Hi all,
Just expanding on Michael Wood's email last Thursday (18th) about budgies in
the Lockyer Valley. He suggested those birds could be an indication of things
to come. I agree!
Last night I was told about a flock of about 100 budgies at Martindale, south
of Denman in the Hunter Valley. Budgies are seldom reported in the Hunter, let
alone in these numbers and about 100km from the coast. Tim Faulkner also saw 2
birds near Ellerston (east of Scone) on Friday, and a report of 24 birds came
from near Ebor on Thursday (on the New England) . 5 birds were also seen in the
Capertee Valley by the Cumberland BOC on the weekend (which is again, east of
the divide).
Budgies have been reported now for many weeks in the northern part of the
Liverpool Plains (western slopes, NSW) but I was impressed to read that "tens
of hundreds" of birds were roosting in trees at Goondiwindi, Qld. It seems that
there is a very real "push" eastwards at the moment.
Of potential significance was the fact that the Ebor sighting (probably only
80km from the coast) was accompanied by a Diamond Dove.
Here in the Hunter (and elsewhere in NSW and Qld it seems) there has been a
very obvious explosion of Black Kites in the past month and a bit. There are
several sites in the Lower Hunter where flocks have been occurring, including 2
sites with 60+ birds.
Maybe these kites are the scouts ahead of other birds to follow in the coming
months as Michael suggests? Could that purported Letter-wing at Kilmore be
another sign?
An interesting story might be unfolding here.
Mick
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
