Red Hill Woodland survey

[Harvey Perkins via Canberrabirds <>]

The 25^th anniversary survey of Red Hill (Sunday, 24 Sep 2023) was done on a perfect Spring morning, with early high overcast clearing to clear blue skies and no wind. Despite a general lack of flowering, bird diversity and numbers were both above the long-term average for Spring. 

Several late winter stragglers or early summer returns were evident, including both Golden and Rufous Whistlers, Grey Fantails, White-throated Gerygones, Noisy Friarbird and Olive-backed Oriole. Yellow-faced and White-naped Honeyeaters were also present despite the early time of day. The cohort of small bush birds included the staple fairy-wrens, Buff-rumped Thornbills and Weebills, as well as widespread but small numbers of Spotted Pardalotes, and a single Striated Pardalote heard, but lacked other Thornbills, and Speckled Warblers were not recorded for a slightly concerning 5th consecutive survey. A nice touch was a gang of 10 Gang-gangs quietly feasting on spent blossoms of Black Wattle (Acacia mearnsii).

 

A few less usual species made their presence known: an owlet-nightjar called (just the 2^nd recorded during these surveys), and at least one Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo was heard sporadically (perhaps surprisingly, only the 7th record).

 

The only signs of possible breeding were a sole Galah inspecting a hollow, and a pair of Australian Ravens stationed near a nest, though they never actually went to the nest in the time I kept an eye on them.

 

Overall 38 species were recorded, 34 within the nine survey sites and an additional 4 recorded only between sites. A tally of 424 individuals (both on and between sites) was well above the Spring average of 314. 

 

Although this was the 25^th anniversary survey, it was my 101^st survey of the Red Hill site as there was an additional survey done in February 2002 to assess the impact of the fires that ravaged the area on the Christmas eve prior. Over the 25 years I’ve been ably assisted by several co-surveyors, but at this point I am again looking for someone to help with the surveys on a regular quarterly basis. If you’re interested, please get in touch at hdpphd.gmail.com

Harvey Perkins

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