I took my small but keen Friday morning birdwatching group to Shaw's Creek
at Yarramundi this morning, to look for the Swift Parrots that have been
there for (at least) the past couple of weeks. None of the others had seen
Swifties before, so there was great elation when, after a couple of hours
searching and catching mere glimpses of fast-flying shapes disappearing
over the treetops, everyone finally got fantastic views of them feeding on
lerps.
Throughout the morning small groups were constantly flying back and forth
across the road, from the ironbarks around the MTB track on the eastern
side of the road to the Yellow Bloodwood near the transmission lines on the
western side of the road. The leaves of these Yellow Bloodwood (Corymbia
eximia) were covered in lerps which could be seen clearly when looking at
any part the foliage through binoculars. It has previously been mentioned
that there is a Bell Miner colony here and all the Swifties we saw were in
or around the edges of that colony. The highest number of birds we counted
at any one time was 11, but I am sure there were many more than this number
scattered around the site.
Other honeyeaters there included Yellow-faced, White-naped, Brown-headed
and a large group of Noisy Friarbirds which were giving the Noisy Miners a
hard time. We also heard Bar-shouldered Dove and saw a pair of Australian
Ravens carrying nest material (spring is on its way!).
Cheers
Carol
Carol Probets
Blue Mountains NSW
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