Red Hill Woodland Survey

[Harvey Perkins <>]

It was always going to be a low count: the wind off the snow-covered Brindabellas was bitingly cold and the sun, which appeared only occasionally through the 80% cloud cover, was utterly ineffectual in warming things up, birds or fingers. The total tally of 28 species ranks with the lowest for a Red Hill Spring survey, along with 2004, 2012 and 2015, and 6 species below the average over 89 surveys. Total numbers were also below average; there must have been many more hunkered down out of the wind and avoiding detection, especially the smaller birds. The counts would have been even lower were it not for one site, in a small gully comparatively sheltered from the westerly winds, which added several species not recorded anywhere else, including a young Golden Whistler, 9 Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, several Grey Fantails, a Noisy Friarbbird, and a silently foraging White-throated Gerygone. The gerygone was the highlight of the morning, being only the fourth time in 89 surveys that the species has been recorded. Only indications of breeding were a family of Australian Ravens (parents plus three fledged young), and a couple of choughs on a nest. 

Harvey Perkins (and Stuart Harris)

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