Tuesday, July 1, 2014

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 2nd 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.


2 Birds of Prey:  Wedge-tailed Eagle; Little Eagle; Nankeen KestrelBrown Falcon.

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 MinerRed Wattlebird; New Holland Honeyeater; Brown‑headed Honeyeater; 

6 Flycatchers and similar speciesGolden Whistler;Grey Shrike-thrush; Grey FantailWillieWagtailL Magpie-lark; Scarlet Robin;Red‑capped RobinFlame Robin; Eastern Yellow Robin; Welcome Swallow

7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species:  Superb Fairy-wrenWhite-browed Scrubwren; ; Striated Thornbill; Yellow‑rumped Thornbill; Buff‑rumped Thornbill; Brown Thornbill; Spotted Pardalote; Striated Pardalote; Silvereye; Double‑barred FinchRed‑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 MagpiePied 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!

1 comment:

  1. wow your graphs are fantastic. I have always wondered what is the best way to record bird species, and have become a bit slack with recording ones at our place, but try to add them to our blog so I can check back there. Fantastic to see the views from around the world - well done.

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