On awakening to a perfect winter morning with an extra day to do the
weekend chores, I dragged myself out to Mulligan's Flat this morning.
The birds were mostly silent but there were lots of them in large
mixed species feeding flocks. Many of these included large numbers
of thornbills and the typical mix of Scarlet Robin in pairs, Golden
Whistler, Speckled Warbler, White-throated Treecreeper and all
orchestrated by a single White-eared Honeyeater.
In the stringybark woodland the flocks were dominated by Striated
Thornbills with a small number of Buff-rumped Thornbills below.
Yellow-rumped Thornbills were notably scarce. Once onto the flat
proper the situation was reversed with Yellow-rumped outnumbering
Buff-rumped Thornbills. One flock in the Black Honeyeater area was
foraging on the ground and occupied an area over 100m in length and
easily included > 1 000 Yellow-Rumped Thornbills and 100 Buff-rumped
Thornbils! Several Golden whistlers were in this area along with a
Red-capped Robin.
Some of the flocks included Yellow Thornbills and Southern Whiteface.
Brown Thornbills were the least abundant of the group.
In total I recorded 42 species, the surprise being Pied Butcherbird
just north of the car park in the area with pine trees. My personal
highlight was a mixed flock of Scarlet and Hooded Robins.
I don't recall this intensity of winter avian activity at Mulligan's
Flat from numerous previous visits.
Milburn
--
The Milburns
8 Miller Street
O'Connor
ACT 2602
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