After a more than frustrating trip through the mountains (roadworks and coffee shops in Blackheath contributing in equal measure), I arrived just in time for a cuppa. And then I got to work increasing the clearing around the cabin, chopping and hacking at the abundant biddy bush while trying to leave any wattle and styphelia well alone. There were a couple of casualties, but all in all I was pretty pleased with my progress until I stood back and saw there was very little change!
Oh well, at least there will be lots of kindling next time.
After a surprisingly mild, and uneventful night (I am sure it was just kangaroos coughing in the darkness and nothing more sinister) it was another glorious Little Bunda day heralded by one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen. The old adage "...red sky in the morning, shepherds' warning" went through my mind but I was pretty sure we had nothing to fear for the day ahead.
And so it proved to be. Tiff arrived about 9 and shortly after Gillian, a birder from Orange, turned up. The three of us were to keep any counting of Regents and Swifties honest; as the KGB well knew, 2 can be corrupted but with 3, one will always snitch.
The sky was one of those impossible birding skies where everything is just a silhouette but as things started of incredibly quietly, that wasn't really a problem. About half-way down the hill the honeyeaters and thornbills started appearing and by the time we reached the ironbark we were feeling quite please with the morning. Unfortunately, the ironbark was only just coming into flower so not the beacon of nectar-highs we were hoping it would be. Luckily that hadn't deterred all the honeyeaters and among the calls of Yellow-faced and White-napeds Tiff suddenly heard a Black-chinned Honeyeater. And then another. Flitting high in the canopy, in with the White-napeds just to make it extra difficult, were about 6 of these gorgeous threatened honeyeaters. Another new species for the block and a threatened one at that!
After all that excitement it was time for a sit down and a banana. The Brown Treecreeper was pretending to be a thrush in the Mystery Pond clearing and the Eastern Spinebills zoomed and clacked their wings around our heads, clearly working off the styphelia. Then suddenly, two bright yellow bellies whizzed overhead, tweeping at each other. I knew I didn't recognise the sound and Tiff's excited shout of "Turqs"was enough to have us charging up the hill after them. But my first Turquoise Parrots had gone and no amount of pishing brought them back. However, it was a great way to reach species number 80 AND our 8th threatened species. That makes our Threatened Species Strike Rate 10%, which you would have to say was pretty outstanding.
And so another Regent Honeyeater and Swift Parrot Survey Day is done and though we struck out on those two, I think our substitutes were just as good, if not better as I have seen a Regent but I had never seen a Black-chinned one or a Turquoise Parrot before.
