Waiting for dusk and the White-throated Nightjars to appear! John Bosworth.

On Saturday, Febriuary 4, we drove to Maryknoll on a hot afternoon to the home of Kris and Keiran. They are close to an almost dry creek, which we walked slowly along. The birds seemed almost as lethargic as us. A highlight was the sighting of a young cuckoo which challenged us to identify it.

Photos of the bird from George Pergaminelis.

I sent them off to John Barkla and Jeff Davies, and both said the bird was a young Fan-tailed Cuckoo. Jeff's comment was "It’s a juvenile Fantail Cuckoo, juvenile Brush Cuckoo has substantial bright notching on all of the dorsal feathers. "

We enjoyed an early BBQ in Kris & Keiran's with several different species being observed in their garden while we ate. John Van Dorn

From there we drove to the Buttongrass nature walk and split into two smaller groups, with one going clockwise and the other anticlockwise. Kris's group had 3 sightings of Emu-wrens and mine none, so I want to be in her group, not mine, next time! Time marched on, so we hurriedly drove to the helipad to meet Steve Davidson, who provided the spotlight and expertise to hopefully show us White-throated Nightjars. He proved able, and we had good views of two birds which flew around a couple of times, and heard the calling of a third.

As we sat in the bright, warm, moonlit night, we saw quite a number of Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos fly in to roost for the night. Later, while we sat chatting quietly, and hoping vainly that the Nightjars would return, we heard a Boobook and a Sooty Owl. Steve tried to call the latter in, but it didn't co-operate. It was a different outing, but one we enjoyed.

John Van Dorn

The next activity will be a wader study night at BirdLife National Office in Carlton on February 29 at 7.30 p.m. led by John Barkla. The field day will be On Saturday, March 3. You can't just attend the field day, but can just come to the study night. Please contact me if you wish to come.

We are running a bonus outing in March. A trip to Mud Islands has been organised mostly by John Stirling - thanks, John - for Saturday, March 17 and is nearly completely booked, but contact me if you wish to come.

Sonja - <sonja.ross@yahoo.com.au>