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This morning I visited several sites in the wider
Gundaroo area. A few species of interest:
Horsefield's Bushlark: 3 birds singing, but only
in the morning. When I returned to the site after 10 h they were quiet
(confirming obs. from other years). European Skylarks were singing
at both times.
White-browed Woodswallows: at various sites, the
one I checked in detail had at least 59 pairs. 4 accessible nests contained 2
eggs each (I was not actively looking for nests).
Masked Woodswallow: only 1 pair at the former site, nest
building.
Once it started to warm up, many Woodswallows
started to hawk for insects and moved in and out of the area. Again, early
morning was best for establishing pairs, nest building etc.
Painted Honeyeater: at one site a pair: to judge by its
behaviour (based on obs. from earlier years) they were building a nest: female
collected spider webs, male accompanied it, then both took off towards the
assumed nest site, which, however, was in an inaccessible area some distance
away; this happened a few times.
Michael Lenz
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