Many thanks Nicki and Martin, that’s certainly in line with my experience of the timing, though in 3 of the last 4 seasons there haven’t been too many come through by at least the start of that week. Note that I got the date wrong for one of my years,
it was actually 2015 and in 2016 the migration started on 12 March with reports from Duffy and Stromlo, with a major migration of many thousands going over Uriarra Village on 27 March.
Jack Holland
Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2019 9:21 AM
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Honeyeater migration A "me too" moment - more Yellow-faced Honeyeaters- ? cold cooma weather
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.
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 [mailto:]
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).
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
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