Recently, from memory on this chat line, there were comments about the lack of any chats along the famous “Chat Alley” not far out of Lake Cargelligo on the way to the Round Hill Nature Reserve. I was out there yesterday (Thursday) and
again this morning (Friday) with two American birding friends and the area is in splendid condition, obviously having received good rain in the quite recent past. There were 20+ White-fronted Chats and at least 6 Orange Chats, including one fully plumaged
adult male. Also present were good numbers of Brown Songlarks, Zebra Finches, Australian Pipits, and late on Thursday afternoon, reasonable numbers of Black-shouldered Kites, alas none of which we could turn into Letter-winged Kites!! This morning when we
again visited the site at around 0730 it was very warm and humid with obvious bad weather approaching after the hot day yesterday and birdlife was a bit quieter but we did have a fully plumaged male White-winged Wren plus females and several White-fronted
Chats. We only spent a few minutes at the site as I wanted to get to Round Hill reasonably early. Here I picked up 3 lifers for them – the Shy Heathwren, a very obliging Southern Scrub-robin that perched high in an open mallee no more than 7 metres away and
stayed there for about for 5 minutes, calling his heart out. We had a bit less success with a Gilbert’s Whistler who we chased around for about 15 minutes before locating him in a low Melaleuca shrub.
Coming home this afternoon on a back road (?? The Back Hillston Road ??) from Hillston heading for the Mid-western Highway, I saw small numbers of Crimson Chats in a few scattered locations. Unfortunately we had to give up looking along
this road as it started raining heavily and as the road is sign-posted “dry weather road only” thought I had better get out of there pronto. There are also large numbers of both Masked and White-browed Woodswallows throughout the region with surprisingly the
Masked being the more common.
As an aside, anyone who is travelling out to Round Hill and travelling through the small village of Ungarie, please keep an eye out for Painted Honeyeaters
after you have gone through the town (coming from West Wyalong) and just
before the sign that indicates a left hand bend and a railway crossing. There is a small patch of
Acacia pendula heavily infested with mistletoe on the left and a few trees on the right where we have been colour banding the species. Please report any colour banded birds to me or Richard Allen or any of the other banders in our team. What we want
people to record is what colours you see and on which leg. We have 5 birds banded so far with a colour band over the metal band on one leg, and two colours on the other leg. We hope to get about a dozen birds colour banded by the time they leave the area for
parts unknown, probably about March or April, and hope to resight coloured banded birds when they return about September next year. There is very little known about this Vulnerable species. This site, at the right time of year is an excellent and easy site
to find the birds if you have never seen them. The honeyeaters were also a lifer for the Americans and I also got them Ground Cuckoo-shrikes and White-fronted Honeyeater.
Mark
