June 2014

Lets start with a pretty bird: a Nankeen Kestrel perched in a hawthorn beside Captains Flat Rd.

Winter arrived in the last week of June.  Normally it has been here for a few weeks by then.  We managed to find more (3 more species) birds than average for recent years and only 2 less species than we dug up in May 2014.  Her is the usual graph:

Less common birds seen this month have included Australian Darter (seen at the Molonglo Crossing on Briars-Sharrow Rd, the 2^nd record in the area) while the Restless Flycatcher continued to be seen on Wanna Wanna Rd, and the Red-capped Robin continues its exquisite presence on Hoskinstown Plain.

In the Canberra area there have been sightings of Australasian and Little Bitterns, both unusual (especially the former species) so if you have reeds around your dam keep an eye out for these species!

There has been an outbreak of 'odd' bird calls leading to me recently attending a dawn silence on Wanna Wanna Rd and hearing about unusual calls from near Rossi.  It is odd that one can get an app which identifies just about any piece of popular music bu ornithologists haven't been able to do the same for bird calls.  If anyone hears a strange call, please try to record it, if your phone is up to the task (and the bird cooperates by continuing to call once you have produced the technilogy).and send the recording to me.  I'll do my best to ID it.

If you don't take an audio recording I will of course be happy to receive comments about interesting sightings by email to martinflab@gmail.com.  For June I thank observers in Widgiewa Rd, Hoskinstown Village and the Plain, Pony Place, Captains Flat rd and Wanna Wanna Rd.

1  Waterbirds:   Black Swan;  Australian Shelduck; Australian Wood Duck;Australian Shoveler; Grey Teal;  Pacific Black Duck; Hardhead; Australasian Grebe;  Darter;  Little Pied Cormorant; White‑necked Heron;  White‑faced Heron;  Straw-necked Ibis; Purple Swamphen; EurasianCoot; Masked Lapwing.

2 Birds of Prey:  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: Common Bronzewing; Crested Pigeon; Tawny Frogmouth; Australian Owlet-nightjar;  Southern Boobook; Laughing Kookaburra; 

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

6 Flycatchers and similar species: Golden Whistler;Grey Shrike-thrush; Grey Fantail; WillieWagtail; L Magpie-lark; Scarlet Robin;Red‑capped Robin, Flame Robin; Eastern Yellow Robin; Welcome Swallow

7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species:  Superb Fairy-wren; White-browed Scrubwren; ; Striated Thornbill; Yellow‑rumped Thornbill; Buff‑rumped Thornbill; Brown Thornbill; 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; Skylark; 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

As a small footnote, I checked up the stats area of Blogger and found that over the last month these are the main page hits by country:

So we can be optimistic that we are adding to world wide knowledge!