The year is 2025. I get out of the car to open my front gate and
immediately hear the calls of Regent Honeyeaters in the nearby grove
of Mugga Ironbarks. The healthy young trees are flowering
prolifically and the branches are alive with constant bird activity.
Noisy Friarbirds chase White-plumed and Striped Honeyeaters; Little
Lorikeets are eveywhere. A couple of Musk Lorikeets come hurtling
through the sky from the direction of the ironbarks up the road and
land in the top of the tree beside the gate. A male Hooded Robin
drops to the ground to pounce on a small grub - its mate is sitting
on a well-concealed nest in a fork of one of the ironbarks - while
Plum-headed Finches sit in neat rows along the fence wire. I swing
the gate open and watch a party of Grey-crowned Babblers harassing a
Bearded Dragon which sits like a statue on a fence post.
As I get back in the car, a flock of 25 Regent Honeyeaters bursts out
of the trees and I follow their flight as they head up towards the
dam and disappear into a swathe of woodland which stretches from the
escarpment down towards the river flats. The previous day I had
counted 120 Regents together at this same spot. It's great to see
them regularly in large flocks again after several good breeding
seasons and the now extensive areas of woodland which are slowly
maturing throughout the valley as a result of the revegetation
programs of the past 30 years.
Jump back to 2005. It was 26th May and I was in an empty paddock
planting the first of the little grove of Mugga Ironbarks near my
front gate. No sooner had I started digging when four Flame Robins -
two males and two females - appeared on the fence and kept me company
throughout the morning, as if to offer their approval and moral
support. A Willie Wagtail seemed excited by all the activity (though
Willie Wagtails ALWAYS seem excited) while a Spotted Harrier soared
lazily over a nearby paddock. The blisters on my hands and happily
aching muscles at the end of the day were due more to the hardness of
the ground than the level of my productivity. In the dry conditions
it had taken me all day to plant just 16 trees, but it was a start.
On Sunday, 29th May, I returned with a friend and a crowbar, and the
next 16 trees went into the ground much more easily. While we worked,
a pair of Red-rumped Parrots kept watch, the female peering out from
a small hollow high in a Yellow Box, the male on a branch next to her.
Up near the cabin site, movement in the grasses turned into Painted
Button-quails and a search of the ground revealed numerous platelets
scratched in the leaf litter. I also flushed a Spotted Quail-thrush
which was feeding with the button-quail. A male Red-capped Robin (the
same bird that was here last winter?) was a welcome sight, a
White-throated Gerygone was heard and the other usuals such as
Diamond Firetails, Brown Treecreepers and Fuscous, Striped and
Black-chinned Honeyeaters were around. At this time there were none
of the Regent Honeyeaters or Swift Parrots that are currently in
other parts of the valley. Let's hope my new trees will contribute to
their prolific future!
Carol
Carol Probets
Capertee Valley, NSW
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