Sacred Kingfisher

Whiskers Creek has been relatively well endowed with Sacred Kingfishers this year.  One posed nicely in view from our sun-room one evening.  Here are a range of images of it in various poses.

Annual Report 2014: overall picture

This is an overall report on birds observed in Carwoola in 2014.  I use the term Carwoola to cover the catchment area of the Stoney Creek Gazette,  As well as Carwoola itself (both the Queanbeyan and Palerang elements) it includes a bunch of localities (including Primrose Valley and, importantly, Hoskinstown) to the SE of Queanbeyan.  It is illustrated in this sketch map:

The database I maintain is pretty well restricted to that area to provide some consistency.  However if very interesting birds are reported in a some what wider area:

• where people might like to go and view the birds (eg sightings of Banded Lapwings just outside  Bungendore and Plumed Whistling Ducks on dams close thereto); or
• the sighting suggests we should keep an eye in case they also turn up here

I will also include them on this blog but not the database nor - other than mentions like this - in my reports.

While I largely followed the model used for the Annual Report for 2011 to 2013, in particular the decision to adopt a multi-post approach, what follows has to some extent evolved during writing.  .  (For those that think the result is still too long, the Canberra Ornithologists Group Annual Bird Report is 80 A5 pages - and 2Mb to download!)

This report will be a bit heavy on numbers but I will attempt to explain them in terms of their meaning rather than simply a barrage of percentages!  For those who wish to skip the statistics I have tried to highlight the main points in bold blue.

A first point to note is that there has been an amount of churn in the panel of observers during the year as folk were away for periods during the year (in July several of the regular observers were away for most of the month for various reasons).  However, others have stepped up and are now reporting regularly.  Thanks folks!

By the end of 2013 we had recorded, over a 8 year period, 185 species in the catchment area of the Gazette.   2 species (Red-kneed Dotterel and Black Kite) were observed for the first time in 2014 and by the end of that year year 19 have been recorded in every month since this project started in 2007.  That number has remained constant for 3 years and can probably be taken as the minimum number of resident species..

Over the 8 year period 90 species have been recorded undertaking breeding activity.  2 species were recorded breeding for the first time in 2013.

The number of species observed for the first time or recorded breeding for the first time are shown for each year below.

It is interesting that over a 30 year period the Garden Bird Survey, run by the Canberra Ornithologists Group has recorded 239 species with 108 of these (46.2%) recorded as breeding.  Given the much shorter time span and far fewer observers I think we have, to quote Young Mister Grace, "...all done very well."

In 2014, 150 species were recorded in the study area.  This is 81% of those ever recorded in the area.  This graph shows the number of species recorded per year.

The increase between 2011 and 2013, despite the decline in observer effort in 2013  is in part due to:

• the astonishing variety of birds seen in and near an ephemeral swamp in the Hoskinstown Plain over the Summer of 2012-13.  (That Swamp is now waterless and the expected decline in diversity has happened as a result.);
• dry conditions in the inland beginning to send birds from that area to our part of the country in late 2013.  

In 2014 27% of the species recorded were observed undertaking some form of breeding activity.  This value is lower than in other recent years in this area (data is somewhat deficient for the first two years). 

I suspect that the recent decline is mainly due to observers who used to report many breeding events having moved on. 

Links to other sections of this report

Breeding
Comparison with 2013
Comaprison with earlier years

Annual Report 2014 Breeding

Breeding birds

The preamble to this post is copied from last year.  That makes this report more self-contained, which I see as a Good Thing.  

It can be argued that recording breeding events is the most important aspect of bird observation since if the birds do not breed they will soon be extinct!  It is however a more difficult task than simple observation as: 

• many birds go to some lengths to conceal their nests; and
• it is necessary to be very cautious with most species to avoid frightening the birds away from the nest.

To ameliorate these problems a wide definition of breeding is employed with the core events of "nest with eggs" and "nest with young" supported by a range of other, indirect, measures of breeding activity ranging from breeding display to dependent young. (I sometimes feel that a new code is needed for "indolent young" when the Magpie chicks are clearly able to fend for themselves but would rather bludge off their parents.) To be rated as dependent young the fledglings 

• must be out of the nest and generally be seen being fed by the parents or, 
• in the case of waterbirds, be incapable of flight.   

