January 2012

Happy New Year!  

In January a very good  94  species of birds were recorded in the catchment area of the Gazette.  This is 5 less than the remarkable total in December 2011 and 1 less than  January 2011.  Here is a graph of the situation, showing the long term trend (as assessed by a 12 month moving average) to continue rising!

The raptorial hordes on the Hoskinstown Plain appear to have returned to more normal numbers and the Water birds are continuing to be seen (it would be nice to get some rain to ensure that continues!).  For a change there are no rarities to report  but in the sense of life being normal the Tawny Frogmouth family left our garden on schedule and returned about 3 weeks later minus the young birds - also as normal.  Slightly less usual was the appearance of a nest with young Noisy Friarbird chicks therein.  Despite a Brown Goshawk hanging around the area the three chicks have all fledged succesfully.

Thanks to several observers in: the Molonglo Valley, Captains Flat Rd, Hoskinstown, Radcliffe and more recent observations are included in this intro but not the list for October.

Migrants are shown in italics below.   22 species which have been recorded breeding (broadly defined, and as expected most of these are Dependent Young records) this month are in bold.  Species for which there are photographs in the blog are underlined.  I’d welcome records of any breeding activities seen in the area and, of course any other records which readers feel interesting..

1  Waterbirds:  Australian Wood Duck; Pacific Black Duck; Hardhead; Australasian Grebe; Darter; Little Black Cormorant; Little Pied Cormorant;  White‑necked Heron; White‑faced Heron; Dusky Moorhen;  EurasianCoot;  Masked Lapwing;  

2 Birds of Prey:  Black-shouldered Kite; Brown Goshawk; Collared Sparrowhawk; Wedge-tailed Eagle; Little Eagle; Nankeen Kestrel; Brown Falcon

3 Parrots and Relatives:  Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo; Gang‑gang Cockatoo; Galah;  Sulphur‑crested Cockatoo; Crimson Rosella; Eastern Rosella; Red-rumped parrot
 4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds: Stubble Quail; Brown quail; Common Bronzewing; Crested Pigeon; Tawny Frogmouth; Australian Owlet-nightjar; White-throated Needletail; Painted Button-quail; Shining Bronze‑cuckoo; Pallid Cuckoo; Fan‑tailed Cuckoo; Southern Boobook; Eastern Barn Owl;  Laughing Kookaburra;Sacred Kingfisher; 

5 Honeyeaters: Eastern Spinebill; Yellow-faced Honeyeater; White-eared Honeyeater; Noisy Miner; Red Wattlebird;  Brown‑headed Honeyeater; Noisy Friarbird

6 Flycatchers and similar species: Rufous Whistler; Grey Shrike-thrush; Grey Fantail; WillieWagtail; Leaden Flycatcher;  Magpie-lark;  Scarlet Robin; Welcome Swallow; Fairy Martin; Tree Martin

7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species:  Superb Fairy-wren; White-browed Scrubwren; Weebill; White-throated Gerygone; Striated Thornbill; Yellow‑rumped Thornbill; Buff‑rumped Thornbill; Brown Thornbill; Southern Whiteface; Spotted Pardalote; Striated Pardalote; Silvereye; Double‑barred Finch; Red‑browed Finch; Diamond Firetail; House Sparrow; European Goldfinch

8 Other, smaller birds:  White-throated Treecreeper; Varied Sitella; Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike; White‑-winged Triller; Olive‑backed Oriole; Dusky Woodswallow; Australian Reed-warbler; Common Blackbird; Common Starling; Mistletoebird; Australasian  Pipit;

9  Other, larger birds: Satin Bowerbird; Grey Butcherbird; Australian Magpie; Pied Currawong; Grey Currawong; Australian Raven; Little Raven; White-winged Chough