January 2016

Latham's Snipe were again seen on a dam near Captains Flat Rd.  The usual sighting of this species is a tail heading for the horizon at warp factor 7, but I was lucky enough to find a couple posing at Kelly's Swamp in Fyshwick so offer a couple of snaps of one of them. First with a reflection ..

 .. and then without.  I have no factual info why the beak was open - possibly something to do with it being 38^oC at the time.

The most surprising sighting of the month was 6 Australian Pelicans cruising around on Foxlow Lagoon.  This is the 4th sighting on the species in this project and the second of the birds on a water body rather than overflying the area.  The other rather uncommon species seen was a Rufous Fantail in our bird bath (after one was reported from Wanna Wanna Rd last month).

It is more normal to see Gang-gangs in the area but a report from Wanna Wanna Rd of 14 in two groups late in the month was a bit surprising - such a big group would normally occur in Autumn when feeding on the Hawthorns.  In the past it was usual for a Spotted Harrier to be reported from the Plain but it has been absent since March last year, so it is good to hear of it hunting in the area again.  The pair of Tawny Frogmouths which reside in our garden most of the year vanished in early November and didn't return until 31 January: I suspect they were fleeing the unpleasant behaviour of a pair of Pied Currawongs,

On the topic of 'unpleasant' Common Mynas continue to be seen at the low end of Douglas Close.  A trap has been installed but thus far hasn't attracted the birds.  (It was interesting that two of these rats-with-wings sat in a nearby cypress as the trap was being set up.)

Another pretty good month for diversity with a total of 106 species recorded.  This is 6 down on the (surprisingly) high number of species reported in December 2015 but 11 more than seen in January 2015.

Most of the usual Summer migrants were reported, although they are harder to spot as they are calling as much , having completed their breeding activity.  It is likely they will start departing later in this month.

Breeding is starting to run down with nearly all reports of dependent young birds.  14 species were recorded breeding in the month and are shown in red in the following list.

As always thanks to the observers who have provided reports to me for the month.  These have covered sites in  Whiskers Creek Rd, Widgiewa Rd, Douglas Close, Wanna Wanna, Bowen Street, Radcliffe Circuit, Hoskinstown Plain and Village, Captains Flat Rd and Molonglo Valley. 

I have also compiled a report covering the whole of 2015 including comparisons with earlier years.  As has been my standard practice it is in 4 parts, starting here.

Summer migrants are highlighted in orange, and Winter migrants in blue.  

1  Waterbirds (pt 1):  (pt 2); (Pt 3); (Pt 4): Black Swan;  Australian Wood Duck; Pink-eared Duck; Australian Shoveler; Grey Teal; Pacific Black Duck; Hardhead; Australasian Grebe; Hoary-headed Grebe; Darter; Little Black Cormorant; Little Pied Cormorant; Great Cormorant; Australian Pelican;  White‑necked Heron; White‑faced Heron; Australian White Ibis; Eurasian  Coot; Black-winged Stilt;  Masked Lapwing; Latham’s Snipe 

2 Birds of Prey: Whistling Kite, Brown Goshawk;Spotted Harrier; Wedge-tailed Eagle; Little Eagle; Nankeen Kestrel; Brown Falcon; Australian Hobby.

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

4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds (Pt 1) (Pt 2) (Pt 3): Stubble Quail; Common Bronzewing; Crested Pigeon; Tawny Frogmouth; Australian Owlet-nightjar;Common Koel;  Horsfield's Bronze‑Cuckoo; Shining Bronze‑cuckoo; Pallid Cuckoo; Fan‑tailed Cuckoo; Southern Boobook;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; White-naped Honeyeater; Noisy Friarbird; 

6 Flycatchers and similar species: Rufous Whistler; Grey Shrike-thrush; Rufous Fantail; Grey Fantail; Willie Wagtail; Leaden Flycatcher; Magpie-lark; Scarlet Robin;  Eastern Yellow Robin; Welcome Swallow; Fairy Martin; Tree Martin

7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species (Pt 1) (Pt 2):  Superb Fairy-wren; White-browed Scrubwren; Speckled warbler; 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;  Dusky Woodswallow; Skylark;  Australian Reed-warbler; Brown Songlark; Common Blackbird; Common Myna; 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

Annual Report 2015: overall picture

This is an overall report on birds observed in Carwoola in 2015.  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 2014, 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.

The group of folk reporting has been quite stable this year (including the return of some observers) apart from the usual emptying out in Winter.  (We were away less than expected due to foul weather on the NSW North Coast and SE QLD.)  

By the end of 2015 we had recorded, over a 9 year period, 191 species in the catchment area of the Gazette.   5 species (Blue-billed Duck, Pink Robin, White-fronted Chat, Plumed Whistling Duck and Spotless Crake) were observed for the first time in 2015.  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 4 years and can probably be taken as the minimum number of resident species..

