January 2017

I like this image of some Superb Fairy-wrens taking advantage of our bird bath.

Since the last monthly report I have done the annual report and circulated links: if you missed it, it starts here.  A summary of migrant arrival dates is  here. Also my friend Ian Fraser has done a very thoughtful piece on the impact of climate change on birds and other forms of life.

We have done very well indeed for diversity this month, scoring 118 species - the second highest month in the 10 years of the project.

This was definitely helped along by the wide range of birds on the marsh in the Plain.  We also added a species (#195) when an observer came across 2 Azure Kingfishers near the Queanbeyan Escarpment  - just inside the study area!  This species needs water in which to feed and nest and that appears to be on offer at a dam near the site.  I had an unsuccessful, but strenuous, effort to relocate the birds and will try harder later.

Recording 9 species of raptor also helped!  Several of them will be enjoying the huge numbers of grasshoppers in the grassland.

The time for migrants to arrive has finished although an Eastern Koel was heard at Whiskers Creek earlier in January.  I'm not sure if that reflects the time that Noisy Friarbirds build nests or plum-ripening time!  In contrast some species may soon be leaving us and will be commented on in future bulletins (and a special blog post when I have written it).

16 species have been recorded breeding in the past month (shown in red below) with most being dependent young records.  The major highlight was the Whiskered Terns raising chicks in the marsh.

This is being written up for Canberra Bird Notes over the next few months.

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, Knox Close, Radcliffe Circuit, Douglas Close, Captains Flat Rd, Molonglo River Park, Molonglo Valley, Wanna Wanna, and Hoskinstown Village and  Plain. I'm always happy to receive reports, my email address is martinflab@gmail.com.


1  Waterbirds (pt 1):  (pt 2); (Pt 3); (Pt 4): Black Swan;  Australian Shelduck; Australian Wood Duck; Australian Shoveler; Grey Teal; Chestnut Teal; Pacific Black Duck; Hardhead; Blue-billed Duck; Australasian Grebe; Hoary-headed Grebe;  Little Pied Cormorant; Great Cormorant; White‑necked Heron; Eastern Great Egret: White‑faced Heron;  Australian White Ibis; Straw-necked Ibis;  Baillons Crake; Eurasian  Coot; Black-winged Stilt; Masked Lapwing; Banded Lapwing; Australian Painted Snipe; Latham’s Snipe; Sharp-tailed Sandpiper; Whiskered tern,, Silver Gull

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

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; Australian Owlet-nightjar; Painted Button-quail; Common Koel; Horsfield's Bronze‑Cuckoo; Shining Bronze‑cuckoo; Pallid Cuckoo; Fan‑tailed Cuckoo; Brush Cuckoo; Southern Boobook; Azure Kingfisher; Laughing Kookaburra; Sacred Kingfisher; Dollarbird.

5 Honeyeaters: Eastern Spinebill; Yellow-faced Honeyeater; White-eared Honeyeater; White‑plumed 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; 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; 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;House Sparrow; European Goldfinch

8 Other, smaller birds:  White-throated Treecreeper; Spotted  Quail-thrush;Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike; White‑-winged Triller; Olive‑backed Oriole; 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

Migrant Arrival dates Spring/Summer 2016

This is a summary of the arrival month of Summer migrants in the Carwoola area.  This analysis was sufficiently interesting that I was asked to write it up for Canberra Bird Notes.

I have used past information to estimate the likely month of arrival of migrants and then recorded the month in which they were first reported in 2016.  In the image below this is summarised according to whether the birds were early, on time or late.

With most of the birds arriving on time this could be considered a 'normal' year.  If anything the birds were later arriving this year, which  is a marked contrast to 2015 where most species were early.

Annual Report 2016: overall picture

This is an overall report on birds observed in Carwoola in 2016.  I have largely followed the model used for the Annual Report for 2011 to 2015, in particular the decision to adopt a multi-post approach.  However 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!)

