Keith Brandwood wrote "All the Woodswallows that invaded the Hawkesbury a
couple of weeks ago
appear to have left the area."
A very similar situation has occurred in the Capertee Valley. We have had
BIG flocks of White-browed and Masked Woodswallows this spring. I have
been visiting the valley on a weekly basis monitoring movements of Regent
Honeyeaters. On 18 November the big flocks of woodswallows that were so
conspicuous less than a week before were gone. Co-incidentally the Regent
Honeyeaters were also gone! There were still woodswallows around but only
at much reduced numbers. Early this week the number of woodswallows
appeared to have decreased even further.
It's very curious that the environmental conditions that resulted in the
Regent Honeyeaters suddenly disappearing should coincide with the
departure of the woodswallows. Mind you the Regents were primarily
utilising lerp as a food resource (what little flowering is occurring
apparently having little if any nectar). The woodwallows were also
observed regularly swarming over trees also feeding on lerp. It would
appear that both the honeyeaters and woodswallows have gone off looking
for slightly greener pastures.
I suggest that anyone seeing flocks of woodswallows look very closely for
our missing Regent Honeyeaters. Surely gold and black birds circling high
in as flock of woodswallows should be easy to spot!
Cheers
David
David Geering
Regent Honeyeater Recovery Coordinator
NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service
P.O. Box 2111
Dubbo NSW 2830
Ph: 02 6883 5335 or Freecall 1800 621 056
Fax: 02 6884 9382
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