A drought-related movement into the Upper Hunter valley

While driving into the township of Merriwa in the Upper Hunter Valley (NSW) yesterday afternoon I saw a bowerbird fly across the road about 50-75 metres in front of my car with its typical bowerbird flight pattern.  ANY bowerbird at this location is interesting.  This bird was not green or blue which made it even more interesting.  The bird landed in a largish deciduous tree at the side of a house.  I stopped and saw that it was clearly  a Spotted Bowerbird.  

This is well east of it's usual range.  I recall Alan Morris seeing Spotted Bowerbird at Mendooran (~ 120 km west of Merriwa) last year.  This is probably as far east they go in this area (even then I thought that this was a bit further east than I would expect to see them).

There have been Spotted Bowerbirds seen east of their usual range before - one on the Central Coast (if I recall correctly) several years ago.  More recently Alan Morris saw a Yellow-throated Miner at Harrington on the NSW mid-north coast.  Some interesting movements seem to have resulted from this drought.

Cheers

David Geering


This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain
confidential information. 

If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify the sender. Views expressed in this message may be those of the individual sender, and are not necessarily the views of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.