While responsibility for the analysis in this Report is down to me, the opportunity to compile the Report is entirely due to the efforts of observers to report interesting sightings to me.  I thank you all - may this continue.

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.

I use the term Carwoola to cover the catchment area of the Stoney Creek Gazette,  As well as Carwoola itself (now united following the merger of Queanbeyan and Palerang Councils) it includes a bunch of  other localities (including Primrose Valley and, importantly from the view of birding, 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.

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.   

By the end of 2016 we had recorded, over a 10 year period, 194 species in the catchment area of the Gazette.   3 species (Red-necked Avocet, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and Baillons Crake) were observed for the first time in 2016.  By the end of that year year 18 have been recorded in every month since this project started in 2007.  Willie Wagtail dropped out in July 2016: possibly as a result of observers being elsewhere.  

Over the 10 year period 97 species (50.0% of species observed) have been recorded undertaking breeding activity.  3 species (Whiskered Tern, Hoary-headed Grebe and Chestnut Teal) were recorded breeding for the first time in 2016.  More details on breeding activity are provided in another post to this blog (see link below). 

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 2016, 151 species were recorded in the study area.  This is the second highest number recorded in the study area (following 155 species reported in 2015) and amounts to 77.8% of those ever recorded in the area.  This graph shows the number of species recorded per year.

The small decline from 2015 is difficult to explain as it is a balance between some species being reported in 2015 and not in 2016 and vice versa.  In the middle of the year it appeared that exodus of waterbirds from this area (and indeed from SE Australia covering the Darling Downs to Melbourne) to the flooded inland was going to be the explanatory factor.  However by the end of the species most of the "missing" waterbirds had returned, and I conclude it is simply the way of natural things to rise and fall.. 

The weather for 2015 is reviewed here  and appears not to have had a long term impact on the birds around the area. 

In 2016 31.8% of the species recorded were observed undertaking some form of breeding activity.   This is a small increase on 2015 and continues the recovery from a low point in 2014 to be 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 Birds

2016 compared to 2015

2016 compared with 9 previous years.

Annual Report 2016: 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 some wide definitions 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.  

In the case of the Canberra Ornithologists Group the traditional values 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 22 codes including indirct 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 traditional codes used by COG for this project.  (As over 50% of COG General records are now sourced through eBird there must be some careful filtering done to map between the two systems.)

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 first 9 years of the project - the 10th year won't change this picture so I have been lazy).

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 884 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 (2015-16) and the rest of the records in the chart below.

There is not a significantly different distribution of type of activity reported in 2015-16 and the rest of the series.  The preponderance of dependent young (code 'dy') records reflects both the relative ease of observing this and the duration of the phase - for some species this can go on for several months. It is recognised that the begging young could have been hatched out of the area.  (Of course ny does not necessarily mean the young survive to maintain the species: we have plenty of Pied Currawongs - and in my case this year a Collared Sparrowhawk - in the area to predate nests and fledglings.)

It might be noted that 87.5% of the records after December which have been coded to type of activity are dependent young. There have been several records of active pardalote, honeyeater and finch nests in the New Year.  In most cases these are presumably second broods, although the Yellow-faced Honeyeater nest in a floribunda rose on our deck is only active from late December.

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

Following from this, the next section mostly covers 6 breeding seasons ending on 30 June 2016. The 2016-17 season will, inshallah, be reported on next year, but at this stage appears similar to history.

Breeding season	# breeding records
2010-11	124
2011-12	137
2012-13	105
2013-14	118
2014-15	98
2015-16	125

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.    

Breeding season	# breeding species
2010-11	50
2011-12	51
2012-13	49
2013-14	47
2014-15	41
2015-16	48

In past years my impression was that the number of breeding species is a little more stable that the number of breeding records.  However the very low number of breeding species in 2014-15 argues against that.  I can't at this stage offer an explanation for this, but will try to ponder the issue later.

