August 2018

A pair of Australian King Parrots photographed by Joy Williams.  My household has on occasion  debated whether the male (right) is the most brilliantly coloured bird in the world!

The overall diversity in August seemed, from my personal observations, to be very low.  I wondered if that was due to me having the cold from Hell and thus not getting out much, butincluding the reports from others has confirmed that view.

Looking back at past records August has marked a noticeable increase in diversity compared to June and July but this year it is slightly lower than July.  This may be a result of the rather cold daytime temperatures and the continuing drought.  At the risk of over-burdening this report with graphs here is a view of the proportion of species within each major group seen in August 2018 and the average for August (since 2007).

The values for Waterbirds and Parrots etc are slightly above average while Birds of Prey, Honeyeaters and Flycatchers etc are well down on average.

• Waterbirds are boosted by the continuing presence of Avocets and Stilts at Foxlow Lagoon (close to the only open water in the area);
• Parrots were very low in diversity in the early years: the 2018 value is closer to 'normal';
• Birds of Prey have been very thin on the ground, probably reflecting low amounts of prey (although plenty of road kill is available for the species that can feed on carrion);
• Honeyeaters and Flycatchers both seem to reflect a delayed start to return migration (although that is not so evident in the Kingfishers etc group where cuckoos are largely missing).

I shall look at migrant returns in more detail later, but my gut feeling is that returns are delayed this year.  

Breeding has started to happen, mainly with several species gathering nesting material, as shown by red text in the detailed list below.

Thanks to observers from Wanna Wanna Rd, Knox Close, Captains Flat Rd, Whiskers Creek Rd and Hoskinstown village.   Please pass on interesting sightings to me by email to martinflab@gmail.com

1  Waterbirds (pt 1):  (pt 2); (Pt 3); (Pt 4): Black Swan;  Australian Shelduck; Australian Wood Duck; Pink-eared Duck; Grey Teal; Pacific Black Duck; Australasian Grebe; Little Pied Cormorant; White‑faced Heron;  Eurasian  Coot; Black-winged Stilt; Red-necked Avocet; Black‑fronted Dotterel; Red-kneed Dotterel; Masked Lapwing; 

2 Birds of Prey:  Black-shouldered Kite; Collared Sparrowhawk; Wedge-tailed Eagle; Nankeen Kestrel; 

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

4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds (Pt 1) (Pt 2) (Pt 3): Common Bronzewing; Crested Pigeon;  Tawny Frogmouth; Fan‑tailed Cuckoo; Powerful Owl; Southern Boobook; Laughing Kookaburra; 

5 Honeyeaters: Eastern Spinebill; Yellow-faced Honeyeater; White-eared Honeyeater; Noisy Miner; Red Wattlebird; Brown‑headed Honeyeater; 

6 Flycatchers and similar species: Golden Whistler;Grey Shrike-thrush; Willie Wagtail;  Magpie-lark; Scarlet Robin; Flame Robin;Welcome Swallow; 

7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species (Pt 1) (Pt 2):  Superb Fairy-wren; White-browed Scrubwren;; Weebill; Striated Thornbill; Yellow Thornbill; Yellow‑rumped Thornbill; Buff‑rumped Thornbill; Brown Thornbill;  Spotted Pardalote; Striated Pardalote; Silvereye; Red‑browed Finch; Diamond Firetail; House Sparrow; European Goldfinch

8 Other, smaller birds:  White-throated Treecreeper; Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike; Skylark; 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