Hi Carl,
The Bedroom is The Car Park! Note that from time to time it could also be
called "The Kitchen", "The Rumpus Room" or even "The Gym"! Rubbish-dumping is
rife in that area, but the birds don't seem to mind one bit.
So you were presumably seeing the same Swifties that we've been seeing there
over the past few days. I had a dozen on Friday though. There is no blossom
here (or in the Hunter Economic Zone, which is east towards Kurri where Steve
and others have had Swifties this past fortnight) but Swift Parrots still
return here nearly every year. I wonder if they will stay on for the whole
winter this year, given that there is virtually no blossom in the area. Having
said that, there are some Stringybarks (undescribed sp., looks like E.
capitellata to me but not to the taxonomists) coming out at the Kitchener site
you visited which is of interest because we have had Regent Honeyeaters on them
in two of the past four winters up here.
It is interesting that there are virtually no lorikeets or Noisy Friarbirds in
the area. This is in stark contrast to last year when we had about 300-400
Swifties in the broader area and at least 100 Regents as well (with up to 50 at
one site). This was of course for the Spotted Gum bonanza, which also attracted
hordes of Grey-headed Flying-foxes as well. When you look at what happened on
the South Coast of NSW last year (>1000 Swifties in Spotted Gum), it really
does drive home just how productive Spotted Gum blossom must be.
Cheers
Mick
________________________________
From: Carl Weber <>
To:
Sent: Tuesday, 21 May 2013 12:56 PM
Subject: Werakata SCA and NP - where is the Car Park?
Hi Mick Roderick and all,
Yesterday I went to Werakata. My first site was about 10 km SW of Cessnock,
at Pelton. I turned east from Ellalong Rd into Pelton Rd (a poorly
maintained dirt track), and stopped at an intersection about 500 m in, at a
site where there has been extensive illegal dumping of rubbish. In
particular, there are 4 dumped mattresses and a bed - I call this site The
Bedroom. Here I found a pair of Swift Parrots and a single Little Lorikeet.
My second site was between Kitchener and Abernethy, along the Kearsley South
Fire Trail, to the north of Abernethy Rd. About 200 m in, a bike trail leads
down into a gully, where 2 or 3 cars were dumped many years ago. Here I did
not see any swift parrots or lorikeets. Black-chinned honeyeaters stopped
briefly at the head of the bike trail.
Mick, when you reported some swift parrots on Birdline on Friday, at the car
park at Pelton, were you referring to either of these sites?
Best wishes,
Carl Weber
===============================
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/
===============================
===============================
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
===============================
|