The number of reports by species received over the 10 calendar years by species is summarised in the following table.

# reports	# species
1	18
2-4	30
5-10	20
11-19	17
20+	13

As expected a large proportion of species have only been reported undertaking breeding activity a few times.  The 13 species with 20 or more breeding records are:

• Australian Magpie (66 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 since!
• Tawny Frogmouth (39 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 (39 reports): see Australian Magpie.  In past years there was no way I could miss the {expletives deleted, with regret} pair that nested above our lawn and swoop me every time I walk across it!  For calendar 2016 they moved nest site by 30m and were much much more sociable
• Striated Pardalote (39 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 (32 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).  
• Welcome Swallow (31 reports):  Similar to the previous species but prefers a more open site such as in the rafters of a shed.  
• White-browed Scrubwren (25 reports)  A very active bird and repeated zooming into a bush with a mouthful of grubs attracts attention.
• Australian Wood Duck (28 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 (22 reports): Very common species and feeding young often happens out in the open.
• Australasian Grebe (27 reports) After being occupied as a nest site for several years our top dam has been deserted for the past 3 years. However I have received a few more reports from other observers so they have made the big league.  The young birds are particularly interesting with striped heads.

• Grey Shrike-thrush (22 reports): this species often nests in sheds or on verandahs, so is easy to spot.  They also fit in more than one brood so get several reports per site-year.
• Yellow-faced Honeyeater (21 reports): this species appears very relaxed about building close to dwellings - in our case in a rose bush next to our verandah clothes line..  So relatively easy to find and monitor the nest.
• Red Wattlebird (20 reports): a large bird with very noisy fledglings.

Links to other sections of this report

Overview

2016 compared to 2015

2016 compared with 9 previous years.

Annual Report 2016: 2016 compared with 2015

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

Of the  194 species recorded in this project 169 species (87.1% - a slight decrease on the percentages achieved y a similar analysis last year) were reported in one or both of the years covered by this report.  Of these 169 species:

• ·         19 were reported in 2015 but not in 2016;
• ·         13 were reported in 2016 but not in 2015 (of which 3 were reported for the first time in 2016); and 
• ·         137 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 19 species recorded in 2015 but not 2016, 

• 13 were sighted in a single month of 2015, 
• 3 were seen in 2 months; 
• 2 (Rufous Songlark and White-throated Needletail) in 3 months.  The Rufous Songlark was late arriving and infrequently seen across the COG region in 2016.  WRT Needletails the observer from the Widgiewa hotspot for this species has moved from the area. 
• 1 (White-fronted Chat) in 4 months.   The Chats were only ever seen near Hoskinstown by observers looking at the Banded Lapwings:  perhaps there is some commonality of habitat preference by the two species?

For those seen in 2016 but not reported in 2015:

• 9 species (3 additions to the area list) were seen in a single month;
• 1 species (Whiskered Tern, only the second observation in the area) were seen in 2 months in 2014;  and
• 3 species seen in 3 months;  
• Brown quail tend to be seen irregularly in the area: they are skulkers so it isn't surprising that they go missing at times.
• Silver Gull has been very unusual in the area.  However there has been a lot of water around this year so conditions have been right for more sightings than usual.
• Spotted Quail-thrush is not common in the broader COG area, although Tallaganda (just outside the area for this project) is a hotspot.  Sightings this year have been around Wanna Wanna Rd, and the nearby Cuumbeun NR has some very typical habitat.

 43 species were reported every month in both years: a similar comparisons in recent years have shown 34 -38 species.  I am unsure what has caused the increase but see it as a Good Thing. 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 until this year when Willie Wagtail went walkabout for a year..

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	2015	2016
1 Waterbirds	231	203
2 Birds of Prey	66	67
3 Parrots and Relatives	94	100
4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds	120	107
5 Honeyeaters	102	92
6 Flycatchers and similar species	132	125
7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species	192	189
8 Other, smaller birds	124	123
9 Other, larger birds	95	96

The similarity of results between the two years is readily apparent.  When expressed as a percentage of total species-months the correlation coefficient is 0.99.

