At work here in Melton (far western fringe of Melbourne, Victoria), planted Mugga Ironbark (*Eucalyptus sideroxylon*) flowered heavily from September through to end of December 2015, and was noisily utilised by Musk and Purple-crowned Lorikeets and Red Wattlebirds (plus resident New Holland & White-plumed Honeyeaters). As the ironbarks tapered off in late December, Spotted Gum (*Corymbia maculata*) started to flower. The smaller honeyeaters were unchanged, wattlebirds largely disappeared, and the nomadic lorikeet contingent flipped completely to Rainbow Lorikeets and the odd Little Lorikeet. Remarkable timing or resource partitioning, or both – I’m not sure. Anyone else noticed such a dramatic shift-working paradigm amongst lorikeets? ++++++++++++ Dr Lawrie Conole Tylden Vic 3444 Australia lconole [at] gmail.com
Birding-Aus mailing list
Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org
To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Not sure Stephen. Rainbow Lorikeets are not particularly abundant out here on the western fringe (yet). The peppering of a few Little Lorikeets instead of the more usual ‘western’ Purple-crowned is probably even more interesting.
cheers
Lawrie
++++++++++++ Dr Lawrie Conole Tylden Vic 3444 Australia lconole [at] gmail.com