This morning and the early afternoon, I preformed this survey in the Bulga
area (in the NSW Hunter Region - about 200 km north-west of Sydney). The weather
at Bulga started off cool and overcast but warmed up a little later as the sun
shined on. Unfortunately, I did not see any of the target species despite the
abundance of bird life in the area (carrying over from a month ago). There were
still some Spotted Gums and a few Forest Red Gums in flower attracting large
numbers of Yellow-faced and White-naped Honeyeaters and lesser numbers of
Scarlet, Brown-headed, White-eared, Fuscous,
Striped and a lone Lewins Honeyeater which seemed a bit out of
place in much drier forest. While I was filling in one of the survey forms, I
was just about to put down the Little Lorikeets as scarce, when all of a
sudden I heard a "whoosh" and saw a whole lot of little green things darting
towards me like bullets. It certainly twisted my nerves. There was about a 100
of them and also just as amazing, was seeing hundreds of Dusky
Woodswallows all suddenly lift themselves from the tree tops and then swarm
overhead like bees. Something certainly disturbed them and could have been one
of the Collared Sparrowhawks I had seen.
Other birds seen at Bulga included a pair of Wedge-tailed Eagles
displaying, a Brown Falcon, an adult and juv. Collared
Sparrowhawk, a few Brown Quail, a pair of Bar-shouldered Doves
displaying, several Tree Martins, a few Red-caped and Hooded
Robins, Crested Shrike-tits, a small group of Grey-crowned
Babblers, many Speckled Warblers and Pied Butcherbirds singing
very beautifully, several Brown Tree-creepers, Diamond Firetails,
Double-barred and Zebra Finch and several White-winged
Choughs.
I also surveyed the Putty area (about 40 km south of Bulga and just off the
Putty Rd) but saw little Honeyeater activity and no flowering about the area.
Edwin
