Is the Yellow-faced Honeyeater Migration season over already?

[Elizabeth Keen <>]

This is from Harold’s Cross:  for the past month we have had White-naped Honeyeaters in large numbers flying, calling and feeding in the canopy all day long. They have been flocking to the bird baths, diving and splashing together with an occasional single Yellow-faced. It’s impossible to count them as they move noisily through the gum trees, sometimes taking off in groups then circling back into the canopy. They were especially active and noisy last Wednesday, the day before the weather changed to very cold wet and windy, and then frosty, and we thought they were preparing to leave, but still today there are a number around. The YFHEs left weeks ago. 

Libby 

Sent from my iPhone

On 5 May 2020, at 9:39 pm, Robert Parnell <> wrote:



I heard and then saw a couple of YFHEs go over my house in Meehan Gardens Narrabundah this afternoon. I then saw what looked like a flock of 25 take off from a tree just up ahead in the same direction behaving like a flock of 25 YFHEs

On Sun, 12 Apr 2020 at 17:19, Rob Geraghty <> wrote:

I counted almost a hundred at Callum Brae this afternoon 

On Sun, 12 Apr 2020, 12:40 Steve Read, <> wrote:

The YFHE with occasional WNHE were still coming over Oakey Hill heading west at 11:30 this morning. I counted 102 YFHE and 4 WNHE passing over one spot in a 15-minute period.

 

Steve

 

From: Hawkins, Brian <>
Sent: Sunday, 12 April 2020 10:48 AM
To: ; 'COG Chat' <m("canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">>
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Is the Yellow-faced Honeyeater Migration season over already?

 

Further to Jean’a observations near Mt Taylor, I was on Oaky Hill at about 10 this morning and counted over 300 YFHEs in about 15 minutes, coming roughly from Weston and heading roughly towards Woden. There were also small numbers of WNHE detectable by call but not visible in the large numbers of YFHEs passing over.  Such a great spectacle!

 

Best regards,

 

Brian

 

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From: <m("bigpond.com","jandaholland");" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">>
Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2020 10:46:55 AM
To: 'COG Chat' <>
Subject: FW: [canberrabirds] Is the Yellow-faced Honeyeater Migration season over already?

 

Sorry, also meant to include chat line.  Jack Holland

 

From: <m("bigpond.com","jandaholland");" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">>
Sent: Thursday, 9 April 2020 10:10 AM
To: 'Hawkins, Brian' <>
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Is the Yellow-faced Honeyeater Migration season over already?

 

Many thanks Brian, I note both spots are in unburnt areas to the W of Canberra, so we can expect at least some more of both species to come through here, even if the conditions forecast over the next few days are not ideal (but they do look very good from Sunday on).  Regards  Jack Holland

 

From: Hawkins, Brian <>
Sent: Thursday, 9 April 2020 8:54 AM
To: ; 'COG Chat' <m("canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">>
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Is the Yellow-faced Honeyeater Migration season over already?

 

UNCLASSIFIED

 

There were lots of Yellow-faced HEs migrating over Bulldock Paddock Road near Brindabella Road yesterday – I counted 115 in 15 minutes at midday, but only 5 White-naped.

 

Out near Two Sticks Hill near the NSW border the migration was much less pronounced – only a dozen or so YFHEs in an hour in the morning, but more migrating White-naped (about 20). 

 

Brian

 

From: <m("bigpond.com","jandaholland");" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">>
Sent: Tuesday, 7 April 2020 4:48 PM
To: 'COG Chat' <>
Subject: [canberrabirds] Is the Yellow-faced Honeyeater Migration season over already?

 

Given the best (though not perfect) migrating conditions for a number of days, Andrea and I went to Narrabundah Hill, walking N fence line and a third of way down the W fence.  No Yellow-faced Honeyeaters (YFHE) were seen from 10:34 to 11:03 am including a 10 minute stop from 10:53 under the known migration route where on the COG outing last year on 8 April we saw several thousand come through around the same time of day.

 

So is the YFHE migration over for this year?

 

Lindsay Hansch, who lives under arguably the major migration route in Jerrabomberra thinks it may possibly be.  He thought that today would have been a perfect day for the YFHE but not a single bird has passed by.  No birds were sighted on Sunday and yesterday only one flock passed over at about 2 pm.

 

Has anyone seen any signs of their migration over the past couple of days?

 

Very interesting is that of the flocks that have gone through so far there have been very few White-naped Honeyeaters.   Lindsay looked at photos of passing flocks last Wednesday and scanned through them carefully and did not find one White-naped.

 

Please keep a look out for both species migrating from now on – we could be witnessing a major effect of the fires to the SW?

 

Jack Holland

 

 

 

 

 

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