January 2013

The swamp on Hoskinstown Plain has again added exciting new species to the district list.  Up to 4 Painted Snipe were seen early in January, 2 Freckled Duck a week or so later, and 2 Glossy Ibis mid-month (rising to 10 Ibis late in the month)..  All of these species are uncommon on the Monaro.  More common in the area – but not here – at least in the past were the Pink-eared ducks added to the list after a sighting on Foxlow Lagoon.

A juvenile Pallid Cuckoo appeared in our garden and in response to the begging calls a White-eared Honeyeater fed it.  The next day two honeyeaters were on feeding duty.  Other good breeding records - White-winged Triller and Dusky Woodswallow - were in a mixed flock seen on 25 January.

The big storm of Australia Day seems to have swept some White-throated Needletails into the area, with reports from Widgiewa and Hoskinstown on the 27th.  Also around that day a flock of 10 Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes were seen on Widgiewa Rd, hanging upside down to bathe and generally imitating galahs!

Thanks to all who have reported information to me with observations coming in from Wanna Wanna Rd, Radcliffe, Widgiewa Rd, the Molonglo Valley, Hoskinstown Plain and Hoskinstown Village.  As always comments and observations welcome: my address is martinflab <at> gmail <dot> com.

In total for the month we recorded 125 species: the most ever by a long way!  This was 9 more than the number of species recorded in December 2012 and 31 (!!!) species more than January 2012.  While a lot of this extra action reflected the number of unusual birds seen on the Plain it also reflects just about all the usual suspects being spotted.

11 species were reported breeding and are marked in red in the listing below.

1  Waterbirds:   Freckled Duck;  Black Swan;  Australian Shelduck; Australian Wood Duck; Pink-eared Duck; Australian Shoveler; Grey Teal; Chestnut Teal; Pacific Black Duck; Hardhead; Australasian Grebe; Hoary-headed Grebe; Darter; Little Black Cormorant; Little Pied Cormorant; Great Cormorant;  White‑necked Heron; Intermediate Egret; White‑faced Heron;  Glossy Ibis; Australian White Ibis; Straw-necked Ibis; Purple Swamphen;  Dusky Moorhen;  EurasianCoot;  Black‑fronted Dotterel; Masked Lapwing; Banded Lapwing; Painted Snipe; 

2 Birds of Prey:  Black-shouldered Kite; Brown Goshawk; Collared Sparrowhawk; Spotted Harrier; Swamp Harrier; Wedge-tailed Eagle; Little Eagle; Nankeen Kestrel; Brown Falcon; Australian Hobby; Peregrine Falcon.

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

4 Kingfishers and other non-songbirds: Stubble Quail; Brown quail; Rock Dove; Common Bronzewing; Crested Pigeon;  Tawny Frogmouth; Australian Owlet-nightjar; White-throated Needletail;  Horsfield's Bronze‑Cuckoo;  Shining Bronze‑cuckoo; Pallid Cuckoo; Fan‑tailed Cuckoo; Brush Cuckoo; Southern Boobook; Laughing Kookaburra; Sacred Kingfisher; Rainbow Bee‑eater; Dollarbird.

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

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

7 Thornbills, Finches and similar species:  Superb Fairy-wren; White-browed Scrubwren; Weebill; Western Gerygone; 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; White‑-winged Triller; Olive‑backed Oriole; Dusky Woodswallow; Horsefields Bushlark, Skylark; Australian Reed-warbler; Rufous Songlark; Brown Songlark; 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

Other posts:
Readers might also be interested in the Annual report; a post on pallid cuckoo breeding; the glossy ibis; a couple on honeyeaters on exotic plants; and from my core blog, a mixed feeding flock.

Much of the bird life is influenced by the weather, so people might also be interested in my monthly review of the month's weather at Whiskers Creek Rd.  From my view the most interesting issue is the direction of the wind:  I have always thought the prevailing wind to come from the NW: however it appears for January at least that most of the wind has come from the arc NE - SE -SW.  (I have checked the registration of the wether station  - ie the recorded direction agrees with what I can see and feel - and it is kosher.)

Glossy Ibis on the Plain

This afternoon I got a call to say that 2 Glossy ibis were in a damp bit of the Plain.  They were with a bunch of other waterbirds (see below) but by getting out into the (rapidly becoming less) soggy area I was able to get a photograph of this first sighting for the District.

I will point out that I was following protocol and definitely not thinking about tiger snakes while taking this shot.

Shortly thereafter the birds took off and I was - on the point-the-camera-in-the-general-direction-and-fire-away principle - able to get a semi-reasonable aerial shot.

At times we were both impressed by the speed and aerial agility of these birds.  They performed side slips and 180 turns at high speed, such that if we didn't know what they were a quick glance might have said "falcon"!

The most obvious other birds were 20 - yes, 20!! - White-necked Herons.  Here are 5 of them:

I think it would be tough being a frog in the bog now.  As well as the species already mentioned there were also 7 Straw-necked Ibis and about 5 White-faced Herons.  Here are a couple of aerial shots of elements of the flock in the air.

 The noticeable smaller birds are the Glossies:the others in this shot are Straw-necked Ibis.

Some of the Herons have entered this image.

I was most amused by this image, which I found lurking in a corner of one of my several shots of the flock in the air.

Also present were 2 Banded Lapwings, some Grey Teal, a lot of Eurasian Coots several Fairy Martins and Welcome Swallows.  Just as we were leaving a Swamp Harrier flew over, causing everyone else to take off.  It landed in the swamp and seemed to be feeding. The prey could not be seen but they do eat reptiles, so we can only hope there is one less of them around!