Heyfield Birdwatchers - November

G'day Readers,
Yesterday, nine intrepid birdos decided to ignore Saturday night's downpour and Sunday's dire forecast and headed for the Mitchell River National Park. At Angusvale the hilltops were shrouded in cloud and the river was dark and high, but we donned our wet gear headed off down the track.

Bit of an ominous start

Dark and fast

Undeterred

 A couple of the locals seemed bemused at our presence but allowed us to continue, and then the weather cleared and we were hot

Wallaby

Water Dragon

The birds however were very quiet - they were probably still drying out. Yellow Robins, Golden Whistlers, Brown Thornbills, Grey Shrike-thrushes, Blue Wrens etc, all flapped around in the wet foliage and serenaded us from within their hiding places and we only got glimpses.

We ambled back to the vehicles, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of the wet bush, and had our lunch.

After lunch the convoy headed back downstream to Glenaladale, hoping to spot a Peregrine Falcon at an old favourite site. A short stroll toward the cliff face rewarded us with some distant sightings of a pair of Dollarbirds, Black-faced Cuckkoo Shrikes and one or two others.

As we approached the cliff face we began scanning the rock ledges and were finally rewarded with the sighting of a single Peregrine chick who promptly told us what he thought of our presence when he hung his rear end over the edge and defecated!

Peregrine chick

On that note, we called it a day and headed home.

Regards,

Gouldiae.