One of the annual migratory happenings has begun over the
last few days: the movement of Dollarbird families into the suburbs
before they head north. This has been a regular late-January event around
here for several years. We now have a family with at least two young, the
latter with green-grey bills. I expect them to be around for at least
three weeks. In past years they could find more food in the leafy
suburbs than in the dry woodlands, although whether they can do so in these dry
times is another question.
They are certainly obvious, with their brittle ‘kwekk’
and the insistent ‘nak-nak-nak-nak’’ of the young. Their
liking for exposed perches is satisfied by the bare tops of the suburban
birches, most of these suffering from the usual die-back.
I remember that after the fires in Jan 03 many observers
attributed Dollarbird arrivals to the destruction of woodland. Perhaps
that year they were seen in suburbs where they had not been seen previously,
but the one or two families around here then were no more than the usual.
It is one of the pleasant garden episodes of the year.
