Despite the forecast for a very hot 35oC, close to 30 members and guests joined me on this seventh annual event, with as usual Anthony Overs helping me lead the spilt group. As foreshadowed by the reccie I did a week earlier, bird activity was surprisingly quiet, particularly in the gully that runs through about 200 metres from the car park where all the breeding occurred in the first few workshops. We’d hardly seen a bird, let alone breeding activity, in the first 30 minutes when Stuart Rae arrived and showed us one of his Tawny Frogmouth nests, with dad still brooding the smallest chick on the nest in a very large upright fork, and mum and a two siblings a couple of metres away. This was a first for this workshop and much appreciated by all participants, and was soon followed by another first, a female Common Bronzewing sitting on a nest in a rather untidy clump of dead mistletoe.
The latter was at the start of the line running roughly NW/SE through the horse crossing, where again all the activity was centred, as in the past two years. We soon found a White-throated Gerygone nest made almost completely of wool, clearly borrowed from the sheep in the paddock a 100 metres or so away, but with a typical pony tail and side entrance. While looking for a Willie Wagtail nest with young we soon found in the same tree another Common Bronzewing nest, with a male sitting this time, and then a well disguised and flimsy Rufous Whistler nest, with again the male sitting. He had alerted us to it as he moved off to fend away another male of this species.
Nearby was a Noisy Friarbird nest with young, again in a very woolly cup, and within 20 metres a silent pair of White-winged Trillers were building/ starting to incubate; in contrast to previous years they were the only trillers for the day. While this is a known tiny nest with just a rudimentary rim it was very small even for this species, and was also low and very well camouflaged in amongst the foliage, with a number of participants not able to find it until the much more conspicuous male swapped duties with the female after some 10-15 minutes of watching.
Across the horse gate were several pairs of Leaden Flycatchers, with one pair soon found busily building a nest in a surprisingly open position on a bare dead branch with another just above. Next Varied Sittellas were seen starting to build their dainty nest, typically wedged in an upright fork of a small dead branch. However, the most open nest clearly was that being built by the Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike in a dead tree, which must have been exposed to the full sun for most of the day. A better chosen spot was the Grey Fantail’s nest, which was a surprisingly high fluted one but hidden and quite low amongst the shrubbery.
In total 36 species were found, well down from previous years and for the first time a number of species such as Dusky Woodswallow, Olive-backed Oriole and Western Gerygone were not seen, though the latter two had been present the week before. However, a Dollarbird was seen perched in a dead tree, in fact refusing to fly to show the white spots in the wings, the first for a couple of years. Fifteen species showed some kind of breeding activity, and five of the 10 basic nest types were seen, including the nest hole a pair of Eastern Rosellas was seen inspecting. My special thanks go to Stuart Rae and Anthony Overs for helping to lead/find nests for the group. This event continues to be very popular, and I look forward to leading it again next year.
— Jack Holland