Prue and I, with David and Kathy Cook, did our autumn woodland survey this morning. Conditions were good to start with but the predicted strong winds whipped up about half way through which made the latter
part of the survey rather unproductive. 38 species were recorded, possibly an all time low for autumn, with just 29 of these during 10 minutes counts. The reserve was looking rather overgrazed and dry despite the heavy rain three weeks ago, and signs of construction
of the new predator proof fence were very obvious.
There was very little small bird activity at most sites, and unusually for autumn, we failed to connect with any mixed feeding flocks, apart from getting the tail end of one at site 7. This gave us our only
Spotted Pardalotes and White-throated Gerygone for the day and a few Grey Fantails. (Regulars such as Yellow-rumped and Buff-rumped Thornbills, Scarlet Robins, White-eared and Brown-headed Honeyeaters were all AWOL.) Amongst the more interesting things we
did see were a female Brown Goshawk at site 4, a couple of Grey Currawongs, a few Superb Parrots, 2 Wedge-tailed Eagles riding the wind over Old Joe Hill, and 2 Jacky Winters seen by David at site 1, a species for which we have very few records and none recent.
There was no sign of winter visitors such as Golden Whistler. A few summer visitors were still present in ones and twos – Rufous Whistler, White-throated and Western Gerygones. Red Wattlebirds and Noisy Friarbirds were in reasonable numbers, with 2 flocks
(6 and 14 birds) of friarbirds seen heading north.
Other things seen included Swamp Wallaby, Echidna, Jacky Dragon, and a nice selection of early autumn butterflies – Imperial and Spotted Jezebels around the flowering mistletoes (and a Mistletoe Moth), Meadow
Argus, Common and Shouldered Browns, an Amethyst Hairstreak, and Cabbage White and Common Grass-blue.
Steve
