As indicated earlier by others on the chat line and now by Sandra
Henderson, we have seen quite a bit of movement of White-browed-/Masked
Woodswallows through our region and also first reports of birds staying to
breed.
Some of my recent visits to a couple of sites outside the ACT indicated
the following pattern:
Near Gundaroo: in October larger feeding flock (300), species absent
until End of November when just 2 birds were present, mid December 20 pairs,
each holding a small territory, and warning when approached; over 5 days numbers
dropped to 7 pairs which are still present, birds are now feeding young in
nests.
In the Lake Bathurst area one site had 3 pairs in late November, and 8
pairs in late December, and a further 20 pairs distributed over 4 other sites
where the species was not present before. The largest group was composed of 12
pairs, all busily nesting in pines; also 2 pairs of Masked Woodswallows with
them, although I could not work out whether they where also trying to
nest.
Michael Lenz
