Woodland surveys - Callum Brae and Isaacs Ridge

[sandra henderson <>]

The Isaacs Ridge survey was conducted on 23 Jun, in cold and windy conditions. As others have reported from other locations, small birds were very scarce, and the survey results generally were the poorest I've had in this location. Perhaps the birds had relocated to the higher slopes out of the wind. Only 11 species were seen/heard, with Australian Ravens the most numerous. A single Grey Butcherbird keeping watch over the dam sang for most of the hour I was in the reserve. In my second and third sites, usually not too bad for small birds, not a single little bird was found, and even larger birds were staying away, with the result at site 2 being two Australian Ravens about 70m from the centre of the site, and at site 2 a single Red Wattlebird and a couple of Australian Magpies were all that could be found.

Callum Brae

The survey was done on 20 June, in very cold but otherwise pleasant conditions. The reserve was not open until 9am.

The species count was only slightly below last year's winter survey (35 species this year, 38 last year). Australian Wood Ducks were in trees in quite a few places, with some very obviously checking out the hollows. Close to one of the dams, where there are some hollows used by cockatoos and corellas every year, two pairs of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and one pair of Little Corellas were sitting beside hollows and very loudly proclaiming their ownership. Near the quarry fence a large gathering of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Little Corellas, Galahs, Eastern Rosellas and a single Long-billed Corella were feeding on the ground - about 150 birds in total.

Close to the pumping station, a single mistletoebird was heard - the mistletoe in that area is abundant and there appeared to be a lots of ripening berries in some clumps. Throughout the reserve some of the rosellas were checking out hollows, and in my second site an Australian Raven was sitting close to one of the two old raven nests in a large eucalypt.

Sandra Henderson