Reports from last weekend. Wonderful idea.
On the weekend I had the pleasure of the company of about 50 other people,
many keen birdos but also some local (and some not so local) landholders, in
planting 4500 trees and shrubs in the Capertee River. I would like to thank
the other three birding-ausers that were they to help. Thanks Andrew, Carol
and Denyse (if someone else was there that I neglected acknowledge please
let me know). It was wonderful to see folk raging in age from three months
(although the youngest effective tree planter was five) to people into their
eighties.
The sites planted will all have effective benefits for enhancing habitat for
Regent Honeyeaters and other woodland birds. These included a significant
extension of an area of natural White Box regeneration (700 trees and shrubs
supplementing 500 planted several years ago), the linking of two largish
remnants (2300 trees and shrubs) and the widening of the riparian strip at
an important Regent Honeyeater breeding site (900 trees and shrubs).
I kept a running list of the birds seen at the sights I planted at although
most of the time I had my head in a hole. The highlights were Grey-crowned
Babblers (actually at the gate accessing one of the sites), a Wedge-tailed
Eagle displaying only to suddenly break it off to dive and capture a mature
rabbit (what a sight!), a pair of Black Falcons also seen by Carol Proberts
(this sent me hurdling the barbed wire fence to get the binoculars) and
Plum-headed Finches (seen yesterday when there was no-one else around to see
them - sorry folks).
Everyone present worked particularly hard all weekend (always a problem when
our numbers are down). We normally get that number of trees into the ground
in a day. Our next tree planting will be the weekend of 19-20 August. For
those within striking distance now would be a good time to mark it in your
diary. There are usually plenty of Regents in the Valley by late August
which will be a bonus.
David Geering
Regent Honeyeater Recovery Coordinator
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