Flowerdale 1 Strath Creek 1

The rivalry between Flowerdale and Strath Creek has just intensified. Fellow blogger and Flowerdale resident Ronlit reported a rare sighting of a Spotted Quail-thrush on his property in early June (see A flurry of wings resolved). Not to be out-done, Kevin and Noreen saw and photographed a Spotted Quail-thrush while fencing along the creek on their Strath Creek farm. They were both surprised and intrigued by this lovely and unusual bird which obligingly stayed put while they rushed to get a camera and a bird field guide to confirm its identification.

The Strath Creek bird is a male with a white throat patch on a black face compared to an orange throat patch on the female bird at Flowerdale. Ronlit quipped that his bird “… was probably out looking for a date.” Perhaps the two birds will meet up and we can look forward to a productive mid-valley rendezvous leading to a detente between the two districts.

Male Spotted Quail-thrush

Well camouflaged

These sightings are significant as the Spotted Quail-thrush’s conservation status in Victoria is listed as “Near threatened”. In Kevin and Noreen’s case the sighting was particularly interesting as the bird’s usual habitat is upper slopes and ridges in drier forests, not creekside vegetation in low open farming land! The quail-thrush is reported to be shy and elusive and yet this bird quietly walked around in the grass in front of Kevin and Noreen, and Ronlit has seen his bird boldly walking past his kitchen window several times since his initial sighting.

[Since writing this, Steve Joblin, Project Officer for the Strath Creek Biodiversity Project, reports spotting (sic) another Spotted Quail-thrush on one of the project revegetation sites on “Three Sisters”, adjacent to the Mt Disappointment State Forest. This just happens to be on the dividing line between Flowerdale and Strath Creek, so the score remains even.]