October 2013

It was very pleasant to meet many of the folk who report observations during the Community Wildflower Walk.  Conversations there contributed several observations, including important breeding records, to this report.

The migrants have pretty much all returned .  This includes some less common species including Brown Songlark on the Hoskinstown Plain and Masked and White-browed Woodswallows in a number of sites.  Among the less common migrant species not yet reported are the 2 large cuckoos: Eastern Koel and Channel-billed Cuckoo.  If anyone sees (or more likely hears) either of  them please let me know.

No new species have been added to the list this month but there have been some unusual sightings;

• a juvenile White-bellied Sea-Eagle from Hoskinstown - perhaps a link to the pair seen flying from that direction in July
• a female Satin Flycatcher in the Molonglo Valley (2nd for the project) was almost certainly en route to the damp gullies of Tallanganda;
• a Yellow-billed Spoonbill was seen on Foxlow Lagoon which is only the 4^th sighting in close to 7 years. 
• I have also had a report of an Eastern Barn Owl from Radcliffe, rather than the more common location on the Hoskinstown Plain.

Overall we are up to 106 species for October, which is an excellent outcome and for which praise is due to the many folk who have given me recordings.   We are 3 species above the average for the last 4 years and 10 greater than was achieved in September.  Here's the graph.

Breeding is also happening in a major way: 25 species have been reported breeding, which is the equal highest monthly score in the 7 years of this project.  Our Tawny Frogmouths are now brooding a single chick  which is in wing-stretching mode (its nest mate fell out of the nest and didn’t survive the experience).  A particularly good haul of breeding records was gathered during a visit to a snow gum/brittle gum woodland off Pollack Rd.  Less well received was Sericornis frontalis illegitimalis (the bastard scrubwren) which built an indoor nest in an observers skein of garlic!

This image of a Red Wattlebird is from Hillview Nursery (after the photo was taken a second bird appeared and fed young in the nest).

The blue material comes from a tarp which has stared to unravel due to UV exposure.

Thanks to observers in Pony Place, Wanna Wanna Rd, Captains Flat Rd, Radcliffe, Bowen St, Widgiewa Rd, Molonglo Valley,the Hoskinstown Plain and Hoskinstown.  Keep them coming people!

1  Waterbirds:  Musk Duck; Black Swan;  Australian Shelduck; Australian Wood Duck; Grey Teal; Pacific Black Duck; Hardhead;Australasian Grebe; Little Black Cormorant; Little Pied Cormorant; White‑necked Heron; White‑faced Heron;  Yellow-billed Spoonbill;  EurasianCoot; Black‑fronted Dotterel; Masked Lapwing; Banded Lapwing; 

2 Birds of Prey:  Black-shouldered Kite; White-bellied Sea-eagle; Brown Goshawk; Spotted Harrier; Wedge-tailed Eagle; Little Eagle; Nankeen Kestrel; Peregrine Falcon.

3 Parrots and Relatives: Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo;Gang‑gang Cockatoo; Galah;  Sulphur‑crested Cockatoo; Australian King‑parrot; Crimson Rosella; Eastern Rosella; Red-rumped parrot
 

4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds:Stubble Quail; Brown quail; Common Bronzewing; Crested Pigeon; Tawny Frogmouth; Painted Button-quail; Common Koel; Channel-billed Cuckoo;Horsfield's Bronze‑Cuckoo; Shining Bronze‑cuckoo; Pallid Cuckoo; Fan‑tailed Cuckoo; Brush Cuckoo;  Eastern Barn Owl; Laughing Kookaburra; Sacred Kingfisher; Dollarbird; 

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

6 Flycatchers and similar species: Golden Whistler;Rufous Whistler; Grey Shrike-thrush; Grey Fantail; WillieWagtail; Leaden Flycatcher; Satin Flycatcher; Magpie-lark; Scarlet Robin;  Flame Robin; Rose Robin,  Eastern Yellow Robin;Welcome Swallow; Fairy Martin; Tree Martin

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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; Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike; White‑-winged Triller; Olive‑backed Oriole; Masked Woodswallow; White‑browed Woodswallow; Dusky Woodswallow;Skylark; Golden-headed Cisticola; Rufous Songlark; Brown Songlark; 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

Although they are an introduced species, and in this image is sitting on an evil Pinus radiata, I do find this male Common Blackbird singing his heart out as we start our dog walk in the morning is an uplifting experience.

A stunned silvereye

A few minutes ago we heard a thud of a bird hitting a window.  After a check nothing was seen splatted on the deck so we assumed the victim had not been badly impacted and subsequently flown away.

Then I went out to the deck to collect a cup of coffee and thought to sit and drink it there.  Fortunately I looked down first:

This is clearly a Silvereye, Zosterops lateralis.  From the pale colour of the flans I rate this as Z. l. familiaris the most widespread sub-species.  At some times of the year many of the Silvereyes seen in this area are the chestnut-flanked race Z. l. lateralis which breeds in Tasmania but migrates North for Winter.

Here is a close up of the head showing that the ring around the eye is in fact white, not silver.  It also shows nicely the detail of the feathers.

Later in the day I came across a flock of Silvereyes munching on insects around old Acacia seeds.

Frogmouth hatching

This morning (3 October) I noticed that the male Tawny Frogmouth was very active on the nest.  (Normally it is very still, almost to the point of being comatose!)  As they have returned to the original nest site in the yellow box (Eucalyptus meliodora - not a plastic milk crate) it is simple to keep an eye on what was going on from my computer.  The nest site is marked with a red X.

