Monday, January 7, 2019

2018 Annual Report

This will be a little shorter than my usual annual reports as I am somewhat preoccupied with the final stages of moving from Carwoola.

The "big-ticket" item in a year's observations is how many species were recorded.  The answer for the Gazette catchment area in 2018 is 156.  This is the same as in 2017 and is the third time we have reached this number, the highest since 2007.
The first two years are mainly personal records and the pattern is largely constant since  that as other observers have joined in.

Three taxa were added to the list this year: Spangled Drongo (Wanna Wanna Rd); White-throated Nightjar (Hoskinstown) and Hybrid Crimson x Eastern Rosella (Whiskers Creek Rd).  This gets our total taxa recorded to 198.

Looking at the species recorded each month emphasises the pattern I have remarked on over the last year.  For the first half of 2018 we recorded average or better number of species, but in the second half of the year the number of species per month declined.
I am inclined to blame this on the continuing drought, with the number of waterbird species in particular dropping significantly in December and some migrant species (especially insectivores)either not turning up or being infrequently seen in the Spring/Summer. 

I have classified the species to 9 broad groups (mainly for ease of presenting the monthly lists).  The number of species.  When looking at the pattern of number of species reported each year by category an interesting pattern emerges.
5 of the 9 categories show a similar pattern over the years with occasional ups and downs but essentially constant.  The category "Other larger birds" with 8 members, is constant with all of the species seen every year.  The small brown bird category (thornbills, finches etc) is also close to constant ranging between 18 and 21 species per year.  Waterbirds have shown the greatest level of increase - possibly reflecting discovery of better sites in the area over time.  Birds of prey also show a steady increase, although they have been sparse in most months of 2018.

Since 2007, 101 Species have been observed undertaking some form of activity classified as indicating breeding.  A very low 35 species were recorded breeding in calendar 2018.  

Birds are not unduly fussed about calendar years, organising their breeding around a season with  good food supplies - effectively a year ending in June.  Looking at number of species recorded breeding for year ended June  ...
.. shows the last complete season to be about average.  However the number of breeding records for the start of the 2018-19 season is very low.  Again I attribute this to the ongoing drought.

Looking at individual species in 2018 cf other years 42 species are missing in 2018.  Most of these were relatively rare in the past (35 of the missing species being recorded in ,10% of months).  Those recorded more frequently but missing in 2018 were:

  • Brown Quail (possibly due to mis-identification of Stubble Quail on some occasions in the past);
  • Musk Duck - shallow conditions in Foxlow Lagoon unsuitable for this species;
  • White-throated Needletail - always an occasional species, very related to storm fronts.
  • Spotted Harrier - shortage of prey species on the Plain;
  • Speckled Warbler - lack of insect food?
  • Southern Whiteface - lack of insect food?
  • Golden-headed Cisticola - lack of rank grass habitat on the Plain.
In the past 16 species have been seen every month.  In 2018 one of these. White-eared Honeyeater was not reported in 2 months.  Of the other 22 species previously seen in 11 months or more per year only 1 - Little Pied Cormorant was not reported every month in 2018 (due to the parlous state of most dams).  Basically, the common birds remained common.  

The overall comparison between reporting rates for 2018 and earlier years is shown in this scatterplot:
The relationship is quite strong with an r2 of 0.78 for the linear trend.  I have marked an outlier 932% of months prior to 2018 but every month in that year. Unfortunately this is the foul Common Myna, and I hope people are able persuade this species not to become further established here.

That is the lot!  It has been a hoot compiling these reports for the last 12 years and I hope it has been helpful to the readers.  As well as a report onthe area generally to COG I have also published articles in Canberra Bird Notes on the Whiskered Tern breeding event; the (re)appearance of Banded Lapwings on the Plain; and a number of articles about the Tawny Frogmouths breeding at our house.  So the area has done very well

Friday, January 4, 2019

December 2018

The month was not great for diversity with only 91 species reported,  This is the lowest total for a December since 2008 (when reports were based solely on my personal observations).

