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

Sacred Kingfisher

Whiskers Creek has been relatively well endowed with Sacred Kingfishers this year.  One posed nicely in view from our sun-room one evening.  Here are a range of images of it in various poses.

Annual Report 2014: overall picture

This is an overall report on birds observed in Carwoola in 2014.  I use the term Carwoola to cover the catchment area of the Stoney Creek Gazette,  As well as Carwoola itself (both the Queanbeyan and Palerang elements) it includes a bunch of localities (including Primrose Valley and, importantly, 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.

While I largely followed the model used for the Annual Report for 2011 to 2013, in particular the decision to adopt a multi-post approach, 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!)

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.

A first point to note is that there has been an amount of churn in the panel of observers during the year as folk were away for periods during the year (in July several of the regular observers were away for most of the month for various reasons).  However, others have stepped up and are now reporting regularly.  Thanks folks!

By the end of 2013 we had recorded, over a 8 year period, 185 species in the catchment area of the Gazette.   2 species (Red-kneed Dotterel and Black Kite) were observed for the first time in 2014 and by the end of that year year 19 have been recorded in every month since this project started in 2007.  That number has remained constant for 3 years and can probably be taken as the minimum number of resident species..

Over the 8 year period 90 species have been recorded undertaking breeding activity.  2 species were recorded breeding for the first time in 2013.

The 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 2014, 150 species were recorded in the study area.  This is 81% of those ever recorded in the area.  This graph shows the number of species recorded per year.

The increase between 2011 and 2013, despite the decline in observer effort in 2013  is in part due to:

• the astonishing variety of birds seen in and near an ephemeral swamp in the Hoskinstown Plain over the Summer of 2012-13.  (That Swamp is now waterless and the expected decline in diversity has happened as a result.);
• dry conditions in the inland beginning to send birds from that area to our part of the country in late 2013.  

In 2014 27% of the species recorded were observed undertaking some form of breeding activity.  This value is lower than in other recent years in this area (data is somewhat deficient for the first two years). 

I suspect that the recent decline is mainly due to observers who used to report many breeding events having moved on. 

Links to other sections of this report

Breeding
Comparison with 2013
Comaprison with earlier years