Autumn Bird Survey- by Tom Clarke

A full round of autumn surveys was carried out on Thursday 23rd April in mostly fine conditions. The skies were overcast to begin with but cleared to sunny as the day warmed up. What a contrast to that of earlier in the week when gale-force winds and buckets of rain smashed the region.

Evidence of the storm’s ferocity was everywhere with plenty of large trees fallen over and the ground strewn with branches in the bushland (see Figure 1). Most trees that may have had blossom had been blown clean and checking the ground debris significant amounts of bud had been torn down still attached to their branchlets. The likelihood of scarce nectar supply, especially for small transient birds may prove to be a factor in low recording rates of these birds for several weeks.

Highlights

• Despite the paucity of small birds (thinking that a giant leaf-blower had cleaned them all up) it was great to hear Eastern Whipbirds calling from their usual haunts. The gully above the road from Burnage Reserve and both sides of the West Ridge site evidently weathered the storm and continue to provide shelter for these ground-foraging birds. 
 
• A flock of Australian Wood Duck were taking advantage of the flooded nature of the Carey Bay Wetland complex which mostly resembled a lake on this occasion. 
 
• Mixed foraging flocks were restricted to the pairing–up of Golden Whistler and Grey Fantail. These duos were encountered only in the three West Ridge sites. 
 

The full report can be viewed on the Blog