I set out in the first week of November to tick the last box in my checklist of spring migrants – finding the satin flycatcher at the Waterworks Reserve.
The flycatcher is always the final migrant to arrive from the mainland, in late October. The delayed arrival is not just the vast distance it must travel, from north-eastern Queensland and Papua New Guinea. As an aerial insect hunter and foliage gleaner, it waits for the insects to be on the wing and in good number.
The satin flycatcher is considered to be the most beautiful of the migratory species and is always a delight to see when spring is well under way. The male is not quite satin, but stee -blue on the back with silver undersides. The females are so different they could be a separate species – grey on the head with russet breasts.
The flycatchers have a habit of flicking their tails when perched which is a reliable guide to separating them from the other small birds of the treetops like the black-headed and strong-billed honeyeaters and the slightly larger yellow-throated honeyeater.
In my hunt for the flycatcher I chose to walk the relatively new trail linking the Waterworks with Gentle Annie Falls.
The zig-zagging two-kilometre track makes an ideal location to scan the treetops for canopy species. As it climbs, bushwalkers find themselves level with the upper branches of eucalypts and wattles on lower slopes.
Climbing the trail I was also on the look-out for flycatcher nests, which are also lodged high in the treetops and the Gentle Annie Track gives an ideal opportunity to find them. The neat nest is constructed of bark, spiders’ webs and moss and is usually anchored to a horizontal branch.
As I scouted the trees for flycatchers, my steady progress also brought into view another canopy feeder, the black-faced cuckoo shrike and a kookaburra visiting a nesting hollow in a towering white peppermint gum.
The trail itself is a beautiful walk. Its crushed sandstone is fringed with bracken which in turn is festooned with blanket bush, musk, golden rosemary and yellow banksia.
Built at a cost of around $800,000, the track was only opened a year ago and in that time it has proven popular with hikers and bikers. It follows the contours of the hill leading to the falls and, at the summit, connects to the upper Pipeline Trail leading a short distance further on to McDermott’s Saddle and on to Ferntree. It provides a gentle gradient that is negotiable by parents pushing prams and people in wheelchairs.
My hunt for the flycatcher took me all morning until a misty rain drove me from the slopes. The satin flycatcher escaped me but I still have the months of summer to find it. The species is last to arrive and the first to leave, departing between February and March.