Honeyeater migration A "me too" moment - more Yellow-faced Honeyeaters- ? cold cooma weather

[Martin Butterfield <>]

I have added up the number of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters reported in each week  of the GBS since its inception and obtained this graph.

The star marks this week.  I would go with Jack that the flow is starting a week earlier than "usual".   A possibility is that reporting the migration seen at Gigerline has catalysed observations at other sites.

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

On Sat, 23 Mar 2019 at 07:32, Nicki Taws <> wrote:

The migration of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters typically starts in the last week of March, so these birds aren’t too early. Given that we know the birds come from further afield than just the ACT mountains (CBN 29(1), 1-8) their movement could well be triggered by events that we are unaware of (such as the hailstorm). However I suspect that daylength would also have something to do with it.

 

Cheers

 

Nicki Taws

0408 210736

 

 

 

From: Jack & Andrea Holland [
Sent: Friday, 22 March, 2019 6:01 PM
To: Jean Casburn
Cc:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] A "me too" moment - more Yellow-faced Honeyeaters- ? cold cooma weather

 

Thanks Jean, very interesting.  I’m not sure how widespread this was but it could be the reason we’re seeing some now.  I recall the forecast is for a warm dry autumn, so it will be interesting to see if there’s a gap once these come through, my understanding is that there is potentially a very wide catchment for the HEs that come through, including well into Victoria. 

 

I’ve now checked my Gang-gang column for the past 3 years and around at the time of writing the April one (about 25 March 2016, 27 March 2017 and 28 March 2018) there had been few if any migrating flocks reported, so they’re definitely at least a week early this year, perhaps caused by your event (Page has now been added to the list of suburbs).

 

Jack Holland

 

From: Jean Casburn

Sent: Friday, March 22, 2019 3:48 PM

To: 'Martin Butterfield' ; 'Jack & Andrea Holland'

Cc: 'COG List' ; 'Mark Clayton'

Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] A "me too" moment - more Yellow-faced Honeyeaters- ? cold cooma weather

 

Last weekend Cooma had a severe hailstorm which was similar to a snowstorm on the ground. Perhaps the cold temperatures have given the honeyeaters a false start – or the winter will be earlier than usual?

Jean

 

berrabirds.org.au>