Stuart Harris and I did the winter Woodland survey of Red Hill on Sunday 28 June, a foggy, cold and damp morning, though the fog lifted over the course of the survey with the first patches of blue sky emerging about 10:00 am. There was little activity
to begin with and diversity would have been well below average, even for winter, had it not been for a mixed feeding flock moving about at the last two sites. This added some interesting birds including a pair of Scarlet Robins, Speckled Warbler, and a few
young Golden Whistlers and Grey Shrike-thrushes. Other less commonly recorded birds included a female Common Bronzewing (the 8th record over 67 surveys), and a White-plumed Honeyeater (only the 4th record, all in winter). Also of interest were the Australian
Wood Ducks, 7 of them, all up in trees calling conspicuously. Several Eastern Spinebills and White-eared Honeyeaters further represented the winter honeyeaters for the site, along with the odd Red Wattlebird. Most of the species were actually recorded at
the nine individual sites, with only three species recorded additionally between sites. So what started off as a quite dull (!) survey ended up quite successful and pleasant.
Harvey