I have made an exception for the Tawny Frogmouths where the fledglings are fed at night and it isn't possible to determine how this is achieved.  In that case the young are considered dependent until they move away from the parents some 10 weeks or so after leaving the nest.

In other countries such as Canada studies are undertaken which assume all birds seen or heard  during the breeding season are in fact breeding.  The International eBird project, run out of the prestigious Ornithology Programme at Cornell U in New York takes a very broad view with codes such as “Singing male” (Possible breeding) and “Agitated Behaviour” (Probable breeding).  Of course, with this wide set it is possible to choose I shall stick with the set of codes used by COG.

The percentage of records of each type over the 8 years of the project (separately shown for the last complete 'season (2013-14) and the rest of the records is in the chart below.

There does not look to be any significant difference with "dependent young" dominating in both categories.  Note that some of the codes (eg DY) may not mean that the nest site was in the area.

Since this project commenced 654 breeding records have been noted. The decision to use the COG Breeding codes was made in late 2009 and thus approximately 1/5th of the records are not coded to type of activity.  Such is life, and the uncoded records are excluded from the above!  

A difficulty with analysis of breeding records is that the peak breeding period in the Southern Hemisphere is split by the change of calendar year.  This is illustrated in the following chart.

To overcome this I commenced, in mid 2009, recording the 'financial year" in which observations were made and it is possible from that point on to re-categorise observations to a "breeding year" (running from July to June).  

It might be noted that 81% of the records after December are coded as dependent young (the percentage didn't change after adding another year of records).  The incidence of type of event x month is illustrated by this chart in which the redder fill indicates a greater number of records) .

Following from this, the next section mostly covers 4 breeding seasons ending on 30 June 2014. The 2014-15 season will, inshallah, be reported on next year, but at this stage appears similar to history.

Season	# records
2010-11	124
2011-12	137
2012-13	105
2013-14	118

It is difficult to assign reasons for the differences shown in this table - I might try to do a separate post on this later, when feeling particularly masochistic.

Taking the number of species seen in each season the following result is obtained.  My impression is that the number of breeding species is a little more stable that the number of breeding records.  

Season	# species
2010-11	51
2011-12	54
2012-13	49
2013-14	47

In summary the following is found:

Bred in both seasons:    27 species
Bred in 2012-13 only    22 species 
Bred in 2013-14 only    20 species     

I have attempted to identify any factors common (looking at things like broad groups of birds; rarity, migrant status) between the birds in the three groups and failed to do so.  I think this resolves to an observation that breeding records are damn difficult to get.  

The number of reports received over the 8 calendar years by species is summarised in the following table.

# reports	# species
1	35
2-4	33
5-10	20
11-19	13
20+	7

As expected a large proportion of species have only been reported undertaking breeding activity a few times.  The seven species with 20 or more breeding records are:

• Australian Magpie (50 reports): the swooping of defending adults and the whingeing of the dependent young are hard to ignore, however much one tries.  That being said no-one reported breeding behaviour by  Magpie in 2013-14 - I didn't even ge swooped riding my bike!  The situation has returned to normal for 2014-15!
• Tawny Frogmouth (28 reports): Once noticed the nest and parents with dependent young are easy to relocate.  Also the breeding season is 5 months long from the start of nesting to kicking the young out.
• Pied Currawong (28 reports): see Australian Magpie.  There is no way I can miss the <expletives deleted, with regret> pair that nest above our lawn and swoop me every time I walk across it!
•  Willie Wagtail (26 reports): The records for this species cover a wide range of types of "nest-centred" events, possibly reflecting the energetic distraction displays, having the unintended outcome of leading keen observers to the nest (rather than away from it).
• Striated Pardalote (24 reports): a serial offender at building a nest in any apparent hole in a building or tree.  Also very vocal when doing so!  This species re-entered the top list after dropping out in 2012-13
• Welcome Swallow (22 reports):  Similar to the previous species but prefers a more open site such as in the rafters of a shed.  
• Yellow-rumped Thornbill (20 reports): Very common species and feeding young often happens out in the open.

The score for Australasian Grebe continues to be affected by our top dam being deserted this year, but again the nests were far less obvious around the district.  Is this an impact of the dry period after last Summer?

Links to other sections of this report

Overall picture
Comparison with 2013
Comaprison with earlier years

Annual Report 2014: 2014 compared with 2013

I have indicated in the overview that the number of observers was reduced in  2014.  Despite that I think some nuggets of information can be picked out by comparing the two years.

