Shrike, buck gazelle plus 17 May

Today's featured bird: Masked Shrike Lanius nubicus Windrush photos

Lovely sunny weather warm, not hot. Gusting westerly wind, variety of clouds
Afternoon in forest , sample hour or so.

Hubby spotted a gorgeous ~18 cm Masked Shrike in a tree overarching the dry creek as we walked along the creek trail. One quite convenient feature of shrikes is their boldness and fearlessness. Their markings make them easy to identify and they often like to hunt from a post, line or obvious branch where they can get a good view of the terrain below. They're on the lookout for large insects or small lizards.

Like owls and other birds of prey they cough up pellets of undigestible material such as small bones, beetle wing cases and such. I watched a great- grey shrike produce such a pellet a couple of years back, which was an eye opener for me as I hadn't realized they do this and as far as I know they're the only family of the small perching birds that do.

It's always a good idea to check the tops of known posts and poles as many birds use these for look-outs. I've seen a common wheatear hunt flies from one, as well as spotted flycatchers, shrikes and kestrels.

Hobbies. Beautiful view of one sweeping and gliding over the orchard. I enjoy the challenge of keeping them in binocular view ( I use Bushnell 10 x 50s) as they fly because they're simply so beautiful on the wing. A short time later an angry sounding hobby chased a hooded crow out of the huge lone pine by the field. The hoodie emerged with an almost hand-in-the-cookie-jar 'krwaak!' , then the hobby erupted from the foliage in hot pursuit with a 'ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki!!' and chased the crow over the orchard.

Sunbirds were active today. I didn't hear any yesterday and was quite concerned. I believe they nested in the cape honeysuckle near our entrance as usual and was very concerned that they might have been rained out, though they are wise enough to use the east side of buildings, out of the prevailing winds and to some degree in the shelter of the building behind them.

Today they had swung back into action. I heard calls and a little song from the garden, and down on the creek path watched a little squabble high in the eucalyptus branches over the path. The males can be quite pugnacious in the breeding season and little aerial fights and squabbles are common, the males will even start up with their own maturing male offspring and encourage them quite aggressively to set up home elsewhere. After the squabble one of the males sat on a high eucalyptus twig and postured stiffly as he called, no doubt asserting his rank. It was good to see them all the way down there because now we know they breed in other locations here, apart from the rows of gardens.

Feral pigeons. Active in many locations, in pairs and small flocks

House sparrow. Active especially quite close to buildings but also along creek path and ruins. Interesting that those commensals of man, senegal doves, feral pigeons and house sparrows should be found all around the bunker ruins though no people have lived there for a minimum of half a century, could be much longer. Birds establish strong nesting and regular haunt traditions

Senegal dove. Active along street, some along creek path and ruins.

Collared dove. Active throughout forest and orchard. Turtle doves silent today.

Graceful warblers. Active, singing, calling in all low scrub and grasses by street and fields.

Blackbirds. Some song, alarm calls in several locations in forest, quieter than yesterday.

Greenfinches. Song and plenty 'chees', and foraging in lower storeys of forest with great tits.

Stone curlews. Vocal just beyond northern and eastern peripheries of forest

Great tits. Calls, family activity and foraging, less singing than yesterday

Jays. Active, busy foraging mainly, quite quiet.

Jackdaws. Some activity, congregations on ground hillslopes to east and north east.

Syrian woodpeckers. Some isolated 'kim!' calls and alarm calls

End of field, before lower slopes of hills to north a handsome lone buck gazelle was grazing in the field, not far from the shelter of a tree. We could tell he was a buck because of his fine horns, quite thick at the base, curved in the shape of a lyre frame. Females have very slender horns when at all and young have no horns or very short thin horns.

Activity varies during the day.. as I'm sure you've noticed, some birds, such as greenfinches prefer to sing when the sun is bright whereas blackbirds prefer lower intensity light.. later in the afternoon, early mornings or cloud cover. Our experience can differ quite dramatically if we go out at 6.30 p.m. instead of 4.30 p.m. Probably one of the main reasons why I've not been recording bee-eaters and swifts lately is because they tend hunt for flies right at the end of the day and lately we've been out a little earlier than that.