canberrabirds

Early Spring at Mulligan's Flat

To: Canberra Birds <>
Subject: Early Spring at Mulligan's Flat
From: Milburns <>
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:39:51 +1000
It may be mid-winter at Carwoola but spring was very much in the air at Mulligan's Flat this morning. Brown and Yellow Thornbills have been nesting for several weeks already and today Buff-rumped and Striated Thornbills were busy in nest construction mode. No cuckoos in evidence but they really were missing out because even an amateur like myself found several nests without too much effort. There are few Pied Currawongs and essentially no cuckoos in evidence at present so I suppose there is a clear advantage to nesting so early in that respect. However, it never ceases to amaze me that birds weighing less than 9g are so oblivious to overnight temperatures of -6°C and are prepared to begin incubating eggs under these conditions. Some resonance here with Geoffrey Dabb's observations from Gluepot but those honeyeaters are great clunkers by comparison to thornbills. Interestingly, the prognostications for next week are for unseasonally warm weather! I'm looking forward to it.

Milburn

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