Of the  185 species recorded in this project 163 species (88.1% - a trivial decrease on the 89.6% given by a similar analysis last year) were reported in one or both of the years covered by this report.  Of these 163 species:

• ·         13 were reported in 2013 but not in 2014;
• ·         10 were reported in 2013 but not in 2012 (of which 7 were reported for the first time in 2012); and 
• ·         140 species were reported in both years.

Looking at the entire 163 species there is a very strong correlation (correlation coefficient =  0.91) between the number of months each species was reported in the two years.  Thus it can be concluded that the two data sets are reasonably consistent.

Of the 13 species recorded in 2013 but not 2014, 8 were sighted in a single month 1 was seen in 2 months; 3 in 3 months and 1 (Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo) in 5 months.   The absence of this Cuckoo was most intriguing as other Cuckoo species have been very evident.

For those seen in 2014 but not reported in 2013:

·         2 species (both additions to the area list) were seen in a single month

·         2 species (no additions) were seen in 2 months in 2014;

·         4 species (no additions) were seen in 3 months in 2014;

·         1species seen in 4 months;  and 

·         1 species seen in 9 months.

The ‘4 month species’ is Little Corella.  Before this year they had been unusual in the area but have been recorded most months In the latter half of the year.  They may be building up here, as they have done in urban Canberra.

The 9 month species is Red-capped Robin.  This is generally a dry country species.  After appearing a couple of times in 2013 a male bird took up long term residence on the Plain ni 2014.  Another bird was present for some time on Wanna Wanna rd. 

 35 species were reported every month in both years: a similar comparison last year showed 38 species – effectively the same outcome. .

The following table shows the aggregate number of months in which members of the broad groups of species were seen in the two years.

Category	2013	2014
1 Waterbirds	208	196
2 Birds of Prey	85	59
3 Parrots and Relatives	90	92
4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds	130	98
5 Honeyeaters	91	95
6 Flycatchers and similar species	132	136
7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species	194	185
8 Other, smaller birds	132	120
9 Other, larger birds	93	89

The similarity of results between the two years is readily apparent except for reductions in numbers of reports for  Birds of Prey,  Kingfishers etc, and (to a lesser extent) Thornbills Finches and similar species..

With respect to Birds of Prey (ie diurnal raptors) the differences are +/- one month for most species, but with significant differences for Swamp Harrier, Spotted Harrier, Peregrine Falcon and Black-shouldered kite.   While this may reflect the unavailability of some observers, I personally used to see the Spotted Harrier and Kite on the Plain on a regular basis so believe that the birds are now elsewhere for much of the time.  On the bright side, this probably means there are few mice around!

For the Kingfishers and other non-Songbirds group the species showing particular declines are Eastern Barn Owl (reduced number of reports from folk who drive across the Plain after dark and note also comments above about mouse numbers); Australian Owlet-nightjar and Brown Quail (both as a result of  less reports from Hoskinstown)

Many members of the  Thornbills Finches and similar species” group show a drop from 12 species to 1 reflecting several observers being absent for most/all of July..  Considering the observer changes the records showing that 15 of 20 species in the group were reported in 11 or 12 months of both years is remarkably consistent.  The major changers are both relatively uncommon species:

• Western Gerygone from 4 to 1; and 
• Southern Whiteface from 6 to 2 following a drop from 9 to 6 the previous year.  This species looks to be in trouble in this area..

No group increased the number of reports by as much as 5%: the increasing species are covered above.

Links to other sections of this report

Overall picture
Breeding
Comaprison with earlier years

Annual report: 2014 compared with previous 7 years

A starting point is the number of species reported in each month.

In the chart above the year in which the highest number of species was observed for each month is highlighted in yellow.  Most of these months occur between September 2011 and May 2013 when observer activity was at peak levels and abundant rain fell, leading to an explosion of water birds on the Hoskinstown Plain.

While we have lost some observers since then - the two red months are particularly light on - the column showing 2014 as a % of the average for the period as a whole shows that we are still going rather well.  Thank you to all observers who have contributed observations.

As reported in the overview we added 2 species to the list in 2014:

• Black Kite is uncommon but regular in the Canberra area; and
• Red-kneed Dotterel is less common than Black-fronted Dotterel in the area generally but was probably overdue to be observed in the area.

