Birds in the Carwoola area: 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).