G,day birders,
Well, its that time of the year again, when the box-ironbark woodlands go
through their summer-winter transition, heralded yesterday morning by the sounds
of Swift Parrots. I saw 10 feeding in Red Ironbark in the Sedgwick State
Forest, 10 mins. south-east of Bendigo, central Vic. I have seen Swift Parrots
at this site for several years now, and it is no doubt a regular over-wintering
destination.
Now is about the 'usual' time to expect Swift Parrots returning from their
Tasmanian breeding grounds, although I may have expected them a little earlier
considering the amount of Grey Box blossom throughout much of central Victoria
at the moment. There are still no White-naped and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters in
the Bendigo forests, but Golden Whistlers have started arriving. There are
still plenty of Rufous Whistlers ( a bit late?) hanging around. Many areas of
forest have good numbers of the three lorikeets (Musk, Little and
Purple-crowned), and last week, two Rainbow Lorikeets were feeding in a Yellow
Gum outside my work office! This is the second group of Rainbows tom be seen in
Bendigo in the past couple of months. Spreading from Melbourne, or perhaps
avairy escapes (although you wouldn't expect a group of three, then a pair to
have escaped)???
Also of interest are the numbers of Speckled Warblers I have seen recently.
Last week, I was trapping for Brush-tailed Phascogales in the Kimbolton State
Forest (around Lake Eppalock, central Vic), and I came across 11 different sites
containing Speckled Warblers. As usual, they were associated with Red
Stringybark, Red Box and Long-leaved Box 'ridgeline' woodland with grassy
understorey, and mingled with other small insectivores such as Scarlet Robin,
Buff-rumped Thornbill and Striated Thornbill.
The box-ironbark communities have been very dry over the summer, but with a
little searching, small pockets of refuge habitat contain good numbers and
diversity of birds. Well worth a visit.
Cheers,
Chris Tzaros
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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