Hasties Swamp monthly bird survey: June 2025
- Lesley Deacon
- 18 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Lesley Deacon | Guest Contributor
It is always a bit of a shock when the cool weather starts. Although it was not super winter cold, it is the sudden winter change that makes it feel so chilly. The birds noticed it too and the carpark and surrounding trees were very quiet with a lack of birdsong at 7am. We suggested to Jen that we would have to drop the species numbers from the usual 50 for the biscuit reward.
Our illustrious leader was absent and with Louise in Western Australia we missed her camera verifications, and Barbara’s accurate bird identification (ID) from faint and indistinct bird calls. She is always the first to hear the Eastern Whipbird. But we welcomed Luke, who was on holiday and visiting to check on the plantings he did with Greening Australia 40 years ago. He had great bird ID and counting skills at distance and was most helpful.
Four Crane had been seen flying over when we were driving in from the road. It is impossible to identify them at height while driving, but, knowing it is still early for the Sarus Crane, we presumed they were Brolga. We could hear them trumpeting in a paddock to the south, but were unable to identify them further than Crane spp.
The Plumed Whistling-Duck have returned en masse and we had to look hard to find other Duck species intermingled, eventually counting 10 of the Wandering Whistling-Duck among them. The Magpie Geese are returning too, but not in any huge numbers as yet.
The Kingfishers came out, with the Azure sitting in one of his usual dead tree vantage spots, three Forest fighting for the best position on a dead branch in the southern end of the lagoon, and two Laughing Kookaburra noisily making themselves heard. We don’t usually see any Sacred here once the weather turns. They adjourn to the coast and have obviously already departed.
The more colourful bush birds delighted us. The male Golden Whistler with his bright yellow plumage was a picture against the dark green foliage. The Yellow-breasted Boatbill called attention to himself with his distinctive whistles and trill call, but you must be quick to spot him before he darts away. The Eastern Yellow Robin are so full of activity, perching, dropping, fluttering and flying on, that you could be excused for thinking there are many more of them.
Australian Spectacled Monarch hunted insects in the lower canopy, chasing and fluttering with delightful flashes of bright orange. There was even a male Sahul Sunbird showing off its yellow and blue in a burst of sunlight. And there is always Rufous Shrike-thrush. If you don’t hear their clear whistle and abrupt chirps, they give themselves away with their rustling racket as they busily search through dead foliage and bark for food.
There was a good number of Pied Currawong hanging around in a band. It is interesting to see the way they feed together yet separately. In any case, when one flies, the others invariably follow.
The highlight of the morning was standing in the carpark and having two White-cheeked Honeyeaters repeatedly fly just over us. Investigation showed they were building a nest in a low shrub. Building within a metre of the ground is usual, but with nectar supplies dwindling and feral and domestic cats present in the area, the success of their nesting is not assured. If they are successful though, young should be ready to fledge next survey, so that will be worth keeping an eye out for. (My old, old bird book reports that they were also called Moustached Honeyeater. What a great descriptive name!)
When bird call concluded we found that we had recorded 54 species. How great that the birds all came out when the sun warmed everything up a little. We didn’t need any special winter lower species limit for our biscuit reward after all!
