Riverina

["Bourne" <>]

 

Further to David Parker's interesting sightings in the Riverina, a group of four Little Woodswallows were seen 20km west of Jerilderie (2 hrs west of Wagga Wagga, NSW) on the 19th of September.  This sighting also seemed to correspond to the influx of messages on this forum regarding Woodswallow sightings in general.  The area was alive with Woodswallows with sightings of 100's of White-browed and Masked, especially the former.  Within the region White-bellied and Black-faced have also been observed.  I spent around 20mins observing the birds at  a range of 5 to 100m.  They were mostly hawking for insects uttering soft contact calls to each other or perching on nearby cypress pines, dead fallen timber or on dry cow dung. 

 

The latest edition of Simpson and Day shows them to vagrant this area whilst both Slater and the Directory of Australian Birds show them to come as far south as northern NSW.  Certainly an interesting sighting.  We also managed to get some footage of the birds.  Not in digital format unfortunately.

 

David Bourne.