Huge flock of Woodswallows

[Martin Butterfield <>]

We were driving back from Foxlow Lagoon this afternoon and a lot of light coloured birds erupted from a paddock.  On stopping it turned out to be a mixed flock of Woodwallows.  Fortunately they were landing to feed in the pasture between swirling flights.  (The landowner has opined that they seemed to be eating small moths earlier in the day.)  My estimate was about 20% Masked and 80% White-browed.  Many of the Masked had the paler faces of females.  My estimate was at least 500 birds in total.  This was based on comnparison with much smaller flock a flock I did count last year.

As a check on this I plotted the approximate area they occupied as a polygon on Google Earth, which amounted to 2Ha or 20,000 square metres.  Here is part of the flock - probably the birds are closer than average.

If, over the whole area, each bird occupied 10 square metres  that would amount to 2,000 birds: I don't believe there were this many, but my estimate of 500 birds in total seems reasonable.

This made the 31 Pied Stilts and 19 Red-necked Avocets at the Lagoon seem a bit less exciting!

Martin Butterfield

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