A note on Willie Wagtails

After I circulated the November report I received an interesting question by email:

We are experiencing a huge number of Willy Wagtails, which is just delightful. I am wondering of you might know why there seems to be so many this year? I have never had so many pairs before, and haven’t done anything different in the garden to attract them either by design or accident.

This was a salutary lesson to me, not to focus exclusively on the rarities but to also consider the common birds!  My answer to the question (is to suggest that it has been a good breeding season for the species with some sites available near the garden in question. It has been very good that I have been stimulated to gather together what I can about Willie Wagtails and to present it here.

They are indeed common birds.  In the first Atlas of Australian Birds they were the second most frequently recorded bird (after Australian Magpie),  Apart from Tasmania (hardly recorded at all) and the big sandy bit in the middle of the country, they were commonly reported everywhere.

COG Garden Bird Survey

In the Canberra Ornithologists Group Garden Bird Survey (GBS) in 2012-13 they were quite common, ranked 47th out of 170 species in terms of abundance.  This has showed somewhat of a boom and bust pattern when plotting the average number of birds seen per active survey week (denoted A).

It is tempting to say the upturn at the end is recovery from drought, but that doesn't explain the big drop and recovery in the first third of the period. 

Willie Wagtails were rated 27th, in 2012-13 in terms of frequency of sighting (a measure more closely related to the Atlas statistic).  In broad terms the pattern over the years is a little more stable than for Abundance, but of a similar overall shape.

This difference reflects them usually appearing in ones and two's unlike other birds (such as Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and Starlings which form huge flocks).  Looking over the first 30 years of the GBS - because I have the basic data for that period - 75% of records are of a single bird and a further 20% are of two birds.  The average Group size in the GBS displays a broadly parabolic shape over the 30 year period(although the R² is not significant).

Again I can't explain the shape of the graph, especially the steep rise from 2002 -05.  Possibly it is something to do with the mix of areas in the Survey - I shall investigate this in more detail later.

The final element of the GBS of potential interest is the timing of breeding.  In the following chart I have omitted the weeks around Christmas as there are few reports and this distorts the picture.

This shows that late November - early December is peak time for dependent young in the GBS area.   Carwoola is likely to be a little later than that, but I'd hazard a guess that one or two families have bred near the garden of interest and all the chicks and their parents are currently doing a job on the insects.

By coincidence when we most recently visited Mallacoota we found a family group of Willies, 2 adults and 3 fledglings.  Note the buff colouring on these two chicks/

Carwoola birds

Someone, somewhere in the Gazette catchment area has reported Willie Wagtail every one of the 93 months since I have been recording birds in the area.  So it is common here as well.  As we don't record abundance, but merely presence I can't show change in numbers.

I have 23 breeding records for the species in the area which show a nice pattern through the year.  I haven't quite worked out how to show this a pattern so text will have to do.
Nest building:         Sept - Oct
Nest with young     Oct - Dec
Dependent young    Dec - Jan

So having young birds around at present is very consistent with my records.

November 2014

This month has been pretty much business as usual for the time of year.  A couple of relatively unusual, in recent times, birds – Eastern Barn Owl and Black-shouldered Kite - have been reported from the Plain.  An Australian Koel has visited Whiskers Creek Rd in the past few days, which is becoming normal for this time of year.

In all 102 species have been recorded this month. That is the same as October 2014 and 4 less than November 2013.

The migration period is pretty much over with most species recorded on time.  A surprise has been the total absence of records of Horsfields Bronze-Cuckoo this year.  They have been heard in Canberra but not, thus far, out here.  Two other cuckoos (Bush and Channe-billed are also missing, but they are much less common.  The less usual Woodswallows (White-browed and Masked have also been absent this year, after a major arrival last year.

13 species have been recorded breeding as indicated by red in the listing below.  'Our' Tawny Frogmouths are now well out and about with their parents.  I have put a couple of comparative roost-snaps in this post.  The camouflaged chick in the final image lost the plot completely 1 minute later:

But they are cute!

