February 2015

Notes on birds February 2015

The most interesting - or least unusual - sightings for the month have been:

• Spotless Crake at Yandiguinula (formerly Resch’s) Creek – an addition to the list;
•  Satin Flycatcher in our yard (3^rd record in this project); and
•   54 White-throated Needletails on the Plain (watch thunderstorm fronts for these exciting birds);
• Crescent Honeyeater has turned up on the Molonglo after sightings up Widgiewa last year!

A few species are still engaged in breeding activities including a Yellow-faced Honeyeater nest next to our deck early in the month.  Species seen doing things related to procreation are marked in red below.

The other, more typical, seasonal aspect is that the migrant species will soon be thinking of heading off.  In this regard it is interesting that larger numbers of Dusky Wood-swallow - up to 40 birds - are appearing on Whiskers Creek Rd in the mornings.  I have done a special report on that on the blog and will do a graphical update shortly;  In summary the situation is as follows:

• Migrants expected in February but not recorded: Shining bronze-Cuckoo, Pallid Cuckoo;
• Migrants expected in February as last month and recorded: Fan-tailed Cuckoo and Australian Reed-warbler;
• Migrants recorded in February expected to have left in January: Brush Cuckoo, Sacred Kingfisher and Brown Songlark

On balance I think it is about situation normal.

Overall for the month we recorded 100 species in the area: almost identical to last year and - somewhat surprisingly - slightly above the average for the last 6 years!

Everyone has done very well, especially the reporters from Forbes Creek, Hoskinstown, Widgiewa Rd, Knox Close, the Plain, Pony Place, Captains Flat Rd, Radcliffe, and Wanna Wanna Rd. 

Please pass on interesting sightings to me by email to martinflab@gmail.com.

Recorded in the month

1  Waterbirds:  Musk Duck; Black Swan;  Australian Wood Duck; Australian Shoveler; Grey Teal; Chestnut Teal; Pacific Black Duck; Hardhead;Australasian Grebe; Hoary-headed Grebe; Darter; Little Pied Cormorant; Great Cormorant; White‑necked Heron; White‑faced Heron; Nankeen Night Heron; Australian White Ibis; Straw-necked Ibis; Purple Swamphen; Spotless Crake;   Eurasian Coot; Masked Lapwing.

2 Birds of Prey:  Brown Goshawk; Collared Sparrowhawk;Spotted Harrier; Wedge-tailed Eagle; Nankeen Kestrel; Brown Falcon

3 Parrots and Relatives: Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo; Gang‑gang Cockatoo; Galah;   Sulphur‑crested Cockatoo; Crimson Rosella; Eastern Rosella

4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds: Stubble Quail; Common Bronzewing; Crested Pigeon; Tawny Frogmouth; Australian Owlet-nightjar;White-throated Needletail; Fan‑tailed Cuckoo; Brush Cuckoo; Laughing Kookaburra; Sacred Kingfisher

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

6 Flycatchers and similar species: Rufous Whistler; Grey Shrike-thrush; Grey Fantail; WillieWagtail; Leaden Flycatcher; Satin Flycatcher; Magpie-lark; Scarlet Robin;  Eastern Yellow Robin;Welcome Swallow;Tree Martin

7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species:  Superb Fairy-wren; White-browed Scrubwren; Speckled warbler; Weebill;  White-throated Gerygone; Striated Thornbill; Yellow‑rumped Thornbill; Buff‑rumped Thornbill; Brown Thornbill; Southern Whiteface; Spotted Pardalote; Striated Pardalote; Silvereye;  Double‑barred Finch; Red‑browed Finch; Diamond Firetail; House Sparrow; European Goldfinch

8 Other, smaller birds:  White-throated Treecreeper;  Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike; Olive‑backed Oriole; Dusky Woodswallow; Australian Reed-warbler; Brown Songlark; Common Blackbird; 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 departures from Carwoola

I have previously posted about migrant arrivals.  This post looks at the other, trickier, end of the spectrum: when do the birds move off?  A summary is given in this image (the colour scheme is explained below):

In summary, 9 species - the first listed above  - are likely to have left already.  Any sightings of those species would be of interest to me (and hopefully others).  Another 5 species are likely to be of interest to us in February.  These are  Shining Bronze-Cuckoo;Pallid Cuckoo; Western Gerygone, and Australian Reed Warbler as departures and Rufous Fantail being observed on passage.

To the detail!  This table shows the data I have for this project for all species defined by COG as a migrant.

