Kamarooka Forest Edge Field Notes

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180° looking east along the northern edge of Kamarooka Forest taken on Tuesday 15th April 2003, 2:00 pm.
A composite of 10 images taken with a hand held Nikon CoolPix 775 camera, stitched together in Photoshop.

The area is still in the grip of drought, though 25mm of rain fell less than a week ago.
18°C Intermittent light showers during the day - not enough to lay the dust. Stiff breeze from the west. Sky clearing.

As I drove in from the east, a Brown Hawk left its perch on a fence post and flew off, low, across the paddock. Forty to fifty White-winged Choughs feeding in the next paddock flew to the forest. Diamond Firetails caught my eye. I stopped the car. By the time I had binoculars trained, one bird remained on the fence - beautiful. Swallows were criss-crossing the paddock, hawking for insects. Red-rumped Parrots were calling from a mature Grey Box, just back from the car. Jacky Winters were flitting from low perches. Despite the wind, I set up the microphone and started recording. I sat by the vehicle, observing. From the top of the Grey Box, Dusky Woodswallows were flying out to hawk with the swallows. The Jacky Winters had moved to the fence. A Brown Treecreeper joined them. Confronted by one of Jacky Winters, the Treecreeper flew to a tree trunk in the forest, harasser in pursuit. Noisy Miners, from trees by stock yards out in the paddock, sounded an alarm and various small birds, until then unobserved, flew in from the cleared ground to the trees at the forest edge. Other birds were calling further along the track. Walking to investigate, I found Fuscous Honeyeaters, White-plumed Honeyeaters, Brown-headed Honeyeaters, a White-eared Honeyeater, Spotted Pardalotes and others feeding in a flowering Grey Box. A female Golden Whistler flew to the ground a few metres from me. Yellow-rumped Thornbills and other small birds worked their way along the forest floor. I could hear a Black-chinned Honeyeater and in the far distance, Friarbirds. Far more was happening than I have recorded here - much of which was was beyond my ken. I had found another Whipstick spot to return to again and again.
Birds seen and/or heard. Brown Hawk Bronzewing Pigeon Barking Owl Kookaburra Galah Red-rumped Parrot Eastern Rosella Brown Treecreeper Welcome Swallow Spotted Pardalote Yellow-rumped Thornbill Noisy Friarbird Noisy Miner Black-chinned Honeyeater White-plumed Honeyeater Fuscous Honeyeater Brown-headed Honeyeater White-eared Honeyeater Willy Wagtail Diamond Firetail Grey Shrike-Thrush Golden Whistler Dusky Woodswallow Crested Bellbird Jacky Winter Hooded Robin White-winged Chough Magpie Grey Butcherbird Grey Currawong Australian Raven
Map drawn from the track log of a Garmin eTrex GPS unit. Well before dawn, I returned next morning to set up my recording equipment in the same place. It was a crisp and clear - 5°C. A quite breeze moved in the tree tops. The Easter Moon, nearly full, was setting in the west, the sky red around it. Sagittarius was directly overhead. Mars was high and Venus lower in the east. Barking owls were calling in the far distance. A little closer, an Owlet-Nightjar called several times. Kookaburras cackled, Crested Bellbirds were heard uttering their clucking calls and their ventriloquial piping. A pair of Hooded Robins was seen close by. The recordings made during these two visits are marked on this map. I visited the oval before dawn several days later in the hope of getting closer to the Barking Owls, but they were not calling.