——– Original Message ——– Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Flames in the snow From: brian fleming <flambeau@labyrinth.net.au> To: Martin Butterfield <martinflab@gmail.com> Back in September 1977, we went to Canberra in the September school holidays. Coming back, we stopped near Thredbo to give our children a chance to ski in the remaining snow. The thaw had started and there was quite a bit of bare ground with grass tussocks showing in sunny places. At least two pairs of Flame Robins were hopping about feeding among the tussocks of snow-grass and I took several slides. A male Flame Robin looks very fine on a snow patch. The birds seemed to have no objection to hopping about on the snow, as long as they could investigate the grass clumps – they were probably getting the insects killed by the first snow. Migrating flocks of Pardalotes and Honeyeaters (Yellow-faced and White-naped) were passing overhead through the tops of the Snowgums – a flock would fly several hundred yards and settle in the tree-tops, to be overtaken by other flocks ‘leap-frogging’ over them, before they in turn rose and flew on, heading towards Dead Horse Gap. When we got down through Dead Horse, the road was in tall forest and the migrants were out of sight up in the canopy. I recall reading an article by the late Norman Wakefield in “The Age” – he had a weekly naturalist’s column. He described seeing the first signs of the thaw in Victorian forests. As the snow lost its grip, buried saplings and low shrubs would suddenly spring upright, and he wrote that the forest was alive with altitudinal migrant birds returning from the lowlands. These birds were eagerly feeding on the chilled insects they were finding under bark and in the vegetation well before the snow was melted from the ground. We often spent skiiing holidays at Mt. Hotham when we were much younger. I do not recall ever seeing Flame Robins at times of heavy snow cover, though I recall seeing them after a light early fall with patchy cover. During the winter, the only birds were Pied Currawongs and the occasional Grey Shrike-thrush. Anthea Fleming On 15/09/2014 9:58 AM, Martin Butterfield wrote: > I did a map query in eBird looking for records of Flame Robin in June – > September >
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