While I had expected some differences from previous years, this sixth annual COG nest "workshop" underlined how this year really is different. This year almost all of the nesting activity occurred roughly along the fence line N and S of the horse gate compared with, particularly in the first 4 years, the depression/drainage line half way between this and the car park. Breeding activity at the latter was confined to a Sacred Kingfisher (with the bluest back and the orangest flanks I've ever seen) inspecting and entering a nest hollow, plus a pair of White-throated Gerygones on/around one of their exquisitely shaped, domed side-entrance nests.
White-winged Trillers abounded either side of the horse gate, with a good number of males found, often flying together, and several females. Eventually in all this activity we spied a pair changing duties on a nest in a somewhat atypical site, and later we found a couple of pairs nest building, one of which was typically on a horizontal dead fork of a branch. Noisy Friarbirds also exhibited a range of breeding activity with at first a nest with small young found in a typical wool lined, deep cup but unusually placed close to the top of a sapling. Later we watched a pair building by repeatedly flying 100 m down to the adjacent sheep paddock to obtain wool, and towards the end of the morning we flushed a couple of nearly ready to fledge chicks when we stumbled onto the nest. Again these two nests were in saplings/reveg rather than mature trees. The Leaden Flycatcher nest was finally found when the male and female exchanged; again this was somewhat atypical as it was on a small dead branch without the usual covering branch close overhead.
In amongst all this activity were a number of very active Olive-backed Orioles, all of which were immatures by their brown bills and eyes. Whether they were this year's or last season’s was unclear, probably the latter as they gave the full repertoire of calls and would have needed to have been raised very early in the season. Likewise immature Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrikes predominated, again probably last year's young. A number of Dusky Woodswallows were also only seen in this area, and for the first time no nests or other breeding activity was found, or for the several Varied Sittellas seen. A rather lightly barred Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo was also lurking about round the horse gate, occasionally calling, and gave reasonable views, but not as good as the rather quiet but very co--operative female Pallid Cuckoo seen later.
It was a relatively cool morning with activity lasting much longer than on previous hotter days and so we walked a bit further than usual, first of all to find a pair of calling (probably breeding) Western Gerygones, which gave good close views. This was followed by a quiet pair of Jacky Winters, again possibly nesting, and somewhat of a surprise as they hadn't been reported from here in the past month or so. Those who stayed behind to check out a quieter part of Campbell Park found a White-winged Chough on a bowl-shaped mud nest. Our patience was rewarded as a couple of birds carrying food in their bills finally picked up courage to bring it to the nest which contained two young, and the feeding and switch of the brooding duties revealed several adults were clearly banded. A Noisy Miner, sitting on what looked like an old and exposed nest in a rather sick looking sapling as we came back to the cars, rounded off the morning nicely.
A total of 45 species were seen, 13 of which exhibited some type of breeding activity and covering five of the 10 main types of nests. While this is a lower percentage than in some previous years, and numbers of participants was slightly down from the previous very high numbers, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the morning and it is clear why this is now a permanent and popular fixture on COG's calendar. It once again demonstrated how it needs only one of the over 20 pairs of eyes to spot that crucial bit of evidence which defines the breeding activity.
My thanks again to Anthony Overs for helping me lead this workshop, which increasingly has become a practical exercise. My thanks also to Elizabeth Compston for having visited Campbell Park several times beforehand and passed on her observations. Unfortunately we couldn't find her two specials from the previous day, including the Tawny Frogmouth and chick on the White-winged Chough’s nest. Perhaps next time! I look forward to leading once again in 2009.
— Jack Holland