For November I thank observers in Forbes Creek, Widgiewa Rd, Knox Close, the Plain, Pony Place, Captains Flat Rd and Wanna Wanna Rd.for their efforts in reporting.   I'm always happy to hear of other sightings of interest to you, in the current season especially of breeding actvities or first sightings of migrants, by email to martinflab@gmail.com. 

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

2 Birds of Prey:  Black-shouldered Kite; Wedge-tailed Eagle; Nankeen Kestrel; Brown Falcon; Australian Hobby; 

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

4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds:  Stubble Quail;  Common Bronzewing; Crested Pigeon; Tawny Frogmouth;  Common Koel; Shining Bronze‑cuckoo; Pallid Cuckoo; Fan‑tailed 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; Noisy Friarbird.

6 Flycatchers and similar species: Rufous Whistler; Grey Shrike-thrush; Grey Fantail; Willie Wagtail; Leaden Flycatcher; Magpie-lark;  Scarlet Robin; Red‑capped Robin, Flame Robin; Eastern Yellow 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; Spotted Pardalote; Striated Pardalote; Silvereye; Double‑barred Finch; Diamond Firetail; House Sparrow; European Goldfinch

8 Other, smaller birds:  White-throated Treecreeper; Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike; White‑-winged Triller; Olive‑backed Oriole;  Dusky Woodswallow;  Skylark; Golden-headed Cisticola; Australian Reed-warbler; 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

Black Kites

To welcome Black Kite to the list of Carwoola birds I thought I'd put up a few details.  I'll begin with some images I took in Bourke in July.

This is what I consider to be the typical view of a Black Kite, showing the forked tail.  No other raptor in Australia has this feature.

 This one is perched .  Did I mention the forked tail?

The flock in Bourke was at least 40 birds.  25 of them were soaring over the centre of town while others, including this lot, were perched over the Darling beside Bourke wharf.

To illustrate the range of the species here are three maps derived from eBird.  The darker the mauve colour the higher the reporting rate.

'X' marks the location of the Plain: and shows this observation was pretty close to the SE limit of the range.

October 2014

The big news this month is the addition of Black Kite to the overall list for the area.  We don't have a photo of this bird, but I have compiled an ad-hoc post covering the species.

In terms of overall count we did pretty well with 102 species recorded for the month.  This is 12 up on September 2014; 5 down on October 2013 and 1.6 below the average for the last 5 years.

The migrants are nearly all here now, with the late ones seeming to be missing or late in the Canberra area generally.

Breeding has been booming this month with 22 species observed undertaking some part of the procreative process.  The most exciting has been a Little Eagle nest found on a property on the Hoskinstown Plain.  After an initial visit in which an adult bird was seen in the nest the weather got a tad unpleasant and they have hopefully been well hunkered down.  (As the nest is several metres up a Brittle Gum it isn't easy to see into.)  Breeding birds are marked in red below.

This seems a good place to insert a photo of Welcome Swallows from the Plain.  Note the yellow on the chick's bill: this stimulates the adult to insert some second hand insects therein.

For September I thank observers in Widgiewa Rd, Knox Close, the Plain, Pony Place, Captains Flat Rd and Wanna Wanna Rd.for their efforts in reporting.   I'm always happy to hear of other sightings of interest to you, in the current season especially of breeding actvities or first sightings of migrants, by email to martinflab@gmail.com.  

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; Great Cormorant;   White‑necked Heron; White‑faced Heron; Straw-necked Ibis;  Eurasian Coot; Masked Lapwing;

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

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

4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds:  Stubble Quail; Common Bronzewing; Crested Pigeon;  Tawny Frogmouth; Shining Bronze‑cuckoo; Pallid Cuckoo; Fan‑tailed Cuckoo;  Southern Boobook; Laughing Kookaburra; Sacred Kingfisher; 

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

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

7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species:  Superb Fairy-wren; White-browed Scrubwren; Speckled warbler; 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;Dusky Woodswallow;  Skylark; Golden-headed Cisticola; Australian Reed-warbler; 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

Birds 2 Reptiles 0

Warning:  as you may gather from the title, some reptiles were (severely) harmed in the events depicted herein.  If you don't like seeing dead things, I suggest exit now.

