Last weekend about 80 volunteers descended on the Capertee Valley NSW
for another tree planting weekend. This time we worked on two
properties on Port Macquarie Road, in beautiful soft soil made damp
by recent rain. On Monday morning the owner of one of the properties
recorded another 46mm in his rain gauge, so all those trees will be
off to a good start!
As always, there were numerous bird highlights. For me the good birds
started while I was having breakfast on the verandah of my cabin,
with 3 Turquoise Parrots dropping by.
The stream of planters arriving at the first site on Saturday morning
didn't deter a pair of Red-rumped Parrots from visiting a hollow
fence post at the car parking area. Also here, a Pallid Cuckoo was
calling persistently and an all-too-brief session of song from a Pied
Butcherbird filled the air. Nectarivore numbers are low this year but
a small flock of Musk Lorikeets moved through at one stage.
Those laying out the plants on Friday were rewarded with the sight of
a Square-tailed Kite flying over the first planting site. On Saturday
morning it made another appearance. Later in the morning a Peregrine
Falcon also flashed by.
At the second planting site I heard Turquoise Parrots in the
adjoining woodland while having lunch. (This site is very close to an
area where Gilbert's Whistler has been seen in the past.) The owner
of this property was very excited to have seen a Regent Honeyeater on
his verandah a week earlier. It must have known what was planned!
These plantings will be a fabulous extension of habitat for Regents
and other species in this very interesting part of the valley.
All 2000 trees were in the ground and watered by Saturday afternoon.
On Sunday, several people participated in Regent Honeyeater surveys
at various sites around the valley. As far as I know, only one site
produced Regents with 18 counted there. They appear to have just
moved into the valley in the last week, after several months with no
records. During the coming weeks more should arrive and hopefully be
setting up territories where there is flowering Needle-leaf Mistletoe.
I surveyed a site on private property where the highlights were a
pair of White-backed Swallows swooping low over the grassland, a pair
of Little Eagles and very close-up views of three fence-sitting
Singing Bushlarks.
The next tree planting weekend will be held on 3-4 May 2008.
Cheers,
Carol
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Carol Probets
Guided birding in the Blue Mountains & Capertee Valley
PO Box 330
Katoomba NSW 2780
Web: http://www.bmbirding.com.au
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