An Amazing Dawn Chorus

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I woke at 7.30am to Kookaburras calling across the woods and went outside to see what was around. Right opposite me, standing in our paddock next to the gate into the wood was a wallaby watching me. I turned to close the van door quietly as Barry was still sleeping, but when I turned back she was gone. I walked into the wood to see if I could find her, but she’d disappeared and I didn’t hear a thing. I decided to go a bit further and explore, although the path was very overgrown and full of the grass with the prickly head that sticks to your clothes. It was beautiful with the sun shining through the trees creating patterns everywhere. There were literally hundreds of birds singing their morning chorus all around me but I couldn’t see many of them against the light and high in the branches. Those I did see were moving so fast I had trouble identifying them. It was marvellous. I just stood still and absorbed the wonder around me. What a fabulous way to start a day.

I did manage to see a minute olive green bird like a wren; a robin with a very red breast, maybe a Scarlet Robin or a Red-capped Robin; a honey eater with yellow cheeks and a blue lower back; and wagtails.

After about ¾ hour I heard Barry moving and came in for breakfast. Then, as we got ready to leave Barry saw what we think was Scarlet Honeyeater, but I missed it. Then I heard a lot of noise coming from the front of the ute and moved around so I could see what was going on. There were two Grey-Crowned Babblers courting each other on the bonnet, in between picking insects off the windscreen wipers and one even jumped onto the wing mirror for a pick around it. They then left to go into a small tree nearby, which already had some wagtails in, who objected loudly, so it was all on chasing each other.

After a final chat to the winery owners, we set off towards Bundaberg. It was an easy run, past lots of sugarcane fields, at various stages of growth – some still quite short and others nearly full height. We arrived at one caravan site behind a pub, in the middle of the cane fields, but it had no laundry and was very dusty so we moved on to somewhere I could do the enormous, two weeks-worth of washing that had built up.

We ended up at Bundaberg East Cabin and Tourist Park, which was pretty with its tropical trees and plants and had a good laundry and lots of washing lines. I set to and spent all afternoon and half the evening washing, drying and ironing, after waiting for the machines which were all in use by others travellers doing the same thing.



By the end I was achy and tired so when I got back to the van and sat down for a coffee, I fell asleep and didn’t wake until 9.45pm, by which time it seemed a bit late for a big dinner so we had scrambled eggs on toast.

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Photos

Grey Crowned Babblers
They were courting and pecking insects from around the windscreen wipers and the mirrors.

The Beautiful Woodland at Brierley Winery
I enjoyed a wonderful walk (well mostly stand) here listening to and trying to see hundreds of birds all creating a fabulous Dawn Chorus.

The Entrance to Brierley Winery
Just through the gateway was a small rockery with a figure of Golem sitting on it.

A Beautiful, still unidentified, Bird at Brierley
He has a lovely blue back and was very hard to photograph as he kept moving all the time. He's probably a honey-eater, but I haven't found him in my book yet.

A Sugar Cane Harvester
This was trundling down the road heading to the next field to be harvested. The front end strips off the leaves, cuts off the cane from the ground and chops it into sections. The back end puts the sections into a hopper alongside.