birding-aus

Flying foxes in Capertee Valley (and birds)

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Subject: Flying foxes in Capertee Valley (and birds)
From: Carol Probets <>
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:20:17 +1100
With the recent posts about Grey-headed Flying Foxes in Sydney, I thought I'd mention that I was in the Capertee Valley yesterday and we found a huge camp of Little Red Flying Foxes have moved in along the river on the track leading into Wollemi NP (accessed from Goora St at Glen Davis). They're in the Casuarinas at the river crossing and the weight from thousands of fruit bats is breaking all the trees - it looks like a mini cyclone has gone through! The last time I was at this particular site was 24th Jan and there was no sign of the flying foxes then. This site is also in a Bell Miner colony.

As it happens I was speaking with someone the other day who told me a colony of flying foxes has just appeared on Coco Creek (a section that's on private property) - also in the Capertee Valley. I wonder what's caused them to suddenly appear in the valley?

Bird-wise, there were Gang-gangs also at the flying fox camp along the Capertee River, along with the resident Bell Miners.

A few kms away on my place were most of the usual species, including Turquoise Parrots, Painted Button-quail , Black-chinned Honeyeaters , Spotted Quail-thrush, heaps of Little Lorikeets, etc. Rainbow Bee-eaters are still around and can be heard flying over often. The Box Mistletoe is flowering well and literally dripping with nectar but surprisingly few honeyeaters seem to be taking advantage of it yet. (Regent Honeyeaters have been virtually absent from the valley since October due to poor spring flowering but could be a possibility at the moment wherever there's good mistletoe flower - certainly worth keeping an eye out.)

Overall the Capertee Valley is looking fantastic after much rain. The river is flowing strongly (a couple of weeks ago it was well over the bridge at Glen Davis), everything is green, the dams are full..... 2008 is looking promising.

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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