Christmas Bells

Christmas Bells
Christmas Bells - Blandfordia nobilis

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Birds from Charcoal Tank - September 2012

I have posted a Picasa album of the birds photographed on this last weekend.
From Boorowa all the way to West Wyalong
the fields were ablaze with a remarkable crop of Canola.
It is obviously a fantastic season
- far and away more Canola growing this year
than in the previous three years.
Mark Clayton, licenced Bird Bander, invited me to accompany him this weekend, which I really appreciated. Mark learned his Bird banding from my father, Steve Wilson. We spent many weekends banding birds, together as teenagers in Canberra, in hte early 1960s.
Yes I am THAT old!


The link to the album is as follows:
https://picasaweb.google.com/113268294402913437731/BirdsFromCharcoalTankNatureReserveSeptember182012

Male Red Capped Robin

Striated Pardalote - another little "gem" of the bush.
I have written about these trips to Charcoal tank with Mark's banding group over the last three years. There are a number of different species to be found in these four posts which will appear if you follow the link.
http://peonyden.blogspot.com.au/search?q=Charcoal+tank

4 comments:

Flabmeister said...

Excellent images from today, as well as the past link. Being of a numerophilic nature may I ask how many species were banded on the weekend?

Martin

mick said...

It's so interesting to see all those birds "in the hand". They look even smaller than they do among the leaves. Great close-up photos. An amazing experience - but if you grew up with that I wonder if you still appreciate it all! Hope so!!

Denis Wilson said...

Dear Numerophile.
You cause me trouble when you can't sleep, (or get up too early).
I photographed 16 species, and I got most birds. I did miss several sp. at the very start, on Friday afternoon.
The numbers were very different from previous trips. Few Thornbills, no Western Gerygones, no Babblers.
The season in the region is very good, and so maybe the local birds (the Bread and Butter species) might have dispersed to explore other habitats.
Mark Clayton can give you more precise figures, and total numbers.
I tried not to be "selective" to only shoot the "Pretties". (I know you didn't mean to imply that!)
Cheers
Denis

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Mick.
It is a five hours drive from Robertson to West Wyalong, so, yes I go that far because I do enjoy handling these birds. There was a hidden agenda, as I wanted to check out several Orchid areas on the way back. More about that tomorrow.
.
The comment about these birds being tiny is true - in fact.
Pardalotes seem larger (more solid) than their length would imply. Wrens are dainty little things, with long legs and long tails.
Mistletoe birds are genuinely tiny and very fine in all respects.
Thornbills are smaller than most others. The Yellow-rumps are in fact relatively large. Inland Thornbills are genuinely tiny. I didn't see any this weekend.
.
Whistlers, and Treecreepers and Honeyeaters are refreshingly normal in size, and easy to handle as a result.
Shrike-thrushes feel like giants!
.
If you go back to previous posts, you will see how large a Bronzewing Pigeon and a Black Duck are. Definitely two-handed cases.
.
Cheers
Denis