Hi Bob, Jenny and others,
Perhaps many pardalotes could have been lost in the fires but I suspect
there may be more going on with the lack of pardalote sightings in
(particularly Central) Victoria. While there has been little flowering of
eucalypts, particularly in the box-ironbark woodlands due to the drought
(although I am not sure we can call this a drought anymore as this is the
thirteenth year of below average rainfall in much of Victoria- thirteen
years of both El Nino and La Nina weather patterns; we currently are
supposed to be in a "good" year yet it has been our driest first six months
in a year ever) more importantly for pardalotes, there has been very little
lerp activity. Lerp are the sugar-rich casings of insects that bury
themselves in the leaves of eucalypts, and constitute a major part of a
pardalote's diet. Interestingly, Swift Parrots have virtually abandoned
Victoria this year- another species that can feed extensively on lerp.
Whether the pardalotes have moved out of the state or died off, I guess we
will only know once we have another good, wet year (which feels at the
moment like we will be waiting for a long time.)
I recently also had a pardalote experience at Long Forest, though not in the
league of Jenny's thousand odd birds. But two weeks ago while there I came
across a feeding party of 20+ Spotted Pardalote and at least a single
Striated (probably of the substriatus race). The unusual thing was that they
were all feeding on the ground. I couldn't determine what they were eating
but suspect that as they weren't feeding in the trees there was no lerp
about.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Bob Cook
Sent: Sunday, 5 July 2009 10:31 PM
To: birding birding-aus
Cc: 'Marlene Lyell'
Subject: Missing Pardalotes Central Victoria
Hi all
I am wondering whether anyone else has observed the "disappearance" of
Pardalotes, both Spotted & Striated, from Central Victoria over the last few
months. Here at Axedale, between Bendigo & Heathcote, Pardalotes have been
constant residents and active breeders (especially Striated) ever since we
have been here - now 3 years. We have not seen any Striated since March and
only one or two sightings of Spotted in April. We would regularly see up to
25 Striated Pardalotes around the house and perhaps 3 rounds of breeding (in
especially placed boxes) during 2008. I am wondering whether it has
anything to do with either the aftermath of the Vic bushfires, or just
generally a very dry start to 2009, or what??.
We are about 30 kms North of the bushfire at Redesdale and 25 kms East of
the fire in Bendigo, so I don't really see how that could be a reason.
Has anyone else noticed a significant change in Pardalote presence?? Any
explanation suggested?
Bob Cook
Axedale
(now a lot wetter since reasonable rain starting in May)
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
