Yesterday afternoon I travelled down from Sydney to have a look at a couple
of patches of Swamp Mahogany that I know of in the Wollongong area. After
reading reports that the central coast Mahoganies are in full bud, I wanted
to see what condition the more southern remnants were, and also se if any
Swift Parrots were feeding in them.
The first patch is just north of Port Kembla Golf Course, Primbee. Some of
the trees are covered in buds, with a fair proportion already open. There
were an incredible number of New Holland Honeyeaters feeding in the flowers.
Saw my first Spangled Drongo for the year, plus the usual suspects such as
Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Eastern Spinebill and Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo.
Next travelled to Bellambi Point, though by the time I found the road in it
was almost dark. The Mahoganies here were also in flower, though many seemed
to be nearing the end of their bloom, and not as many buds remained. Once
again quite a few New Hollands, but also Lewin's Honeyeater and Litle
Wattlebirds were present. Another Drongo was also seen hawking over the
trees, probably after the many insects that seemed to be coming into the
flowers. A Blackbird was also heard. This was a bird I never recorded in
Wollongong when I was growing up (my first record was in orange orchards
near Leeton) but have heard at a few locations in Wollongong in the last few
months. Chafer, Brandis and Wright (1999) list it as expanding, but I would
be interested to see how extensive this expansion is.
So no Swift Parrots but a couple of questions:
Are Drongoes attracted to flowering trees, and is this because of the
flowers, or the associated insects?
Has there been an increase in the reporting rate of Blackbirds in the new
Atlas?
Does anyone know what stage the Swamp Mahoganies around Shoalhaven Heads and
Jervis Bay are in?
Cheers,
Peter
_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
