Unseasonal song

26th Nov: Range 9-16. Wind veered to easterlies about 7 a.m. which blew gently all day.

27th Nov: Range 12-19 ~ 4 p.m. 16 degrees C, humidity 30% and climbing, easterlies and south easterlies all day, up to 5 kt in the morning, no more than 2kt in afternoon.

Plenty hyrax activity along valley road.

Most notable on Monday were several Great tits Parus major in full enthusiastic song! One in the garden for some time midday, and another two in lively in song dual apparently at the east edge of the neighbourhood at the top of the bank sloping down to valley road. They took their singing to the top of the building and were really chiming at one another from post and roof rail.

Great tits basically pick two or three clear strident notes and repeat them a bunch of times, simple recognizable theme, many variations. One of them had a note choice I'd never heard before, more complex and varied in style than your average great tit song which threw me at first because I thought it might be something else until I saw him. Could be a young male just experimenting but if so, he already had it down!

There are plenty acacia trees and other foliage on that bank, much loved by bulbuls, graceful warblers, tits, other small birds and hyrax. We also noticed a wild mouse foraging on the bank in the late afternoon light, which then popped into a hole there. He popped out for another brief excursion and then became shy and decided to stay 'indoors' a while to our disappointment.

Today (Tues) we heard plenty great tit calls in the pines but no repeat of yesterday's performance though the garden great tit did sing for a few minutes about midday.

Toward dusk, though, we did hear some tentative blackbird song over in the north east end of north valley, again, could have been a young male just trying out his voice. Plenty blackbird settling down 'chack chacks' as usual.

Apart from the songsters, Nice male stonechat on that bank today, further south toward the pumping station, calling repeatedly, black redstart same general area yesterday. Redstart calls along the creek path today but bird was elusive. Absent from bunker but I think we just got there too late and he'd already gone to roost.

At least 150 crows up on windsurfer hill today, assorted jackdaws and hooded crows. Jays seemed to have settled down lately, not as noisy as they were not so long ago but still seen here and there changing trees. Occasional Syrian woodpecker calls.

Yesterday falcon headed over west from windsurfer hill, and up the hill to the west.. based on the direction - toward the tall buildings in the neighbourhood - we guess it was probably one of the local kestrels.

Today we saw a sparrowhawk fly over the orchard from the south and land in a tall eucalyptus, probably settling to roost as the light was fading fast by then and the little 'cell phone' crickets were already out and chiming.