About this time last year there was a heat wave in Vic. where the temperature reached 46 in Shepparton, I ventured into the Iron Bark forest at Rushworth in the afternoon where there was now breeze at all and the temp. was even greater. I stood on the edge of a dam where there were hundreds of birds coming into drink, Honeyeaters, Tree-creepers , Wrens, Yellow Robins, Pardalotes, Thornbills, Cuckoos. Red rumps, Crimson and Eastern Rosellas, Grey Currawongs, Choughs, Fantails, Trillers, Wagtails, Babblers, Wattlebirds, Spinebills, Mistletoebirds, Sittellas Kookaburras and a pair of Leaden Flycatchers with two young that I have never seen before in this area plus a few more. Several were fledglings and many had rings on their legs. They all only had one thing on their mind and that was survival, some of the young should not have been out of the nest as they were not fully feathered. It was too hot to stand in the sun so I pulled the Cruiser up to the edge of the water and sat in it with the door open the birds were so frantic to get a drink they were landing on the open door and Wallabies would crawl under the door when going along the edge that close I reached out and touched one on the tail. A Goshawk arrived causing a bit of a panic when it came over the bank but they soon continued on drinking ignoring it as it drank and then bathed, it sat in an Iron Bark for an hour watching me then had another drink before flying off. I have photos of a fox walking amongst Stilts, Pacific Herons, Spoonbills, Ibis, Egrets etc in broad daylight without them turning an eye or stop feeding, as it walked through the shallow water within a couple of feet of them. You see Jabiru ,Egret and Herons etc in Kakadu walk within a foot of the snout of Crocodiles oblivious of the danger. Birds in aviaries will land and walk all over snakes having no fear. Do they know when they are not feeding or are they ignorant to the fact that they are a danger ??? I have photos of the fox and the scrawny birds in the bush if anyone is interested. Barney. —–Original Message—– From: Birding-Aus [mailto:birding-aus-bounces@birding-aus.org] On Behalf Oto Philip Veerman Sent: Sunday, 4 January 2015 11:02 AM To: wildlifeexperiences@gmail.com; ‘Simon and Alex Starr’; birding-aus@birding-aus.org Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Birds drinking in the heat Also that the Goshawk is not so dangerous whilst down on the ground at a pond where they can see it and know it is there, as it is when hidden in the trees or flying above them when they don’t know if it is there or not. Philip —–Original Message—– From: Birding-Aus [mailto:birding-aus-bounces@birding-aus.org] On Behalf Of wildlifeexperiences@gmail.com Sent: Sunday, 4 January 2015 10:08 AM To: Simon and Alex Starr; birding-aus@birding-aus.org Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Birds drinking in the heat Hi Simon, Back in late 2003 while do some fauna work at Scotia Sanctuary, I observed a number of Honeyeater species, pardalotes, Crested Bellbird all coming down to drink at dam. The interesting thing about this was that they also shared this drinking spot with a Brown Goshawk and the smaller birds were often drinking at the same time as the goshawk. I guess the need for water was more urgent than the potential fear of the goshawk. Regards John. Yours in all things “green” John Harris BASc, GDipEd Director – Wildlife Experiences P/L Principal Zoologist/Ecologist Nature Photographer Wildlife Guide Croydon, Vic 0409 090 955 President, Field Naturalists Club of Victoria www.fncv.org.au —– Reply message —– From: “Simon and Alex Starr” <sandastarr@bigpond.com> To: “Birding Aus Mailing List” <birding-aus@birding-aus.org> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Birds drinking in the heat Today I stopped by at a waterhole in the central Victorian scrub near Inglewood, a site I have visited for many years, for a spot of fishing, well actually bird fishing, sit and wait and see what you catch. It reached a peak of 43 degrees today in the area, I was watching between 3pm and 5 pm and had many visitors drop in, including “waves” of birds at times all lined up in mixed species flocks. The usual array of Honeyeaters were lining up, Brown-headed were the commonest followed by Yellow-plumed, White-eared and Yellow-tufted. All regular birds here whether it’s 43 degrees or 33 degrees. Also present was a Black-chinned, New Holland and Eastern Spinebill, all drinking also. Today no Pardalotes, Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters or White-fronted Honeyeaters but I would normally expect them to visit. I have found that the hotter it gets the bigger range of species I see, so I love to visit in the extreme weather as you never quite know what bird will decide it’s time for a rare drink of H2O As I have observed in previous years when its over 40, Superb Fairy-wren came for a drink, in fact a whole family repeatedly drank, usually they show little interest and I only remember them sipping occasionally in the past, today they were thirsty, as were Silvereye, Weebill, Rufous Whistler and Grey Shrike-thrush. A Collared Sparrowhawk dropped in, but did not drink, probably because of my presence, I have observed Goshawk drink here before. Today however I scored a couple of new species imbibing the fluid of life! A pair of Variegated Fairy Wren were around as they usually are but I had never seen them drink before today. And then even more surprising a single Inland Thornbill came down to the water and spent some time there, drinking several times. Birds resident in the immediate vicinity that I have never observed to drink include Shy Heathwren, Crested Bellbird, Yellow Thornbill, and Chestnut-rumped Thornbill, however this list is gradually shrinking. I am interested to know if there are many species that never drink even when it’s available to them in the most extreme weather. Can anyone share some observations? Clearly there are some desert species surviving without water, Regards, Simon Starr.
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