I spent the long weekend at the IBA bird counting at Munghorn Gap NR. Lots of birds, but not many counters. Recorded a Black-chinned Hon and Glossy B-Cocks at 2 survey sites. I dropped in to Capertee Valley on the way back. There were a LOT of birds there, most notably hundreds, possibly thousands, of woodswallows (the ‘white-browed-with-a-few-masked’) – in the air, in trees, on shrubs, on the ground. The surprising thing is that the huge aggregation was pretty much confined to the valley. On the drive there (via Cowra) and back (via Oberon) I would only have seen very small numbers by the roadside at a couple of places. Unlike Weddins there wasn’t a significant amount of blossom at Capertee, more at Munghorn which didn’t have woodswallows except for a couple of paddocks further east of the Divide. I can only think it must have something to do with insects.
