[Anthony - loved that first shot from your
Aunt’s backyard. Looks like a plague of woodswallows, a pretty cracking
sight for the back garden.]
Beth and I had about 20 White-browed Woodswallows
at Narrabundah Hill yesterday evening. Passing over quite high at first but
then settling on some dead trees towards the back of the hill. Also at least 2
Rufous Songlarks singing away (from the trees in the horse paddocks and from
half way up Narrabundah Hill from the paddocks).
I have also found Rufous Songlarks to be much
commoner this year than last (incl. Norgrove Park, Newline every visit, Callum Brae, and Fyshwick Ponds) but as
Marnix says it will be interesting to see what hangs around.
Other nice birds on the hill yesterday
evening were a few Dusky Woodswallows, a single Diamond Firetail, and one
White-necked Heron flying over.
Cheers Dan
-----Original
Message-----
From: Anthony
Overs [
Sent: Friday,
23 October 2009 4:09
To: Geoffrey
Dabb
Cc: canberra birds
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] 2)
Rufus Songlarks, 1) White-winged Triller at ANU [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Just
to add...
A horde of woodswallows, mostly White-browed, some Masked, descended on my
aunt's place in Griffith, NSW for a few hours last week. One shot shows at
least 400 birds in the air. They spent their time flying in and out of a gum
and a bottle brush. Must have been feeding, but my aunt could not see on what.
Not sure if any pairs stayed.
Two pics attached.
Cheers
Anthony
2009/10/23 Geoffrey Dabb
<>
Yes
Marnix - trillers and songlarks are good examples. Perhaps
the best example is the W-browed Wswallows (sometimes with Masked) when they
appear - maybe every 3 years. On 4 occasions in S
Canberra esp Callum Brae I have seen large numbers suddenly arrive and feed in
company, before they move on abruptly, leaving maybe a dozen nesting pairs in a
good year and in a poor year only a couple. It is as if the main cohort
exhausts the readily available food and has to move on to maintain
itself. I wonder if the stayers represent more mature bids or more
strongly bonded pairs. There are a few relevant obs noted in HANZAB
including from Canberra. No
sign of a woodswallow horde as yet this spring. One view is that
such influxes are pushed by dry conditions to west, which might not exist this
year.
