Birds at Tempe – 11 January 2020

I joined the Tempe Birdos for their monthly bird survey at Tempe Wetlands and Tempe Reserve. As usual, I was in the group that surveyed Tempe Wetlands. It was a bit of shock to me – the wetlands were completely dry! All three of the ponds. On previous occasions I have seen the top pond dry, but not the lower ones. This meant that a lot of  the resident birds had left. There were no ducks or wading birds.

We did see some birds. Willie Wagtails seemed to be doing OK. We saw quite a few.

And here is an Olive-backed Oriole –

And an Australasian Figbird –

One of the Red Wattlebirds –

And a Grey Butcherbird –

Back at Tempe Reserve for morning tea, I heard that a White-winged Triller had been seen near the saltmarsh. Thanks to ben for later showing me where it was. I was able to get a photo. It was a new bird sighting for Tempe.

This one looks like an eclipse male.

Nearby was a pair of Red-rumped Parrots. Here is one –

On my way home, I stopped off to each out the Tawny Frogmouth nest near Younger Avenue. The nest seems to have been abandoned. One bird seemed to be sitting on it all the time from late August right through at least to mid December, when I last observed it before my visit to Tasmania. Perhaps eggs didn’t hatch? This seems to be what happened to the same pair last year. One Tawny Frogmouth was perched nearby.