BirdForum

Today I continued my initial exploration of the forests North of Saddle Road, across from the lower end of (the official) Kaumana Trail near the 19 mile marker. It has been horribly hot and humid this week which has made me feel extremely exhausted and sore, so I didn't get into the forest until noon. I'm slowly penetrating into this new area, having covered a good fraction of the first two kipukas in two previous outings. (kipuka 1 bad, kipuka 2 excellent) I've never explored the main forest...

bkrownd

A beautiful Spring day around twenty degrees
The calmness is profound with just a slight breeze
The sun is not too warm seems perfect to me
And the songbirds are singing on bush hedge and tree.

The song of the magpie lark pleasant to hear
He sings all day long at this time of the year
'Tis said that birdsong is a territorial thing
And they always save their finest songs for the Spring.

A morning in mid October 'tis a beautiful...

Francis Duggan

It is a far smaller cuckoo singing on the wattle tree
from the cuckoo that she once knew when she lived in Derrinagree
And his song is very different cuckoo cuckoo he never say
This bird has a high pitched whistle that he repeats through the day.

Far from North Cork and Duhallow where she lived long years ago
And the old fields green and fertile where the great Blackwater flow
Towards where it flows into the sea at Youghal it ever journeys on it's...

Francis Duggan

Will I ever again see Caherbarnagh or Gortavehy and his face of stone
Though I fancy from the foot of Clara I can see the old Paps of Shrone
That rise towards the skies of East Kerry not that distant from Rathmore Town
In Sliabh Luachra the home of traditional musicians and of legends of literary renown.

Will I ever again see Duhallow and the fields where the Blackwater flow
Back there now I might feel a stranger and few of me would even know
Since...

Francis Duggan

How can anyone mistake him this gray feathered minstrel of the Spring
On the sunlit gums and wattles all day long he whistle and sing
Nature lovers of Eastern Australia recognize him by his song
Once heard he cannot be mistaken the next time you won't get him wrong.

In wood, park and country garden one quite often heard and seen
In his slate gray to grayish plumage he stands out amongst the green
He is known as the gray shrike thrush no finer songster...

Francis Duggan