For those interested in putting in some effort to locate the very elusive
Regent Honeyeater in Victoria here's your chance.
On the weekend of 24-25 April I will be leading the GREAT KILLAWARRA REGENT
HUNT. Killawarra Forest (just north of Wangaratta, ~ 2.5 hours driving
north of Melbourne) is a large block of Mugga Ironbark that has
traditionally been a hot-spot for Regents. There have, however, been few
recent records. I am putting this down to a reduced search effort in the
last couple of years.
To determine whether Regents still occur at Killawarra (and there appears
to be no good reason why they shouldn't) and in an effort to get a better
handle on the population size in Victoria there will be a series of surveys
over the next five months. The idea is to systematically search the
forest, it is nicely divided into blocks by roads and tracks, principally
for Regents but I will be getting people to complete at least one Atlas
sheet for each forest sector searched. This will ensure that people are in
one spot long enough to, hopefully, detect Regents that might not be
particularly vocal.
Reports are that the Mugga Ironbark is starting to flower well and so there
should be plenty of nectarivorous birds. I hope that this will translate
into plenty of Regents and Swift Parrots. This is the best location in
Victoria for Regents behind Chiltern. It might even eventuate that
Chiltern is number one only because of the regular surveying that is
occurring there.
If you are interested in taking part in the "Great Killawarra Regent Hunt"
please contact me. Camping will be at the Killawarra Forest Camp. Further
Killawarra surveys are planned for 12-14 June and 10-11 July. The annual
Regent Honeyeater/Swift Parrot surveys will be on in May and August.
David Geering
Regent Honeyeater Recovery Coordinator
To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to
Include ONLY "unsubscribe birding-aus" in the message body (without the
quotes)
|
