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.