About an hour after Mark Bennett had marvelled over the White-throated
Needletails in Camberwell, I saw a similar number around the RAAF base at
Laverton, about 5:15 pm as I sat on the train back to Geelong.
Needletails, and Fork-tailed Swifts, seem to have been rather scarce
around south-west Victoria this summer, but I've seen a few small flocks
recently in March. Might this have something to do with the monotonous
drought weather? Swifts like to charge around in advance of frontal
weather systems, which have been scarce due to the El Nino event, but are
more frequent now.
Still on the flying animal subject, I saw a Grey-headed Flying-fox
(Pteropus poliocephalus) fly over my home in Geelong about 2 nights ago.
This might seem unremarkable to those who live along the east coast, but
flying-foxes are non-resident and RARE west of Melbourne.
Cheers -- Lawrie.
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