More birds and skies

 There is a lot going on!  This post covers things seen and (mainly) photographed on 27 and 28 August.

One of my usual processes is to inspect the Airport fence and nearby areas on a Sunday morning.  The route I follow these days is shown in this snip from Google Earth.

The red arrow marks an air-navigation tool which is fenced off.  The fence is fairly decrepid now as it burnt during the fire, but it is still a popular perch for interesting birds.  On this visit the most interesting bird was the first Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo of the season: it is a rather early record.

The bird was sitting alongside a male Scarlet Robin which made a good contrast.

The trip was quite good with a list of 24 species.  (My low point for this site is spending an hour there with a visiting Canberra birder and not recording a single bird!)  In terms of trivia it was interesting to note he list include 4 Australo-Papuan Robins: Rose, Flame, and Scarlet Robin and Jacky Winter.

In the afternoon I went to Wangarabell which was quite pleasant but nothing dramatic was seen or photographed.

On the morning of 28 August Frances drew my attention to 2 White-faced Herons behaving in one of the Angophora trees.  Comments in HANZAB confirm this is part of a breeding display.  They raised 3 chicks in a nest last year and it looks as though they are trying for another go.

A grumpy Magpie disrupted proceedings but I got a snap of one of the birds ding a fly-by.

On the morning of the 28th I took myself for a walk down the Casuarina Walk.

This was a very pleasant stroll with quite a lot of birds around.  I listed 25 species with Crested Shrike-tit and White-bellied Cuckooshrike the least common.  Neither of those was photographable but here are a few common species that did pose.

Laughing Kookaburra

Eastern Yellow Robin

Grey Fantail - surprising few seem to be around at present.

Superb Fairywren - refused to face me!

White-throated Treecreeper

There were a few flowers along the way.  I think this might be Coronidium elatum.

Kennedia rubicunda

Acacia terminalis has moved into seed pod mode

A species of Leucopogon.

Hardenbergia violacea

The evening sky was colourful and interesting!

Jumping ahead to 30 August the White-faced Herons were walking around on structures early in the morning.