The trepidation of our trip down the Princes Highway from Nowra was relieved to some extent by green patches along the burnt out roadside. Then turning onto the Bendalong road this devastating scene; these barren and charred remains.

The seaside towns of Bendalong and Manyana are intact despite being burnt on all sides, a tribute to the firies. Even the bush along the Bendalong beach-front has been burnt out. The dawn chorus was subdued, a pair of Magpie-larks and then a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo’s screeching. The numbers of town birds are well down; ones or twos where previously there had been a dozen.

The two Birdata Survey sites I set up in 2017 were burnt so I wanted to see how bird numbers had changed. On the “Path” site survey I found it a relief to hear a lone Little Wattlebird calling, later to be joined by two Lewin’s Honeyeaters and then some Striated Thornbills. On the “Bush Track” it was fifteen minutes before the first birds arrived; two Eastern Yellow Robins and then a Rufous Whistler.

The two sites were already badly affected by drought and bird numbers dropped off during 2019, as seen from the survey results below. The birds are going to need all the help they can get to recover from this double whammy to bird life.