Mt Majura- v Large MFF, but no WTT & 0 Swift P

["boy nature" <>]

 

This morning I walked up the saddle on Mt Majura and to the North Water tank. Up MacKenzie St and down Rivett St, Hackett.

 

Saddle- Lower Dam
-Near the lower dam I ran into a very large mixed feeding flock (MFF) of 2 white eared honeyeaters, two yellow faced honeyeaters, 1 olive backed oriole (seems very late), 1 Black faced cuckoo shrike, 1 striated pardalote, 3 spotted pardalotes, 1 grey shrike thrush, 1 grey currawong, no magpies! I also saw a silver eye with the deepest chestnut chest I've ever seen- initially I thought it was a scarlet robin! I did also see 1 male scarlet robin which drew my attention by its call. 1 adult female golden whistler which chased off 2 immature golden whistlers (brown wings). One of the immatures came to within 1m of me for some reason and then gave a churr call, or brrr or jerr, which I have never heard before.  SC Cockatoos, galahs, currawongs, king parrots, eastern and crimson rosellas abounded. Heaps of weebills and other thornbill species & the usual LBBs. No butcherbird. No gang gangs. No Glossy blacks, but a school group came along before I could get to the second dam, so I didnt look too hard.

-I have been bird watching a lot this year and one thing I think has been dramatic has been a paucity of white throated treecreepers (heh heh). No but seriously, the white throated treecreeper is the key species I used to use to find MFF, so it has made birding much harder. Initially I thought they were just not calling, but they seem to really not be there. When I used to see 2-4 in every MFF I have been lucky to record 1 in every 5 MFF. I wonder if this is a trend. Perhaps a disease. Perhaps it is just because ive been walking in N Canberra rather than Belconnen?? Dunno.

 

'Water Tank' creek

-My goal for the water tank creek were swift parrots, but although I stayed there for over an hour and saw >40 crimsons, >10 eastern, plus king, galahs, sc cockatoos, crested pigeons, miners. Other usuals. No gang gangs.

I checked the swifts favourite trees but no such luck. Interestingly the area has the most and biggest applebox trees of anywhere I can think of in Canberra. Mt Majura group have (with ACT gov) erected numerous interpretive signs and Event signs, and they have made heaps of plantings of very healthy looking shrubs and trees.

oops, gotta go

 

Benj Whitworth