Over the 9 year period 94 species (49.2% of species observed) have been recorded undertaking breeding activity.  4 species (Laughing Kookaburra, Stubble Quail, Australian Reed-Warbler and Banded Lapwing) were recorded breeding for the first time in 2013.  The Banded Lapwings were observed copulating and a dependent chick was subsequently seen.  More details on breeding activity are provided in another post to this blog. 

The cumulative 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 2015, 156 species were recorded in the study area.  This is the highest number recorded in the study area and amounts to 81.6% 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 dried out in 2014 and the expected decline in diversity happened as a result.  It filled again in 2015 and attracted back some of the less common species.)  The weather for 2015 was variable but not too dry here so I can only assume that the continued increase in species found is mainly due to the efforts of observers to report interesting sightings to me.  I thank you all - may this continue.

In 2014 31.4% of the species recorded were observed undertaking some form of breeding activity.   After a decline in 2014 this value is close to that in other recent years in this area (data is somewhat deficient for the first two years). 

Links to other sections of this report

Breeding

Comparison with 2014

Comparison with previous 8 years

Annual Report 2015 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 and I shall stick with the set of codes used by COG.

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 (covering the 9 complete years of the project).

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).  

Since this project commenced 764 breeding records have been noted. The decision to use the COG Breeding codes was made in late 2009 and thus approximately 1/6^th of the records are not coded to type of activity.  Such is life, and the uncoded records are excluded from the next chart!  

The percentage of records of each type is shown separately for the last complete 'season (2014-15) and the rest of the records in the chart below.

There is a significantly different distribution of type of activity reported in 2014-15 and the rest of the series.  I think this is mainly due to more people reported birds on nests (code 'on') or nest with young birds (code 'ny').  This is obviously a more definite indication of breeding in the area than dependent young (code 'dy') records since the begging young could have been hatched out of the area.  (Of course ny does not necessarily mean the young survive: we have plenty of Pied Currawongs in the area to predate the nests.

It might be noted that 77% of the records after December are coded as dependent young: this percentage has changed somewhat after adding another year of records, primarily due to several records of active pardalote, honeyeater and finch nests in the New Year.  Presumably these are second broods.

The incidence of type of event x month is illustrated by this chart in which the redder fill indicates a greater number of records).  Somes codes have been grouped to remove the less regularly reported ones.

Following from this, the next section mostly covers 5 breeding seasons ending on 30 June 2015. The 2014-15 season will, inshallah, be reported on next year, but at this stage appears similar to history.

Breeding season	No. records
2010-11	124
2011-12	137
2012-13	105
2013-14	118
2014-15	98

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.  

Breeding season	No. of breeding Species
2010-11	51
2011-12	52
2012-13	49
2013-14	47
2014-15	42

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

# reports	# species
1	19
2-4	31
5-10	15
11-19	19
20+	10

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

• Australian Magpie (57 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 get swooped riding my bike!  The situation has returned to normal for 2014-15!
• Tawny Frogmouth (34 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 (33reports): 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!
• Striated Pardalote (32 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
• Willie Wagtail (30 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).  No additional breeding records in 2014 -15
• Welcome Swallow (28 reports):  Similar to the previous species but prefers a more open site such as in the rafters of a shed.  
• White-browed Scrubwren (22 reports)  A very active bird and repeated zooming into a bush with a mouthful of grubs attracts attention.
• Australian Wood Duck (22 reports)  A very common bird around farm dams and lawns, in Spring often leading a conga line of ducklings from the nest in tree hollows.
• Yellow-rumped Thornbill (21 reports): Very common species and feeding young often happens out in the open.
• Australasian Grebe (20 reports) Last year I commented that "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?"  I have received a few more reports so they have made the big league.  The young birds are particularly interesting with striped heads.

Links to other sections of this report

Overall picture

Comparison with 2014

Comparison with previous 8 years

Annual Report 2015: 2015 compared with 2014

I have indicated in the overview that the number of observers was restored in  2014.  

Of the  191 species recorded in this project 168 species (87.9% - a trivial decrease on the 88.1% given by a similar analysis last year) were reported in one or both of the years covered by this report.  Of these 168 species:

• ·         11 were reported in 2014 but not in 2015;
• ·         17 were reported in 2015 but not in 2014 (of which 5 were reported for the first time in 2015); and 
• ·         140 species were reported in both years.

##Looking at the entire 168 species there is a very strong correlation (correlation coefficient =  0.90) 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 11 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 2015 but not reported in 2014:

• 13 species (4 additions to the area list) were seen in a single month;
• 2 species (no additions) were seen in 2 months in 2014;  
• 1 species (an addition to the list) seen in 4 months;  and ·         
• 1 species seen in 5 months.

The ‘4 month species’ is White-fronted Chat.  This species was seen in pasture near Hoskinstown and was first noticed as "by-catch" when monitoring the outbreak of Banded Lapwings in the area.  They are very localised in Canberra, mainly around the vicinity of Stromlo Forest Park.  I suspect (hope?) they will continue to be found as people continue to monitor the Banded Lapwing site.

