HiFert

The sun was out for a moment this morning, though by the end of our walk I could have entered a wet t-shirt competition, had there been one in the area. Lots of little birds including three very cute baby grey fantails, playing baby bird games, and a horsfield's bronze cuckoo singing his heart out. They are apparently mostly silent outside the breeding season. Also in abundance was this guys preferred host, the superb fairywren. White-browed scrub wrens scolded, and red-browed firefails disappeared into the bitou bush with a flash of red.

At the last HBOC meeting a proposal was put forward to have individuals take responsibility for surveying specific small territories, as a way of ensuring an up-to-date bird atlas of the Hunter Region. Sounds like the patchwatching Simon describes. Bob suggested that I take on the land beside the HiFert factory as my patch - I guess there aren't too many people who are birding the off-leash dog exercise areas. I like the idea of setting up a feeding station in my HiFert 'patch'. I put away my home feeder after inadvertently feeding a dove to a sparrowhawk.