Pulletop and Red-lored Whistlers

Hello Carl Red-lored Whistlers were first reported in NSW at Pulletop by Richard Schodde and me back in 1964 – its all on my website. The nest was in the roadside verge (which may not exist any more) from memory about 200 m east of the hut. We never saw them within the Nature Reserve although Harry Frith had previously seen them there during his research into Mallee Fowl. At that time there was a very good Mallee Fowl mound close to the NW corner of the Reserve. I’ll bet that doesn’t exist any more. They were first found at Round Hill during the 1968 RAOU Campout by Beatrice Goldstein from Sydney in the mallee east of Whoey Tank, from memory about a kilometre from the area where people are allowed to camp. The calls are also on my website, both from Pulletop and Round Hill – they do differ a bit from material recorded in Victoria and South Australia. I have never seen or heard a Red-lored Whistler anywhere else in NSW but I do believe there are reliable records from over on the SA border north of Wentworth. A word of warning, if you do use replay to try to attract a Red-lored Whistler, sometimes a Gilbert’s will respond and some male Gilbert’s in NSW are quite ginger coloured on the belly ( see my picture#403204D ). Adult male Gilbert’s have black lores, but young males don’t so there is room for confusion. So, in the heat of the moment, always look for the red lores – male and female Red-lored are very similar to one another. Red-lored Whistlers would be nesting right now and all that country out there is in superb condition – the best year for many years – Black Honeyeaters (and the odd Pied) all over the place, thousands of woodswallows gorging on eremophila flowers, I’ve never seen so many trillers, but lots of flies and some fairly ornery weather. Good luck Graeme Chapman =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================