The '5 month species' is Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo.  This is a puzzle as the species has been reported in 4 - 6 months every year except 2014.  The species is often identified by a distinctive call so is easy to pick up.  My summary of the reasons for the disappearance in 2014 is "Ain't nature interesting?" 

 34 species were reported every month in both years: a similar comparison last year showed 35 species (and 2 years ago 38) – effectively the same outcome. I noted in the overview post that the set of species seen every month of the project has been very stable sitting at 19 species.

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 2014 2015 1  Waterbirds 196 231 2 Birds of Prey 59 66 3 Parrots and Relatives 92 94 4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds 98 120 5 Honeyeaters 95 102 6 Flycatchers and similar species 136 132 7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species 185 192 8 Other, smaller birds 120 125 9 Other, larger birds 89 94

The similarity of results between the two years is readily apparent.  When expressed as a percentage of total species-months the correlation coefficient is 0.98.

The group with the largest percentage increase were Waterbirds.  Within that group most species were very similar in the number of months recorded (typically +/- 1 month).  Theer were no large decreases  and of the species showing larger increases:

• At a site in Hoskinstown Banded Lapwing were observed in 5 months in 2015 rather than the single observation at Wanna Wanna Rd in 2014.  They were also present in good numbers with more than 10 birds present on occasion, and a chick was observed in one month.  A high proportion of the Canberra birding community came out to look at these birds.
• Nankeen Night-Heron also increased from 1 observation to 5.  In this case it involved 1 or 2 observations at several sites, mainly along the Molonglo.  On one occasion 5 birds - all in adult plumage were seen simultaneously.
• Australian Darter rose from 1 month to 4.  This may be an indicator of a wide dispersal, following destruction of some of the willows in Canberra, in which they used to breed.
• Pink-eared Duck rose from 2 months to 5, mainly on small dams between Mills Cross and the Foxlow bridge.  This species has returned to its usual haunts in the ACT after being very scarce for a couple of years.
• Australasian Shoveler rose from 6 months to 9, and Hoary-headed Grebe from 4 months to 7.

The largest percentage decline was in Flycatchers and similar species.  This is almost entirely attributable to:

• Red-capped Robin, seen for several months on the Plain in 2014 but largely absent in 2015; and 
• Flame Robin, seen every month of the year in 2014 but only in Winter in 2015.  This is a case of 2014 being the unusual year and 2015 a return to traditional values.
• There is a slight counterbalance with Satin Flycatcher appearing for 2 months after being absent in 2014.

Links to other sections of this report

Overall picture

Breeding

Comparison with previous 8 years

Annual report: 2015 compared with previous 8 years

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

In the table-image 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. Note that the value for October 2015 equals the highest value while November 2015 set a new record.

While we were particularly short of observers (including this author) in the two blue months, the column showing 2015 as a % of the average for the period since 2010 shows that we are still going rather well.  Thank you to all observers who have contributed observations.

As reported in the overview we added 5 species to the list in 2015:

• Blue-billed Duck is uncommon in Canberra with observations historically limited to Fyshwick Sewage Ponds.  The sighting alongside Captains Flat Rd was by an observer who provided persuasive field notes.  One to watch for in areas of water with good fringing vegetation.
• Pink Robin was sighted in Cuumbeun NR by an observer who provided field notes.  This species is common in Tasmania and frequent in the Victorian Alps but generally reported infrequently from areas of denser vegetation in the Canberra area. 
• White-fronted Chat As noted in the comparison with 2014, " They are very localised in Canberra, mainly around the vicinity of Stromlo Forest Park."
• Plumed Whistling Duck:  Since New Years Eve 2009 this species has been regular in dams and ponds around Bungendore.  However they have only been seen once in this area at a small dam near the end of Briars-Sharrow Rd.
• Spotless Crake A "difficult-to-see" species as they usually lurk within dense patches of vegetation beside water.  This one was walking across the road to Rossi near the crossing of Yandiguinula Creek.

Of the 150 species for which comparison is possible, 19 have been recorded in every month throughout the 9 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 2015 and earlier years is by a tree diagram.

The number shown as 'same' is those where the % of available months (94 in total for earlier years, 2 months are missing) is within +/- 5%.   This allows for differential observer effort affecting the result by a small amount. In comparison to the situation for 2014 there are more 'increasers' with both 'decreasers' and 'the same' dropping by similar amounts..  

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. 

As noted in the 2014 report my impression is that the high number of increasers in waterbirds reflects the impact of drought in depressing the results for 2007-09.  While rainfall was variable though 2015 there was water in most dams for most of the year, and the marsh filled again.  Also, I at least was more aware which water features 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).

The results for Parrots, Honeyeaters and Other larger birds all indicate a stable situation.

No group showed a noticeable drop.

Links to other sections of this report

Overall picture
Breeding
Comparison with 2014