Magpie-lark makes a rare appearance

October continues to delight! The weather was wonderful this weekend; overcast with mild temperatures and barely any wind. The good conditions were reflected in the 48 birds of 15 different species that were caught during the morning.

Red Wattlebirds were once again plentiful, along with Brown and New Holland Honeyeaters around the bottlebrush trees. Sadly the bottlebrushes look like they will finish flowering very soon. Two of the day's highlights were caught here; a Galah and a Magpie-lark! Magpie-lark hasn't been caught at Herdsman in the last three years.

An exciting recapture came in the form of an adult Red Wattlebird, originally banded in April 2009 - an elapsed time of six years and six months.

We caught four Rainbow Bee-eaters, which are starting to build their nest burrows in sandy patches around the area. The one female that we caught had only the beginning of a brood patch, hinting that the nest building was quite recent.

The Grove nets were set up as it was finally dry in there after months of being a knee-deep swamp. Two of the Bee-eaters were caught there, as well as Shining Bronze-cuckoo and a brilliant Splendid Fairy-wren. The wren is another species we rarely catch at Herdsman, the last time being over three years ago.

Singing Honeyeater juvenile

Red Wattlebird

Willie Wagtail juvenile

The star of the day - adult male Magpie-lark

Species - new (retrap)
Brown Honeyeater - 4
Galah - 1
Laughing Dove - 1
Magpie-lark - 1
New Holland Honeyeater - 3 (2)
Rainbow Bee-eater - 4
Red Wattlebird - 5 (1)
Rufous Whistler - (1)
Shining Bronze-cuckoo - 1
Silvereye - 3 (9)
Singing Honeyeater - 1
Splendid Fairy-wren - 1
Striated Pardalote - 6 (1)
Willie Wagtail - 2
Yellow-rumped Thornbill - 1
Total - 34 (14) = 48

Wondrous Wattlebirds

Another good catch for an October day with a total of 36 birds processed during the morning. The duck net was up and running and caught some great birds including an Australian Wood Duck, a re-captured Pacific Black Duck and an Australian White Ibis. An Australasian Darter perched tantalisingly close to the net but managed to avoid capture - it would have been a first for the Herdsman project.

Australian White Ibis

A net through flowering bottlebrush bushes was particularly good at catching Red Wattlebirds. An amazing seven wattlebirds came out of this net, all of them juvenile. Brown Honeyeaters were the most plentiful, even outnumbering the rather low count of Silvereyes (six Silvereyes - even less than wattlebirds!).
A first-year Spotted Pardalote was a nice surprise late in the morning.

Silvereye

Spotted Pardalote in its first year

Species - new (retrap)
Australian White Ibis - 1
Australian Wood Duck - 1
Brown Honeyeater - 8 (2)
New Holland Honeyeater - 2
Pacific Black Duck - 1 (1)
Red Wattlebird - 7
Silvereye - 5 (1)
Singing Honeyeater - 1
Spotted Pardalote - 1
Striated Pardalote - 2 (1)
Western Gerygone - 1
Willie Wagtail - (1)
Total - 30 (6) = 36

Bee-eaters have arrived

24 birds of 10 species was a reasonably good catch for an October morning. The wind (or rather the lack of) was on our side however it got hot quickly in the sunny weather. The bottlebrush trees in the car park were bursting with flowers so that site was particularly good for catching honeyeaters.

Brood patches were obvious and plentiful particularly in Silvereyes and honeyeaters.
The highlight was a male and a female Rainbow Bee-eater caught together in the car park net. These were the first bee-eaters netted for the season, newly arrived from the north in preparation for breeding - we first saw them at Herdsman the week before.

Male Rainbow Bee-eater

Yellow-rumped Thornbill (photo by Lizzy)

Species - new (retrap)
Brown Honeyeater - 3
New Holland Honeyeater - 1
Rainbow Bee-eater - 2
Rufous Whistler - 1 (1)
Silvereye - 2 (7)
Singing Honeyeater - (1)
Striated Pardalote - 2 (1)
Western Gerygone - 1
Willie Wagtail - 1
Yellow-rumped Thornbill - (1) 
Total - 13 (11) = 24