To try to get a handle on what is missing in action (MIA) I assessed the number of species in each category and how commonly species were recorded in December.

Species Missing in Action

I have used 9 broad categories to present my results.  For each category  I counted the number of species ever reported in December (158 species in total) and then the number of species recorded in December 2018.  The difference between the two values in the number of MIAs.  In the next chart I have shown the number of MIA species  and that number as a % of the total number in any December.

Of the 5 groups that are major contributors to MIA:

  • Waterbirds are expected to be missing as there was hardly any water in the area until mid-December;
  • Raptors would seem to be reacting to absence of prey due to drought; and 
  • the 3 other groups contain many insectivorous species an insects are also lacking this year (except flies and mosquitoes around our house).

Common-ness of observed species.

I counted the number of Decembers 2007 to 2017 - maximum of 11) in which each species was recorded.  This covered all 158 species seen in at least 1 December.  I then calculated the average number of Decembers for each category.  I then calculated the average restricting it to those species seen in December 2018.  An example may help to explain this:

  • For waterbirds the average number of Decembers in which species have been seen is 4.54 (many species only seen in 1 or 2 Decembers).
  • Of the waterbird species seen in December 2018, they have been seen on average in 8.08 Decembers.  Of the 11 species on the list 6 have been seen in 10 or 11 Decembers.
  • I thus conclude that it is mainly the die-hard residents that are around.
This is illustrated in the next chart.  The two groups with the highest 2018:previous indexes have red stars and the next two, blue stars.
It is noteworthy that all Honeyeater species have been seen in at least 1 December and a high proportion of them were seen in December 2018.

Unusual species

After last month’s spate of unusuals, December has been a bit more restrained.  A Brush Cuckoo in the Molonglo Valley, male and female Koels in Radcliffe and an Australian Bushlark on the Plain have been the least common species reported to me.  The Avocets and Stilts were at Foxlow Lagoon early in the month but disappeared when the lagoon reached capacity due to a downpour.  A couple of Stilts returned later in the month.

Breeding 

Quite a good haul with 15 species this month marked in red below)..  The Banded Lapwings remain, with young chicks, on the Plain doing a good job of camouflaging themselves in a muddy patch (thanks Garry for the photo).
A pair of Leaden Flycatchers were taking turns on a nest at the top of Widgiewa.

A Silvereye has a nest full of chicks on Whiskers Creek Rd.

Thanks etc

As we are leaving the area this will be my last post of a monthly blog.  Thanks to all of you who have provided me with observations over the last 12 years!  My email will still work if you'd like to share sightings or ask questions, but I won;t be updating my database!

The list

1  Waterbirds (pt 1):  (pt 2)(Pt 3); (Pt 4): Australian Wood Duck; Grey Teal;  Pacific Black Duck; Australasian Grebe; Hoary-headed Grebe; Little Black Cormorant; Little Pied Cormorant;  White‑faced Heron; Eurasian  Coot; Black-winged Stilt; Red-necked Avocet;  Masked Lapwing; Banded Lapwing; 

2 Birds of Prey:  Brown Goshawk; Wedge-tailed Eagle;  Nankeen Kestrel; Brown Falcon

3 Parrots and Relatives:  Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo; Gang‑gang Cockatoo; Galah;  Little Corella; 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;  Common Koel; Horsfield's Bronze‑Cuckoo; Shining Bronze‑cuckoo; Pallid Cuckoo; Fan‑tailed Cuckoo; Brush Cuckoo; Laughing KookaburraSacred Kingfisher;  Dollarbird; 

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

6 Flycatchers and similar speciesRufous Whistler; Grey Shrike-thrush;  Grey Fantail; Willie Wagtail; Leaden Flycatcher; Magpie-lark;  Welcome Swallow; Fairy 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; Red‑browed Finch;  House Sparrow; European Goldfinch

8 Other, smaller birds:  White-throated Treecreeper; Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike; White‑-winged Triller; Olive‑backed Oriole; Masked Woodswallow; White‑browed Woodswallow; Dusky Woodswallow; Horsefields Bushlark, Skylark;  Australian Reed-warbler; 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