• Some of these species (eg the Pardalotes and Yellow-faced Honeyeater) seem to be recorded more or less year round in Carwoola so have been struck through.  
• Typical migrants have the month of departure shown in orange (with yellow denoting a second month with several observations);
• Blue shows the species I regard as passage migrants- we only tend to see them as they pass through on their trip from the Brindabellas to the Coast and points North.
• The Shelduck is a species which tends to mugrate to this area in Winter, after breeding in the Mountains.

species	jan	feb	mar	apr	may	jun
Australian Shelduck	1	3	2	5	4	6
White-throated Needletail	4	4	6
Fork-tailed swift			1
Collared Sparrowhawk	3	3	2	2		1
Australian Hobby	2	2	4	1	1	2
Australian Koel			1
Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo	5	2	1
Black-eared Cuckoo	1
Shining Bronze-cuckoo	5	5	2	2
Pallid Cuckoo	6	4		1
Fan-tailed Cuckoo	5	3	2	2	1
Brush Cuckoo	5	1
Sacred Kingfisher	7	2	2	1
Rainbow Bee-eater	1	1	3
Dollarbird	3	1
Western gerygone	4	5	3	1
White-throated gerygone	7	8	8	3
Spotted pardalote	7	8	7	7	8	8
Striated pardalote	7	7	7	7	7	8
Yellow-faced honeyeater	7	8	8	7	7	4
White-naped honeyeater	1	2	5	4	6	2
Noisy friarbird	7	8	7	2	1
White-winged triller	5	2
Rufous whistler	7	8	7	6	3	2
Olive-backed oriole	4	3	3	2
Masked Woodswallow			1
White-browed woodswallow	1	1
Dusky woodswallow	7	8	8	7	6	2
Rufous Fantail		2	1		1
Grey fantail	7	8	8	7	6	5
Leaden flycatcher	7	8	5
Satin Flycatcher		1
Australian Reed-warbler	5	4
Rufous songlark	3
Brown Songlark	2	1
Fairy Martin	6	3	1
Tree Martin	7	7	7	2	2	1

January 2015

As the highlight for this month - 5 Nankeen Night-Herons  - comes from Molonglo River Park I thought I'd start with a photo I took there.

I have never previously seen a snap of a Little Pied Cormorant with its mouth open and its tongue exposed.

Those interested in Tawny Frogmouths will be interested in the post of 22 January on Stuart Rae's blog.  He follows 49 pairs of Froggies in the Nature Parks of Canberra.  Another ad-hoc post, by me this time has some images of Sacred Kingfishers.

Monthly Report

This year has started with somewhat of a whimper.  I have noticed that diversity around our house has been quite low, an this is reflected in reports from other observers.  Overall we have recorded 95 species, 8 less than in December 2014 and 11 less than January 2014.  We are also 5 species below the average since 2009.

I am a bit of a loss to explain this other than to note that we have had the heaviest rainfall for the past 8 years in the months of December and January.  I assume that has made the birds spread out a bit more (and possibly 'stick' in the dry country).

The breeding season has pretty much ground to a halt with only two species (White-faced Heron and Yellow-faced Honeyeater) recorded undertaking breeding activity.  This is a marked contrast to a recent COG outing to the Brindabellas where many species were seen with young on nest or being fed.

It is getting close to the dates for migrants to depart and I will try to do an ad-hoc post about departure dates before the February report.  Perhaps it is notable that the MIAs this month include both Songlarks and White-winged Triller despite observer endeavours in likely habitat?

For December I thank observers in Forbes Creek, Hoskinstown, Widgiewa Rd, Knox Close, the Plain, Pony Place, Captains Flat Rd, Radcliffe, and Wanna Wanna Rd.for their efforts in reporting.   I'm always happy to hear of other sightings of interest to you, in the current season especially of breeding actvities or first sightings of migrants, by email to martinflab@gmail.com. 

1  Waterbirds:  Black Swan;  Australian Wood Duck;Grey Teal; Pacific Black Duck; Hardhead;Australasian Grebe; Hoary-headed Grebe; Little Black Cormorant; Little Pied Cormorant; Great Cormorant;  White‑necked Heron;  White‑faced Heron; Nankeen Night Heron;  Australian White Ibis; Straw-necked Ibis;Eurasian Coot; Masked Lapwing

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

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

4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds: Stubble Quail;  Common Bronzewing; Crested Pigeon; Tawny Frogmouth; Horsfield's Bronze‑Cuckoo; Shining Bronze‑cuckoo; Fan‑tailed Cuckoo; Brush Cuckoo; Laughing Kookaburra; Sacred Kingfisher; Dollarbird

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

6 Flycatchers and similar species: Rufous Whistler; Grey Shrike-thrush; Grey Fantail; Willie Wagtail; Leaden Flycatcher; Magpie-lark; Eastern Yellow Robin;Welcome Swallow; Fairy Martin; Tree Martin

7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species:  Superb Fairy-wren; White-browed Scrubwren;  Speckled warbler; Weebill; White-throated Gerygone; Striated 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; Olive-backed Oriole; Dusky Woodswallow; Skylark; Australian Reed-warbler; Common Blackbird; Common Starling;  Australasian  Pipit;

9  Other, larger birds: Satin Bowerbird; Grey Butcherbird; Australian Magpie; Pied Currawong;Grey Currawong; Australian Raven; Little Raven; White-winged Chough