… woodswallows.
My delight in spotting a pair of White-breasted Woodswallows at Walker’s Swamp earlier this week was tempered by the fact that their fellow migrants, White-browed and Masked Woodswallows have been noticeably scarce in the past two years.
White-breasted Woodswallows are almost always observed near water, utilising woodland habitats adjacent to swamps and rivers. Small numbers visit the Newstead district each year, arriving in late spring to breed before departing in mid-autumn.
White-browed and Masked Woodswallows are woodland birds and specialise in the aerial hunting of insects. In central Victoria they typically arrive in mixed flocks (often in the hundreds) on the first hot day in October, carried by northerly winds. White-browed Woodswallows dominate, making up 90-95% of the flocks, with both species often breeding locally. Before this year I would have declared that their local breeding activity is linked with wet years, but the story appears to be more complex than that.
2022 has been possibly the wettest year on record for Newstead, and 2021 was above average. The maps below show the Birdata records for White-browed Woodswallows, firstly for 2019/20 and then 2021/22. Clearly over the last two seasons we have witnessed a significant decline in observations across central Victoria, although numbers in the north-west appear unaffected. So far this season, I’ve not seen a single White-browed or Masked Woodswallow, while last season I can recall one small flock that didn’t hang around.
Click here for a post from 2019 on White-browed Woodswallows breeding in the Mia Mia.

White-breasted Woodswallow, Walker’s Swamp, 27th January 2023

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