Of the 150 species for which comparison is possible, 19 have been recorded in every month throughout the 7 years (obviously including every month of 2014) 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.

A simple way of summarising the difference in reporting rate between 2-14 and earlier years is by a tree diagram.

In comparison to the situation in the last Annual report the are more 'decreasers'.  To some extent that is an outcome of effort, where missing an expected month (eg July) would reduce the rate for 2014 by 9%.  The number shown as 'same' is those with exactly the same rate.  Extending this to 'effectively the same" - which I define arbitrarily as with 2% either way - would move 10 decreasers and 16 increasers into the category "Same in 2014".

The next table shows the number of increasers and decreasers by category of bird.  (I should point out that these categories are rather arbitrary, but just provide a few groupings that cover birds of broadly similar behaviours and/or habitats.)

Many of the changes have been hinted at in earlier sections. 

My impression is that the high number of increasers in waterbirds reflects the impact of drought in depressing the results for 2007-09.  While early 2014 was pretty dry there was still water in most dams.  Also, I at least was more aware which dams were likely to be productive (for example Musk Duck and Black Swan are nearly always observable when looking down on Foxlow Lagoon (but nowhere else).

Other smaller birds include a range of migrants and grassland birds which have been reported more recently due to other observers joining in.  My view is that the early years were a serious understatement of the diversity of birds in this area and we are now getting a good reflection of the situation.  

The major area of decrease is obviously the Kingfishers and other non-songbirds.  This is a diverse group of birds and  can't really pick out any common factor aother than most of them being rather unusual birds anyway!  As with last year Rock Dove has taken a particularly large tumble so i repat the possibilities seen then:

•  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!

Links to other sections of this report

Overall picture
Breeding
Comparison with 2013

Nankeen Night Heron

This post is a summary of observations of Nankeen Night Heron in the Stoney Creek Gazette circulation area (hereafter Carwoola) and the rest of the COG Area of Interest (COGAOI).

Here is an image of the species, taken from a lounge-room window in Pony Place!

Carwoola records

I have not retained details of exactly who reported this species or where the birds were seen, so the next map is from my memory.

The group of 3 yellow pins are in the Whiskers Creek area and the red one is the Molonglo River Park, where the bird has been seen twice in the last two weeks.

.The bird was not exactly posing for a selfie, but with this species you get what you can.  Peering closely the white belly can be seen as well as the rufous back.

Over the 8 years we have been here the species has been recorded 10 times (counting my observation this morning.  the records were in 2007 (observed in 1 month); 2009 (1) 2011 (1) 2012 (1) 2013 (4) 2014 (1) and 2015 (1 so far).  Of the older observations they were all in November or December, except for 2013 when they were spread through the year.  

COGAOI

The charts etc below have been taken from the excellent COG Bird Info pages.  Some of the charts come from the pages accessed by hitting the "more detail button - this delivers 12 pages rather than 2 so is ~2Mb and thus might be avoided if on a tight data budget.  COG ask that this quality statement accompany any use of the data:

These data were collected by amateur bird watchers using various survey methods. Note that on some occasions more than one person may have recorded bird sightings on the same day.

In most years the species is rather hard to find   This is reflected in the chart on reporting rate (click the image to get a larger version):

The most outstanding aspect of this is the very pronounced upkick in 2012/13, which nicely matches our experience.

In terms of seasonality there are very few reports in Autumn or Winter.  The Spring/Summer situation is covered by this image.

The bigger the dot, the higher the reporting rate.  The willow enriched banks of the Molonglo seem to be a popular sighting habitat - just like our experience.

Received wisdom used to be that the birds observed in the COG AOI were generally immature birds dispersing from breeding sites elsewhere.  The next image (taken from the second Atlas of Australian Birds shows the broad location of breeding records. 

The nearest sites to Canberra/Carwoola would appear to be on the Murray - presumably the lakes and swamps around Kerang.  The small circle chart suggests that the most likely time of year is about now, especially assuming that our extra altitude would cause a delay in the season.

A visit to Molonglo River Park

I was recently advised that a Nankeen Night-Heron had been seen in the Molonglo River Park area and was possibly nesting there.

This next image is of a billabong on the Molonglo rather than the lagoon where the bird was seen but gives an indication of the habitat at the lagoon also.

I managed to find the bird, relatively easily once in the correct position.

