Since Tuesday last week (16 April) I’ve had an influx of honeyeaters in my GBS site in Chapman, interestingly this co-incided with the departure of the Yellow-faced which had been around for about a month.
On the first morning I heard the unmistakable call of the White-plumed as soon as I opened my back door around 6:15 am. This species has become increasingly absent from my local area, but after about 5 days there was a (possible family) group of 4 of
them.
Around about that time I clearly heard a New Holland Honeyeater, an occasional brief visitor to my garden, but it took until yesterday to get a clear view while it was in one of my water baths.
On Monday during the storms the local mixed feeding flock (MFF), which had seemed to have broken up, was revived. In it I first saw a White-naped Honeyeater, again rarely recorded by me these days in the local area. However, the bigger surprise was at
first one, then briefly two, Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters, one of which
often sat up beautifully outside my study window for over an hour. I also saw one again the next morning.
Checking my records confirms this is my first record in my local area since the January 2003 fires.
They used to be seen before that, in particular in the earlier years after we moved here in 1975.
There seems to have been an influx of this species into Canberra with the eBird map showing they have
also been recorded at Narrabundah Hill, Denman Prospect, the Kama NR and Norgrove Park since 12 April. So it’s worth keeping an eye out for them.
While the Brown-headed Honeyeater was part of the MFF during March, and the Eastern Spinebill is present
all year round except for a few weeks, I have yet to record the Fuscous Honeyeater (I have looked at my White-plumeds pretty carefully). This too has been moving through Canberra, with records from 14 urban/peri-urban locations over the past month. On the
other hand it appears the Crescent Honeyeater has only been recorded from one such location (the ANBG) so far.
Jack Holland
