Annual report: 2013 compared to 6 previous years

The following table summarises the number of species reported by month and year. Yellow fill is the highest (or in two cases, equal highest) number of species for a month.  The blue filled cell indicates the month in which observer effort was particularly constrained

Month	Observation year
	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
jan		69	86	89	95	94	125
feb	59	74	71	88	89	96	112
mar	69	72	78	79	88	94	105
apr		65	71	79	75	93	92
may	61	65	82	80	80	81	82
jun	51	69	71	77	65	79	78
jul	54	58	66	77	78	87	64
aug	57	72	74	80	90	97	76
sep	67	79	86	86	101	98	87
oct	67	85	92	97	99	113	107
nov	73	84	106	96	108	108	106
dec	60	84	96	95	99	116	114

Looking at the 154 species which were recorded in the area in 2013 in comparison with  the previous 5 years a first comment is that 7 species were observed in this area for the first time in 2012.  These were

• Whiskered tern; Painted Snipe; Glossy Ibis; Pink-eared duck; Freckled Duck; Rose Robin; Painted Honeyeater

The 4 species marked in bold are relatively uncommon in the COG Area of Interest (COG AOI), the two 'pigments of the imagination' (ie Painted ....) particularly so.  Although the species is close to becoming an anual visitor to Kelly's Swamp in Fyshwick,  was extraordinary to find at least two Painted Snipe in a paddock full of Herefords in the middle of the Hoskinstown Plain.  Similarly while there was an unsuccesful attempt at breeding by Painted Honeyeaters at Urriara to have a sucessfull outcome at Hoskinstown was exceptional.

The other 3 'newbies' are by and large regulars in the COG which for some reason do like the Carwoola environment.

Of the 155 species for which comparison is possible, 19 have been recorded in every month throughout the 7 years (obviously including every month of 2013) These are:

• Australian Wood Duck; Galah; Sulphur-crested cockatoo; Crimson Rosella; Eastern Rosella; Laughing Kookaburra; White-eared Honeyeater; Noisy Miner; Willie wagtail; Magpie-lark; Welcome swallow; Yellow-rumped thornbill; White-throated treecreeper; Common starling; Grey butcherbird; Australian Magpie; Pied Currawong; Australian Raven; Little Raven.

For the 126 species recorded in 2013 which changed the proportion of months in which they were  recorded 98 (83.1%) showed an increase in the number of months in which they were recorded and 20 (16.9%) showed a decrease.  I shall return to an analysis of those numbers below, but a reconciliation tree diagram may be useful:

This is a broadly similar distribution to that compiled in 2012.  We had less additions (7) and more 'dips' (31) in 2013 and both the number of increasing species and decreasing species rose slightly.  Somehow this feels 'right' but I can't at this stage explain why.

The 31 species recorded in the prior 4 years which did not appear in 2012 were from the following broad groups:

Category	Count Of species
1 Waterbirds	5
2 Birds of Prey	2
3 Parrots and Relatives	4
4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds	8
5 Honeyeaters	4
6 Flycatchers and similar species	4
7 Thornbills, Finches and smiilar species	2
8 Other, smaller birds	1

With one exception the species not recorded have only been recorded in this area in one or two years in the past.  Thus it is no surprise that they were not recorded in 2013.  

The exception is the Black-winged Stilt.  This was found in large numbers in the Hoskinstown Plain Swamp in late 2012 and has been seen a few times on Foxlow Lagoon in the past.  The former water body has dried up, while the latter still has too much water to provide good habitat for Stilts.

A small surprise is the non-recording of Little Corella.  They are now very common in sme parts of Canberra and one would have thought the dry conditions this year would have suited this bird of the western Plains.  However the expected spread hasn't occurred.

It is pleasing to note the inclusion of Spotted Dove in the list of "not reported species".  As the species is being reported increasingly frequently in the urban area of Canberra I fear it is only a matter of time before we get a serious invasion.  If anyone spots one of these pests, please let me know asap.

Increasing species

There are 26 species recorded every month in 2012 which have been omitted at least once in earlier months.   With a 7 year series of observations I regard the 11 species only omitted once or twice as observer error (in most cases the missing period is early in the life of the project when I was the only observer!).   Most of the 15 other species in this group of 30 are cases where the increased number of observers in recent years has added to the completeness of reports.  This is particularly the case for Tawny Frogmouth, now reported every month from Whiskers Creek Rd since I am specifically searching on a daily basis for a resident family, while in the past observing these birds was serendipity.

At the other end of the spectrum 8 species were recorded in a single month in 2011 and  tend to appear in the list of 'increasers' as a statistical quirk since 1/12 > 1/46!  They are clearly unusual in the area and will not be considered further.

A group seen in  at least 6 months in 2011 for which an increase of at least 10% has been noted amounts to 47 species.  I can't offer a comment about all of these so what follows is 'picking the eyes out' of the list.

• A number of birds which include water in their habitat preferences are also included. As for last year a Hoskinstown Plain swamp has boosted the reporting of an number of species.   including Hoary-headed Grebe; Hardhead, White-necked Heron; and Black Swan.  Musk Duck have also been observable from the road overlooking Foxlow Lagoon
• Eastern Yellow Robin is usually thought of as a bird of the damp gullies.  The wet conditions of late 2010 and early 2011 led to a pair taking up residence at Whiskers Creek Rd.  They disappeared in early 2012 but reappeared in Spring of that year. Towards the end of 2013 they have bred in our garden.
• The group of birds which are adapted to grasslands have all been reported more frequently as a result of extra observer effort on the Plain.  This includes:
• Golden-headed Cisticola, Brown Songlark, Skylark; Australasian Pipit; 
• and Red-rumped Parrot.
• In the much same area large flocks of Australian Shelducks has been seen grazing on pasture or lucerne, and a Spotted Harrier has often been observed.

Decreasing Species

Only 5 species show a decline of >10%.  The largest drop was White-naped Honeyeater, for which I have no explanation.

The second most significant decrease is of Rock Dove: either

• someone has had pigeon pie; 
• the local Peregrine Falcons and Brown Goshawks have been more active. or
• someone has recently started shutting the door on their loft!

Fan-tailed Cuckoo is a migrant and an increase of 1 month of observations in 2012 would have moved this out of this group.

As indicated elsewhere in this series I consider Collared Sparrowhawk to have ben affected by reduced observer effort.  The final member of the group of 5 is Dusky Moorhen, which has always been scarce around the area.

Links to other sections.

Overall picture

Breeding Birds

2013 cf 2012