The beautiful weather today prompted me to take off for an hour and go for a walk around the Meringandan Environmental Park. This "Environmental Park" is a small block of land which was previously a Council Quarry. It has been left to nature and the small quarry holes are mostly filled with water, reeds and native grasses. The Park has plenty of litter and masses of weeds including Lantana, Prickly Pear, Cobblers Pegs etc, but it also has many small native shrubs and plants that are homes to a plentiful number of small birds. The thick reeds provide a protective home for the birds who are hard to photograph darting in and out. Some of the trees and native shrubs are ones that aren't often seen and a few that I recognize from our own patch. I am yet to Id a few of these. The back of the park where the quarry holes and main bushes are located is often hard to access and can be a bit nerve wracking at times walking through long grass and weeds up to your shoulder height, but today after not much recent rain and a few frosts the grass wasn't as high and I was able to easily walk around following the plentiful kangaroo tracks through the park. Todays highlight for me was seeing plenty of double-barred finches, I havent seen any of these happy little birds for ages!
Birds seen today at Meringandan Environmental Park:
Superb Blue Wren
Double-Barred Finch
Striated Pardalote
Yellow-Rumped Thornbill
3 x Unknown Small Birds
Pale-headed Rosella
Galah
Australian Magpie
Pacific Black Duck
Common Myna
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| Male Superb Blue Fairy Wren (I will eventually get a clear photo of this busy little bird!) |
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| I love this one! Mr & Mrs Double-Barred Finch @ Meringandan Environmental Park |
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| Yellow-Rumped Thornbill |
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| Unsure on the Id of this little one, I first thought it was a yellow-rumped thornbill, but once checking the book realized its markings were different. |
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| Pear Tree about to Flower. |
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| Some of the water lillies at the Park. These are small leaves about half the size of the usual ones you see. |
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| Quarry Remnants, jagged rocks around the edges of the water holes. |
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| Native Grasses at the waters edge. |
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| Large Reeds in the Quarry |
Hi Judi,
ReplyDeleteYour little bird looks like a Weebill. We heard and saw heaps of these on our recent travels.
Cheers,
John
Thanks John for the I.D. Help. I also thought it looked like a Weebill from my books, but I didn't think that it was that small. I don't know what else it could be though, so it must be one. Thanks for the help. I am not sure that I have seen them around this area before, but have seen them in Townsville in the past. Thanks again. Judi
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Looks like a nice place for a walk and to find little birds. I'm not good at little birds but before I checked the above comments, I was going to say the unidentified bird might be a Buff-rumped Thornbill. I'm not confident however and suggest you compare it with a weebill with a fieldguide. The first place I ever saw double-barrs in my life was at Cooby dam in the 1980s.It's nice too see them in that area these years later.
ReplyDeleteThanks Russell, Brendon also thought it may have been a Buff-rumped thornbill. Although it is the colourings of the weebill, I am positive it wasn't 9cm, it was small, but not that small! I will go back and read the books again.
ReplyDeleteThe Double-barred finches are lovely. I havent seen them for ages, Possibly the last time was when we went to Main Range National Park near Killarney.There were plenty of them in this little reserve at Meringandan on the day I was there. They were busy darting in and out of small shrubs while some of the others I photographed were happpily just sitting in the sun, not too concerned about me being closeby at all.
I am agreeing with John. It is a Brown Weebill.
ReplyDeleteClose examination of head and eye markings sets it apart.
Shorter bill, and no scallop markings on forehead means it is not a Buff-rumped Thornbill.
They actually has slight lines behind the eye which help set it apart.
Short tail.
Different habits They often "hover" to feed.
Canberra Ornithologist Group has an excellent Gallery.
See Weebills - set of images. All can be enlarged.
http://photogallery.canberrabirds.org.au/pardalotes_scrubwrens_thornbills_allies.htm#WEBI
Regards
Denis Wilson
Thankyou Dennis, what you said about them Hovering to feed is exactly what this little bird was doing. Other photos I took that day showed that! Thankyou for the information and confirmation that it is infact a webill.
ReplyDelete