Hello all,
Yesterday's maximum temperature here at Katoomba was just 1 degree C (yes,
maximum). It's three days since the snow fell but there are still little
patches that haven't yet melted in my garden. Early this morning there were
flocks of White-naped and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters flying east - and who
can blame them? Snow was still falling yesterday on higher ground west of
here.
Thankfully the fierce winds eased today so I went out onto Narrow Neck,
just south of Katoomba, where the heath banksias, B. ericifolia, are in
flower. For at least the past week and a half there has been a fantastic
concentration of honeyeaters there, and the appalling conditions of the
last few days don't seem to have affected the overall numbers. There is one
spot 1.3km along from Cliff Drive where there is usually a muddy puddle in
a dip on the left (but the strong winds have now dried this puddle out). At
least 10 species of honeyeater have been seen in the immediate vicinity of
this puddle over the last couple of weeks, including hundreds of
Yellow-faced, White-naped and New Hollands and an increasing number of
Crescents. It's also a good spot to see Rockwarblers and Pilotbirds.
Yesterday despite the conditions I went looking for other places where the
banksias are flowering well. One such place is on Shipley Plateau near
Blackheath. Here there were four types of banksia in flower:
B. ericifolia
B. marginata (especially good)
B. spinulosa spinulosa
B. spinulosa cunninghamii
Red Wattlebirds were there in the hundreds, as well as lots of New
Hollands, Yellow-faced, White-naped and White-eared. And this was in spite
of a fierce wind that felt like it was straight off Antarctica. From here I
could look across the Kanimbla Valley and see snow falling near Hampton.
Perhaps this all explains why I saw very few migrating honeyeaters this
year. Perhaps they've all decided to stay in the area!
Species of honeyeater on Narrow Neck were:
Red Wattlebird
Noisy Friarbird - not seen since the snow
Lewin's Honeyeater
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
Fuscous Honeyeater - not seen since the snow
White-naped Honeyeater
Crescent Honeyeater
New Holland Honeyeater
Eastern Spinebill
Cheers,
Carol
Carol Probets
Katoomba
Blue Mountains, NSW
(100km west of Sydney)
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