Latest news with #MickRoderick
ABC News
08-08-2025
- General
- ABC News
Rare regent honeyeaters unexpectedly spotted on NSW Mid North Coast
A group of birdwatchers arriving at a nature reserve on the New South Wales Mid North Coast has spotted one of the country's rarest birds before even leaving the car park. The group had just got to Jolly Nose Mountain Bike Park in the Queens Lake Nature Reserve recently, when an eagle-eyed twitcher spotted a critically endangered regent honeyeater. According to BirdLife Australia, there have only been five reports of the bird in the Port Macquarie area in the past decade. Hastings Birdwatchers conservation officer Peter West was one of the few people among the group of about 20 who had seen the species before. "We got out of the car and the first thing someone said was, 'There's a regent honeyeater,'" Mr West said. "To be honest I didn't believe they were telling me the truth, but it was true. "The lady who organised the morning had a plan, which went out the window, and I don't think we got very far from the car park at all." Mr West said they saw two regent honeyeaters in the reserve south of Port Macquarie, feeding with other types of honeyeaters in the trees. "They are beautiful birds and also exceptionally rare — there's about 300 left in the wild," he said. BirdLife Australia regent honeyeater recovery coordinator Mick Roderick said it was an important sighting because tracking regent honeyeaters in the wild outside breeding season was difficult. According to BirdLife, the regent honeyeater was once found from Rockhampton to Adelaide, but is now confined to fragmented areas in Victoria and New South Wales. "Regent honeyeaters are extremely rare anywhere, but particularly in this part of the Mid North Coast," Mr Roderick said. "We are averaging less than one bird a year being reported from the Mid North Coast … so having two birds seen is really exciting." A long-term regent honeyeater captive breeding and release program is underway in Australia, but the birds spotted were born in the wild. "They [the birdwatchers] couldn't say if it was a pair, but the exciting thing is both birds were not banded, which means they are wild birds," Mr Roderick said. "It gives us some hope there are more birds out there than we realise. "We are talking about a very rare bird that covers a pretty large range … and we can go many months without knowing where there's a single individual," Mr Roderick said. "There was a single regent honeyeater sighted at Manly Dam in Sydney … a few days before these two birds were sighted. "Before that it had been two months before we'd seen any regent honeyeaters … overall, in 2025 we are up to about nine birds seen across their entire range." Mr West said boosting regent honeyeater habitat was important. "It's important we protect areas for these birds, they are nomads, they go around chasing the flowering trees and the nectar they provide," he said. Mr Roderick said regent honeyeater habitat was in prime condition leading up to the species' breeding season this spring. A mass eucalypt budding has occurred after wet weather and flooding in parts of NSW earlier this year, which will lead to blossoms and plenty of food to support the nectar-feeding bird. "Spring is just around the corner, and we are really hoping regents are going to arrive back at their breeding sites in the coming weeks," Mr Roderick said. "We are really hoping the regents take advantage of the good conditions and get some chicks out of nests. "I do think this is a very important year for regent honeyeaters."
ABC News
28-06-2025
- Climate
- ABC News
Hope for regent honeyeater with signs of booming blossoms after NSW rain and floods
A silver lining has emerged in the wake of record-breaking flooding across parts of New South Wales with signs the wet weather has created prime conditions for nectar-feeing birds, including the critically endangered regent honeyeater. There have been observations of a mass eucalypt budding event in the wake of the flooding across the Mid North Coast and Hunter regions. Mick Roderick, Birdlife Australia's regent honeyeater recovery adviser, said he had seen various eucalypt species thriving in the Hunter after their prolonged soaking during April and May. He said as the different species flowered the blossom season could last throughout the next year at least. It would provide food for the regent honeyeater, a species which has dropped to around 300 wild birds. "To know that so many trees will be flowering from a breeding season, right through summer and winter … is significant for a critically endangered species that relies almost exclusively on nectar," Mr Roderick said. "It provides the regent honeyeaters that are left with an opportunity to take advantage of those conditions and hopefully successfully breed. Mr Roderick said Birdlife Australia had recent evidence of hundreds of honeyeaters of various species and lorikeets feeding on the coast where swamp mahogany trees were flowering, while white box was flowering on the western slopes. He said many other eucalypts had been observed putting on buds in preparation for flowering. "The exciting thing is we seem to now have a mass budding of certain eucalypts, certainly in the Hunter Valley, and most of the buds have appeared after the really heavy rain," Mr Roderick said. "So we have red gums, ironbarks, grey gums, and then spotted gums to follow all these spring flowering gums. Mr Roderick said eucalypt blossoms typically dropped during drier years and it was the most promising blossom season in the region since heavy rainfall in 2021/'22. "We're going to have two exceptional seasons within four years of each other, which is pretty incredible," he said. Dean Nicolle, a consultant botanist and ecologist specialising in eucalypts, said there were more than 800 different eucalypt species throughout Australia and that certain species grew strongly in the wake of prolonged rainfall. "Some species are very tolerant of flooding and waterlogged soils and are much more drought sensitive, while other species are much more drought tolerant," he said. "The species described [in the Hunter], like spotted gums and ironbarks, are generally species of hillsides and ranges. "They would be responding to increased moisture in the soil, so conditions are good for growing. "They can take up as much water as they want, grow lots of leaves and then flower heavily." The budding eucalypts are also a welcome sight for apiarists, including Hunter Valley-based Colin Wilson who has been a commercial beekeeper for about 45 years. "In the Hunter Valley at the moment there's ironbark species putting buds on, spotted gum trees, grey gum trees, so there's a fair range of trees which will all flower at different stages," he said. "The last few years they have been below average in the amount of flowering and nectar and it's looking a lot more hopeful for the next 12 months. "Trees bud sometimes six months or more in advance before they flower. As a beekeeper you then know there'll be some honeyflows." Mr Wilson had to euthanase bees when varroa mite was detected in the region several years ago. "A lot of people around here have suffered quite a lot financially over the last few years because hives were euthanased," he said. "We brought bees back again when we were allowed to and have a growing process of expanding bee numbers. "When you can see a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel it does give you a bit of hope."
