Yesterday, while traveling about 12 kilometers from Mt Barker & 3 kilometers from my home in SA I was totally chuffed to see at least 5 White-winged Choughs cross the road & fly into a grove of introduced trees planted near a house.
This species is yet another of the endangered woodland birds in the Mt Lofty Ranges. I've seen a flock of Choughs on the edge of Mt Barker on 2 occasions in the last 34 years & a friend who lives near Mt Barker reported some years ago that his neighbour was trying to get rid of Choughs which were disturbing the soil his garden of non-indigenous plants. Apparently, the neighbour was unaware of the valuable service Choughs provide in aerating the soil & controlling over-population of bugs.
I'm wondering if the small flock I saw yesterday are of the same flock(s) that I've seen over the years, perhaps refugees from near Mt Barker by the horrendous housing development & planting of exotic vegetation occurring there. My fingers are crossed that this flock will find friendly native vegetation in the area & expand its range into the revegetation which has been occurring.
I don't know what the real topic is all about but it seems to be some building that you can see here and maybe would like to know this now as read more info will help you in knowing about stuff that was always there for us to go for a better enough reason later.
Well, well. This morning I saw a pair of White-winged Choughs on our property. With luck there's enough habitat on our place & nearby to enable these birds to become established. One of the ecological features for Choughs is plenty of native vegetation litter which they rake over looking for bugs & beetles. This airing of the litter enables it to decompose faster thus returning nutrients to the soil faster than would otherwise be the case.
The consistent presence of White-winged Choughs should see competition between them & the persistent, feral Common Blackbirds which also benefit from vegetation litter. Competitive success for the Choughs may enable the Bassian Thrush to live here although that's a species which is nearly extinct in the Mt Lofty Ranges having been in overwhelming competition from the Common Blackbird, housing developers, local councils, feral household gardens & the SA government.
Again more reward for all your hard work.Congratulations.Your species list is climbing. Great to see birds returning.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Thanks, Dale. It's been a momentous 2022 for us so far with several new species (e.g., Grey Goshawk, White-winged Chough), a number of species numbers increasing significantly (e.g., Red-browed Finch) & several species being seen more often (e.g., Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Crested Shrike-tit & Diamond Firetail). A number of these species are endangered or on the verge of extinction in the Mt Lofty Ranges. So our satisfaction levels are going through the roof!