There is no large increase in any group.

The group with the largest percentage decrease were Waterbirds.  As noted in the overview this group of birds declined dramatically across the SE of Australia from July onwards, as flooding in the West of NSW and Queensland recharged wetlands and farmland in those areas.  As the floods have receded the birds have begun to reappear in the South East.

The species with the largest increases in number of months-recorded have been:

• Little Corella (+6, from 2 months to 8).  A flock of up to 30 birds has become regular, if not resident, around the junction of Widgiewa and Captains Flat Rds. Unquiet birds, they are hard to miss.
• Common Myna (+4 from 6 months to 10).  Small flocks of rats with wings were reported from several locations between Hoskinsttown and Molonglo River Park.  Surprisingly they appear not to have settled down but keep moving.
• Collared Sparrowhawk (+4  from 2 months to 6).  In the latter half of the year a pair have been around our house every day.  I am sure they are nesting somewhere  but have been unable to find the nest.
• Pallid Cuckoo (+3 from 4 to 7).  This is more a matter of 2015 being low than 2016 being high. 
• White-naped Honeyeater (+3 from 3 to 6).  The birds have seemed to be more frequently observed as members of migrating flocks (a mewing call rather than the chip of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters).

The species with the greatest decline were:

• Hardhead (-8 months, from 12 to 4).  The earliest duck species to join the exodus and only just beginning to return in December.
• New Holland Honeyeater (-5 months, from 11 to 6).  Almost entirely as a result of the departure of an observer from Widgiewa Rd who used to have a small resident flock.
• Straw-necked Ibis (-5 months from 6 to 1)  Better pickings and breeding sites around the flooded areas..

Links to other sections of this report

Overview

Breeding Birds

2016 compared with 9 previous years.

Annual Report 2016: 2016 compared with 9 previous 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. However we did establish new high marks in April and June 2016.

We were particularly short of observers (including this author) in the blue months, the row showing 2016 as a % of the average for the period since 2010 shows that we are still holding up.  Thank you to all observers who have contributed observations.

As reported in the overview we added 3 species to the list in 2015.  All three were waterbirds reported from a marsh on the Plain.  The breeding of one of these, Whiskered Tern, is the first such event recorded in the broader Monaro area since 1963.

Of the 150 species for which comparison is possible, 18 have been recorded in every month throughout the 9 years (obviously including every month of 2016) These are:

• Australian Wood Duck; Galah; Sulphur-crested cockatoo; Crimson Rosella; Eastern Rosella; Laughing Kookaburra; White-eared Honeyeater; Noisy Miner; 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 (106 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.
  
The pattern shown in this tree is somewhat different to that from 2015.  This "comparison of comparisons" is summarised in the following table.

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.)

Category	Decrease	Same	Increase
1  Waterbirds	4	10	23
2 Birds of Prey	3	4	4
3 Parrots and Relatives	0	6	3
4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds	6	12	5
5 Honeyeaters	2	7	2
6 Flycatchers and similar species	5	4	6
7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species	5	9	7
8 Other, smaller birds	2	5	9
9 Other, larger birds	0	7	1
Total	27	64	60

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

The high number of 'increasers' in waterbirds was somewhat of a surprise in view of the exodus of such birds referred to in several parts if this Report.   In some cases it is an artefact of arithmetic, because 

• a sighting a species in 1 month of 2012 (which infers the bird is unusual) is equivalent to 8.3% 
• if it was only reported in one month for up to 4 of the preceding years (quite likely for an unusual bird) it would still meet the "rule" for increase whereas in fact it was the same.

Also I, at least, have been more aware in recent years 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
Overview
Breeding Birds
2016 compared to 2015
2016 compared with 9 previous years.