many time consuming alterations. As my old boss use to say ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’

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  6. G’day David and thanks for continuing your as always interesting writing. I enjoy looking at all the species you’ve found in Eynesbury. This is still the destination for me as I’ve never been there, yet your description of this place and the photos place it firmly on my “roadmap”.

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    1. G’day Adam,
      glad you enjoyed the re-introduction. -:)
      We are not travelling about as much as in previous years, and several of the locations we use are waterlogged, so there hasn’t been much to report.
      Hopefully now the weather is on the improve and the birds are well on the way to having this season’s young out and about there will be more activity.

      Keep takin’ pictures, We do

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