Judy Peet wrote:
Today, Janis and I did The Regent Honeyeater Survey You have When There
Aren't Any Regents. (We did look for Swift Parrots too Simon, but didn't
even hope to see these.)
Now, Judie, why the pessimism?
Last Friday I searched an area north of Mendooran and across to Binnaway
(about 100 km north-east of Dubbo for those unfamiliar with central NSW). A
bit hit and miss but I was looking for areas of White Box. Where it was
found it was starting to flower and good numbers of honeyeaters were present
at a few sites. No Regents BUT between Mendooran and Tooraweenah I found a
pair of Swift Parrots sitting quietly in a lovely White Box remnant.
Interestingly, there was no flowering at this site although the odd tree was
flowering just up the road.
Other interesting birds that day. The best were a pair of Black Falcons at
Pibbon (where?? basically in the middle of nowhere!). Diamond Firetails
common in places. The occasional Hooded Robin.
On the weekend I searched the north-west section of the Capertee Valley and
some interesting little valleys on the western side of the Wollemi National
Park further to the north. There was White Box starting to flower in the
Capertee Valley. Lots of bud promises a good winter. Again no Regents
where I searched but a lone Swift Parrot was a bit of a bonus. At Murrumbo
Gap in Goulburn River National Park there was Caley's Ironbark in flower and
I thought I heard another Swift Parrot but this was the one that got away as
I couldn't locate it (if it did in fact exist).
Other good birds. A flock of 200 Plum-headed Finches on the Rylstone-Glen
Alice Road. This is my first record of the in the north-west of the valley.
There are normally in the bottom half. A Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater was
surprising. Not my first record but they are scarce in the Capertee. The
other usual suspects - lots of Diamond Firetails, Grey-crowned Babblers,
Hooded Robins and a flock of about 3000 Sulphur-crested Cockatoos (and a
couple of Little Corella) on a recently harvested Sorghum paddock.
I checked out one of the tree-planting sites from last April. Of the
thousand or so trees and shrubs I looked at on this river site only 5
failures were seen. The rest were all bursting with life with many doubling
their size in the six weeks since planting. This site is going to be
fantastic in a few years as it widens an important breeding site for Regent
Honeyeaters.
Although Judie and Janice didn't locate the target species they certainly
achieved more by getting out and looking. I chose an area to the north of
them and got lucky, finding Swift Parrots in an area little visited by
birdwatchers. Just goes to show that there are occasionally benefits in
looking beyond the well beaten paths followed by many birdwatchers.
Simon and I will post the results of the national search day as they come
in. A reminder to those that went out. Please send in sheets for sites
visited REGARDLESS of whether you saw Regents and Swifties or not.
I know that Alan Morris found Regents just south of Newcastle on Friday
while others were seen last Wednesday east of Rylstone and on Monday north
of Inverell. We accept records a week either side of the official search
weekend as the chance of double counting is extremely low.
Cheers
David Geering
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