A group of ten in 4-wheel drive vehicles had an enjoyable day in a remote part of Namadgi National Park, despite not quite making it to the Flats due to being given the wrong key to the main locked gate. Not to be deterred, we went to Plan B with one group walking in as far as they could in the time to the Flats and along a track to the southern end of Corin Dam, and the other group focussing on the area accessible by vehicle and foot, including along the Smoker’s Flat trail. After sunny calm weather, rain finally brought an end to the Atlassing around 2:15pm. Early on, there were large number of honeyeaters streaming along the ridges and treelines heading east into the Orroral Valley where we entered the Cotter Flats track, overall about half Yellow-faced and half White-naped. As we moved further west, mostly White-naped Honeyeaters with lots of immatures were moving, along with Eastern Spinebills and a few Fuscous & Yellow-faced Honeyeaters.
Highlights for the day were one Olive Whistler which Hazel found in a ti-tree thicket, dozens of Crescent Honeyeaters feeding in the flowering Banksia marginata and making an incredible din with their loud, scratchy calls, and undoubtedly the real prize, a group of 10 Swift Parrots. These parrots migrate from Tasmania around March, to the forests and woodlands of the SE mainland. They were feeding noisily in some flowering Ribbon Gum, Eucalyptus viminalis, before moving off northwards. Thanks to the ACT Parks and Conservation Service for allowing our vehicles into this area, and to Alistair who organised the arrangements, maps etc. Although disappointed about not getting into the Flats proper, as fate would have it, we might otherwise not have seen the Swift Parrots!
Simon Kennedy, the National Coordinator of the Swift Parrot Recovery Program at Dept of Natural Resources and Environment in Victoria, tells me that they have been discussing the use of E. viminalis as an early season food source for Swift Parrots on migration, and this ACT record along with another recent one from Gippsland clearly documents their theory. So this sighting is an important record and illustrates what Atlassing is all about.
Jenny Bounds