Under cloudy and chilly skies a small group of members gathered near the ACTEW substation in Lyons to walk around Oakey Hill under Alistair Bestow’s guidance. They would then move across to Mt Taylor with me showing the way. The main objective was to observe the birds in the context of the bushfire destruction the previous January and the regeneration that has occurred since then.
If nothing else, weeds have been spectacular regenerators, and the group walked amongst them, sometimes at knee height over most of Oakey Hill, where the birds were thin on the ground, despite the unusual sight of a pair of Red-rumped parrots as we set off along the ridge. As odd thornbills and pardalotes flitted past us on the way up the hill we heard the cry of Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos in the distance. With time against us we drove across to Mt Taylor where I presented a sketchy picture of what had happened on 18 January 2003 and how the violence of the winds had created an eccentric and uneven burn. This, in turn, had created patches that were still to show much sign of regeneration alongside those where weeds had triumphed and others that were carpeted with regenerating native shrubs and eucalypt seedlings, particularly wattles, and increasingly wild cherry (Exocarpos cupressiformis). We walked slowly through the woodland on the lower slope of the hill but the birds were very shy and low in numbers. Several common species were missing including Superb Fairy-wrens, Laughing Kookaburras, Double-barred Finches, both species of pardalote and even Noisy miners, which have conspicuously moved on to the lower reaches of the hill since the fires and opening out of the understorey. The large number of Dusky Woodswallows that had been present up to the previous week had obviously gone travelling. In the end the group came across a mixed flock, which is more common as the weather cools, consisting of a very patiently perching Speckled Warbler, a Scarlet Robin, Red Wattlebirds, Yellow-rumped, Striated and Buff-rumped Thornbills, a Common Bronzewing, a party of White-winged Choughs, an Australian Raven with very obvious hackles and a couple of Gang-gang Cockatoos. Rosellas, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, various pied species, the usual ferals (Starlings and one or two Indian Mynas) and an invisible but very vocal Grey Currawong brought the final total up to 22 species.
Despite our tracking efforts, not one migrating honeyeater was seen, though my wanderings over the same patch the following weekend was interrupted by wave after wave of them, probably six to eight hundred, mainly Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, in the course of about 40 minutes.
Doug Laing