As reported at the last COG meeting, Bill and I saw the inward spring migration (westward) of many honeyeaters on Monday September 10th, a few days earlier than Muriel Brookfield had seen them last year. They were taking off from the exact place, just to the west of the Braidwood-Cooma Road, beside the Warragandra homestead, where Muriel had seen them. Although the outward migration of the honeyeaters along the Murrumbidgee corridor had been observed for many years, the returning migration in the spring had never been reported until Muriel's encounter last year.
On Saturday, 15 September, a group from COG led by David McDonald visited the area again. The birds, mainly Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, with a smaller number of White-naped, were appearing in flocks, upward to 100 birds, apparently from the north and the east. They would settle for a few minutes on the poplars and willows, then take off in larger numbers, upward of 1000 birds, heading in a westerly direction, toward the Tallaganda State Forest. We observed this phenomenon take place several times in a half hour.
Last week, on Wednesday, September 19th, Bill and I travelled south from Captains Flat. At Pigbilla homestead, 9 kms south we encountered flocks of 100s of birds, winging their way from east to west. We saw them again on Wild Cattle Flat Road, directly on the line drawn between Warragandra and Pigbilla. A few days earlier, we had not encountered them on South Forest Way, which is between Wild Cattle Road and Warragandra; but maybe we did not look carefully enough and the trees there were very tall. On the 19th, 1000s of birds were still gathering at Warragandra, and taking off to the west.
The following day, we travelled south from Braidwood, into the Araluen Valley, and again we encountered thousands of birds on the move, around Neringla Creek. They appeared to be coming from the south east and then heading in a direction slightly north of west, where they would reach Warragandra.
We now have a route of the returning honeyeaters, stretching from the southern end of the Araluen valley, to Pigbilla. And we know that the migration lasts from at least September 10 to September 20.
Elizabeth Compston