I posted on my main blog about an incident in which a Kookaburra dined on some form of skink.  Here is the main image from that event.

In the same walk there was an altercation between a fair sized Lace Monitor (aka Goanna) representing reptiledom, and a pair of Pied Currawongs and a Superb Lyrebird holding the flag of avifauna.  As everyone got away from that with no mortal injuries I don't count that in the scoring.

Returning home I saw a Pied Currawong fly into their nest tree carrying a decidely used-looking Jacky Lizard. That doesn't enter the scoring as I didn't get an image.

However on the evening of 25 October a Currawong again flew into the nest tree with "something" in its beak.  It parked the prey on a small branch and started to carve it up.

 In this second image the serrated shape of the tail suggests that this is also a Jacky Lizard.

The bird seemed happy to leave the corpse in situ for later dining.

September 2014

As we are now fully into the breeding season I thought I'd start with a couple of nest photographs.

The first is the Terror of the Lawn (aka Pied Curawong) in a Yellow Box (Eucalyptus meliodora) in our garden.

 Further up our block White-winged Choughs have refurbished their nest in a Brittle Gum (E. mannifera)

The least common bird reported this month was a pair of Pink-eared Duck on a small dam near Foxlow Bridge,  A White-bellied Sea-Eagle seen overflying Widgiewa Rd.and a flock of 30 Little Corellas at Whiskers Creek Rd were also very unusual!  Other birds which have been uncommon in the past but have recently become regular, were Red-capped Robin and Crescent Honeyeater.  The most surprising (to the observer) bird was a Superb Lyrebird which visited a garden on Wanna Wanna Rd.

Flocks of Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos are regular visitors to pine shelter belts around the area, but a flock of 76 reported from Wanna Wanna Rd was exceptionally large.

Overall, we recorded 90 species in the month, This is an increase of 10 species on August 2014 and 3 more than reported in September 2013.

Migrants continue to return.

So far this season we have had 9 species return on schedule, 3 arrive a month early and 3 that are still 'no-shows'.  IMHO that means that things are pretty much on track.

With respect to breeding activity 16 species have been reported undertaking activities across the range of events from display to dependent young.  They are marked in red in the detailed list below.

For September I thank observers in Widgiewa Rd, Knox Close, the Plain, Pony Place, Captains Flat Rd and Wanna Wanna Rd.for their efforts in reporting.   I'm always happy to hear of other sightings of interest to you, in the current season especially of breeding actvities or first sightings of migrants, by email to martinflab@gmail.com.  

1  Waterbirds:  Musk Duck; Black Swan;  Australian Shelduck; Australian Wood Duck;Pink-eared Duck; Australian Shoveler; Grey Teal; Pacific Black Duck; Hardhead;Australasian Grebe; Little Pied Cormorant;  White‑necked Heron;  White‑faced Heron; EurasianCoot;; Masked Lapwing; 

2 Birds of Prey:  White-bellied Sea-eagle; Brown Goshawk; Wedge-tailed Eagle; Little Eagle; Nankeen Kestrel; Brown Falcon;.

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

4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds: Common Bronzewing; Crested Pigeon; Tawny Frogmouth;  Shining Bronze‑cuckoo; Pallid Cuckoo; Fan‑tailed Cuckoo; Laughing Kookaburra; Superb lyrebird

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

6 Flycatchers and similar species: Rufous Whistler; Grey Shrike-thrush; Grey Fantail; WillieWagtail;Magpie-lark; Jacky Winter; Scarlet Robin; Red‑capped Robin, Flame Robin; Eastern Yellow 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; Spotted Pardalote; Striated Pardalote; Silvereye; Double‑barred Finch; Red‑browed Finch;  House Sparrow; European Goldfinch

8 Other, smaller birds:  White-throated Treecreeper; Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike; Olive‑backed Oriole;  Dusky Woodswallow; Skylark; Brown Songlark; Common Blackbird; Common Starling; Australasian  Pipit;

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