As far as I could determine the bird was merely sheltering from the ~30^oC heat, proving that a Night-heron is smarter than a birder.  At one stage I thought there may have been a second bird further into the willows but then concluded it was merely some dead leaves impersonating a Night-heron.  So I could find no evidence of breeding.

I do intend to go back to the area when it is a trifle cooler to check up on the situation.  Been there done that: I think breeding might be back on the agenda.

Near the start of the track down there was a good crop of Themeda triandra (Kangaroo grass).

 There was also some African Lovegrass and a bit of Serrated Tussock here and there.  Between the Lagoon and the River the dominant grass was Poa lab. tussocks.  I was wearing my wellies in case there were grumpy reptiles in the areas: if said descendants of dinosaurs were on top of these  tussocks they would have more likely to get my navel than my shins!

A nice flower of an Asteraceae..

... and its equally attractive seedhead.  (Its probably a weed but it does look nice.)

 Definitely a weed is verbascum.

 There was a fair bit of evidence of wombats in the nice diggable soil.

 A Long-necked Tortoise was on a log in the lagoon.

Overall this seemed like quite an interesting area.  It is public land but the Palerang Council seems to have been having thoughts about selling it off,  As about 3/4 of the block seems liable to flooding (and the remaining component fairly slopey) I suspect they'd get little money for it.  However the existence of the lagoon and the billabong should make it rather good wildlife habitat if something could be done to get rid of the weeds.

December 2014

This report will cover the month of December 2014.  I will compile the usual annual report over the month of January - this will be expedited if we get a decent rainy day (or more likely, if it is too stinking hot to go outside).

The least common bird seen in the month was a tie between:

• Nankeen Night Heron seen at Molonglo River Park

The image was taken a few days later: I'm pretty sure the bird is just roosting in the shade (it was ~30C at the time) rather than nesting.  I have put a report of my visit to the area in a separate post and a second ad-hoc jobbie covering what I have been able to glean about Night Herons in this area.

• Banded Lapwing seen beside a driveway on Wanna Wanna Rd.  These have rarely been sighted in the area other than the irruption onto the Plain in 2012/13

Another sighting, relatively unusual in recent years, has been the appearance of a flock of up to 150 Straw-necked Ibis grazing on the Hoskinstown plain.  Presumably they are finding grasshoppers, although this was not apparent to the observer when the birds first appeared.

The total number of species observed has remained pretty much constant over the past three months, although the 103 species in December was 10 less than for the same month in 2013.

10 species have been reported undertaking some form of breeding activity in the month and are indicated in red in the list below.  The Tawny Frogmouths at Whiskers Creek have completed their cycle, with the parents being observed without chicks just after Christmas.

A family of Willie Wagtails which caused angst in the lack of motion of the brooding parent over 4 or 5 days.  She (?sex) then moved leading to an hypothesis that she had just been keeping the chicks warm through a cool spell. (I also compiled an ad-hoc report on Willie Wagtails during the month.)  Willie Wagtails also featured in a post on my general blog, mainly covering Brown-headed Honeyeaters feeding a fledgling Pallid Cuckoo.

For December I thank observers in Forbes Creek, Widgiewa Rd, Knox Close, the Plain, Pony Place, Captains Flat Rd Radcliffe, 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 Wood Duck; Australian Shoveler; Grey Teal; Pacific Black Duck; Hardhead;Australasian Grebe; Hoary-headed Grebe; Little Pied Cormorant; Great Cormorant; White‑necked Heron; Great Egret, White‑faced Heron; Nankeen Night Heron; Australian White Ibis; Straw-necked Ibis; Eurasian Coot; Black‑fronted Dotterel;  Masked Lapwing; Banded Lapwing; 

2 Birds of Prey:  Brown Goshawk; Spotted Harrier; 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: Stubble Quail; Common Bronzewing; Crested Pigeon; Tawny Frogmouth; Painted Button-quail; Common Koel; Shining Bronze‑cuckoo; Pallid Cuckoo; Fan‑tailed Cuckoo; Brush Cuckoo; Laughing Kookaburra; 

5 Honeyeaters: Eastern Spinebill; Yellow-faced Honeyeater; White-eared Honeyeater; White‑plumed 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; WillieWagtail; Leaden Flycatcher; Magpie-lark; Scarlet 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; 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;  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