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BirdLife Castlemaine District eNews August 2020

Tuesday, 28 July 2020

  • Estimated reading time 10 minutes

Welcome to Castlemaine District eNews!

Dear Supporter,

Welcome to the August 2020 eNews. We hope you are all staying safe and well during this ongoing challenging time and making the most of nature as we head towards spring.

Read on for the latest news and updates and meet our Bird of the Month.

Tricky Birds

Connecting Country is excited to host an all-star lineup for a workshop on identifying tricky bird species of central Victoria.

Two highly-regarded birdwatchers and ecologists, Geoff Park and Chris Tzaros, will present at an online workshop on identifying tricky birds on Monday 24 August 2020 at 7 pm. Geoff will be speaking on identifying raptors and Chris on identifying thornbills, followed by an interactive panel discussion and a chance to ask the experts your birdwatching questions.

Registration is required, following which you’ll be sent the access link. For more information, click here.

Australasian Shorebird Conference 2021 – Save the Date

Dates have been announced for the Australasian Shorebird Conference 2021, which is set to take place from 19 – 21 March in Brisbane (subject to COVID-19 of course). We’ll provide more information as it becomes available.

Natural Newstead

If you haven’t come across it already, Natural Newstead, Geoff Park’s blog, is a superb resource on all things flora, fauna and landscape around Newstead in central Victoria. You can find it here.

Bird of the Month – Black-faced and White-bellied and Cuckoo-shrikes – aka Batman and Robin

Bird of the Month is written mid-month, so I can send it to our wonderful partner, Connecting Country, and we then publish the link to their blog. The literature on Cuckoo-shrikes in our area led me to pretty much leave out the Dark Morph White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike … and then the bird you see in this photo turned up at my place; a Dark morph White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, verified by Damian Kelly who said he hadn’t seen one before.

You can see the black face, which extends down the chest with black flecks running down each side of the belly a little way. Yet another bird that can be very confusing and keeps us learning and guessing. One of the joys of bird watching. Click here for the full article on Connecting Country.

Photo and words: Jane Rusden

BirdLife Resources

There are some great resources available for download on the BirdLife website, covering a range of topics including how to choose binoculars, birdwatching tips, nest boxes and lots more. Simply visit the website and click on the ‘Info Sheets’ dropdown list near the bottom right corner of the homepage.

Follow us on Facebook

We have a BirdLife Castlemaine District Facebook page. Follow us for all the latest bird news and events.

Become a Member

Membership of BirdLife Australia is a great way to support a bright future for Australia’s birds. Learn more about membership or other ways to get involved here.

Kind regards,

The BirdLife Castlemaine Committee

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BirdLife Australia, BirdLife Victoria Group, 60 Leicester Street, Carlton, VIC 3053  | castlemaine@birdlife.org.au