BACK TO NATURE - It’s winter and the neighbours drop in

by Jamie Walker

As I write this, the wet chill of winter has become prevalent up on the ranges and a flock of about sixty Silvereyes have been moving around the forested creek gully beyond the borders of our back yard. They seem to be attracted to the White Ash trees, loaded with black fruit. The birds can pierce these with their fine bills and then remove the juicy inner parts with brush-like tongues.

What is significant about this flock, is their rich colouring – especially their warm brown flanks. This differs so much from the paler olive colours of our local birds and marks them as winter visitors from Tasmania.

Silvereyes are robust, long-distance travellers, despite their small size. The Tasmanian race colonised New Zealand, without human aid, in the 19th century and are now seen as native. Their Maori name ‘tauhou’, means ‘stranger’.

It is from New Zealand that a completely different migrant reaches us in the chilly months. Double-banded Plovers – small waders – cross the Tasman Sea to winter on the shores of our wetlands and coast. Here, they look a little larger than the Red-capped Plovers and Black-fronted Dotterels that they join.

Unfortunately, we normally see them in drab winter plumage. In breeding colours, they are superb in black, white and chestnut. Look them up in your field guides or identification apps.

The approach or impact of winter not only encourages migration, it also causes local movements of birds seeking more reliable food sources and relief from inclement conditions.

Dusky Woodswallows breed communally in established eucalypt woodland. This can be a fairly open, savanna-like habitat; but, where the tree cover has been totally replaced by pasture, there are now gaps in the species’ distribution.

In other seasons, they must therefore be sought around the fringes of the Sunshine Coast region, but winter can surprise us with transient flocks in wallum heathland and other open areas, where they chase insects at all levels – from high flight to feeding on the ground.

Like other Woodswallows, Duskies have the habit of “clumping” together as they roost or perch out in the open. This no doubt enhances watchfulness, a sense of dependent co-operation and, of course, mutual warmth sharing.

We are fortunate in South-east Queensland: winter can never be called severe, and our natural world never sleeps. If we don the beanie and get out into it, winter can still show us many new, fascinating faces.

Note: Woodswallows are not members of the swallow family: they are songbirds who have, over the aeons of time, evolved to live much like swallows, while retaining the skills of ordinary perching birds. They can thus alternate, as necessary, between two lifestyles.

Quite wonderful.