Thank you Lindsay, Jean and Shorty for posting these reports – very interesting and somewhat unexpected.
My thinking has been based to my COG outings over the past few years to Narrabundah Hill to find them in late March/early April when there were few observed despite the often “reasonable conditions”.
However, experience over many years indicates that when the need comes they will migrate despite the less than ideal conditions.
I had expected we weren’t quite there yet, noting that so far very few White-naped Honeyeaters seem to have been reported in the flocks.
So the next few days will be very interesting.
Jack Holland
From: shorty <>
Sent: Saturday, 4 April 2020 12:05 PM
Cc: Jack & Andrea Holland <>; COG Chat <>
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Honeyeaters moving through Duffy
I have just a 20 minute list on ebird and counted 28 Y-f Honeyeaters. I have only been outside 3 times earlier this morning for 5 minute stints and counted 33, 15 and 26. So with a total of 35 minutes 102 birds seen all flying East.
On Sat, Apr 4, 2020 at 11:52 AM Jean Casburn <> wrote:
9.05 this morning a flock of 30 Yellow-faced Honeyeaters passed over the back garden during a small sunny break – and smaller groups ( seen while measuring
rainfall from last night – 7.5mls). Now windy and mostly overcast sky.
Jean
Surprisingly, after two days of no honeyeater activity, there is a lot of action this morning over Jerrabomberra. There has been a steady stream of honeyeaters running with the
tail wing starting from about 10:00.
Regards
Lindsay Hansch
Thanks Tony, certainly the overcast conditions today were not ideal for honeyeater migration, especially relatively early in the season. They prefer clear still days after a cool
crisp night, so based on the forecasts conditions will probably improve from Sunday but won’t be ideal until about Tuesday next week. Jack Holland
I went out to Narrabundah Hill Nature Reserve today. Initially it was very quiet, but at about 11:00am, on the north boundary, 2 flocks,
each of about 100 Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, came through followed by three smaller groups. A raptor then flew by and that was the end of that. Except for one White-eared Honeyeater and a few Red Wattlebirds, which could have been locals, they all seemed
to be Yellow-faces.
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