The images which follow show some of the changes in position of the bird over about 3 hours.  The images were taken from my chair, through a window, at about 35m range.

The first image was taken at 0800.

 0946

 0954

 1005: note the hunched posture.  It was pecking/pulling at something in the nest.

 1025

 1026: the bird spent quite a bit of time looking upwards in this fashion.  As far as I could determine there were no predators in the tree.

10:44  I think this next image comes just after the bird went through a bout of pecking, during which I saw something white in the nest which appeared to raise what looked like a new-born chicks wing!  Woo-hoo!  During that process the adult bird appeared to pick something up in its beak and swallow it: egg membrane perhaps?

10:46 I became very excited with this image, but unfortunately on getting my telescope onto the case, the white blob resolved to a downy feather.

From my view the greatest excitement of this was that I have in the past regarded the restlessness of the parent as indicating hatching going on down there.  This is the first time that I have caught sight of the chick on that day.

I have been able to record the incubation period for the last 4 years: it has been 29, 28, 28 and now 27 days.  Another observer - far more skilled than myself has suggested that the warm spell in September may have sped the process up.   The decibels after dark suggest it has also encouraged productivity in the frog department, so I expect the chicks to develop quickly.

Moving forward to 19 October I finally got a nice view of Dad and chick.

Striated pardalotes -R (still) -Us

As usual for Spring Striated Pardalotes are beginning their raucous nesting activities around houses, sheds and most anywhere else with something resembling a hollow.  I couldn't resist a few snaps of one cavorting on our deck yesterday.

I have no regrets about devoting a few Kb of Google's  storage and your download limit to this beautiful and entertaining species.

Those with expertise in rock climbing may wish to speculate on the physics involved in the last four poses.

Robins of various varieties

This post has been stimulated by hearing the first Rose Robin in our area since we moved here in 2007.

I will start by noting- for those of English background - that these birds are not closely related to the European Robin Erithacus rubecula.  

As described in the excellent book by Ian Fraser and Jeannie Gray, the use of the term 'Robin' arose through the red breast of the Scarlet Robin (presumably the male). 

The female of this species also has a red breast but much less so.

The species is very common in this area being reported in 65 (83%) of the 78 months for which I have records.  My impression is that in the Carwoola area some birds move through the area in an altitudinal migration from and to breeding territories in the ranges.  This is more pronounced in Canberra where the birds are far more common in Winter.  (In the COG GBS Survey this species is the 67th (out of 240) most abundant bird.

The other common 'red' breasted robin in this area is the male Flame Robin.  

Note the more 'orangey' colour and that the colour goes right to base of the bill rather than stopping at the top of the breast.  ('Flames go up' is a mnemonic for this feature.)

Unfortunately the female has no red on the breast.

Even less fortunately it is almost impossible in the field to establish whether a 'brown bird' is a female or an immature male.

The species is less common than the Scarlet Robin being recorded in 46 months (59%).  The reports show a distinct peak in Winter.

This species is regarded as being threatened in New South Wales.  I was astonished to read this as I did so on returning from a visit to the Hoskinstown Plain where a group of 15+ birds flew along a fence line in front of me.  At times in Winter it can also seem that every fence post along the road to Foxlow Bridge has a Flame Robin perched on it.  In the GBS Survey this species is ranked 107.

The Rose Robin which generated this post is also regarded as a red breasted species although I feel this pushes the envelope of responses to the question "What is red?".  Again the male is the colourful bird.

I don't have an image of the female, but again it is a brown bird with a very faint 'hint" of rose on the breast.  Obviously nothing - other than "unusual" - can be said about the distribution of the species in Carwoola.  In the GBS it is ranked just above the Flame Robin at 105.

The final red robin in this area is the exquisite Red-capped Robin.  

The female is again brown, but with a noticeable 'dob' of chestnut on the forehead.  This has been recorded twice in the Carwoola area both times in 2010.  It is also very uncommon in Canberra rating 190th in the GBS.

We now move on to Robins that aren't red.  The first does at least show the black back found in the males of the preceding species.  This is the Hooded Robin.  I have stolen my image - taken by Geoffrey Dabb -  from the COG Photo Gallery.

We have recorded this species 8 (10%) times in the Carwoola area, typically once a year in Winter or Spring.  My personal sightings have come from the Snow-gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora) remnants near the Foxlow Bridge.  In the GBS this is ranked 137th.

The final 'colourful' species is the Eastern Yellow Robin.  

The male and female are similarly coloured.  

The occurrence of this species has been very interesting.  In this chart I have plotted as columns the % of months (as I haven't recorded in all months in 2007 and 2013) in which the species has been recorded.

The line shows the mm of rainfall recorded (or estimated for 2013).   Looking at more detail than needs to be reproduced here, for the first 3 years there were occasional records in Autumn or Spring (I think mainly in Yanununbeyan SCA).  However in 2010 the Spring bird(s) hung around and have been recorded nearly every month since in our garden.  This residency is surprising since they are regarded primarily as birds of the damp gullies in Namadgi as shown in this poor scan of a map from the Canberra Bird Atlas (an exception to this rule is the dense planting in ANBG where the birds can be seen at all times).

My only explanation of this is that a pair have found a clump of dense plantings, including some large Cupressus, to their liking and have set up residence there.

The final bird is amongst the drabbest in colour of all birds and doesn't even feature the word 'Robin' in its name.   This is the Jacky Winter.  The following image is by David Cook.

This has been reported in 2 months, and that is really all I can say for the local area.  For the COG GBS it is ranked 145th.