Lisa Preston has just sent me details of a pitta seen yesterday (11/11) on the Winifred Beach track on Christmas Island. It was videoed by Braydon Moloney. The bird has a narrow pale supercilium above the black through the face which seems to identify it as a Fairy Pitta (rather than a Blue-winged Pitta). This … Read more
I received a report today of about 500 Wandering Whistling-Ducks in the Murrabit – Noorong area this week. They are occasional vagrants to the area in wet years, but I’ve never heard of them in these numbers before. The rice crops planted in October are no doubt appealing at this time of year. Geoff Leslie … Read more
Hi All Super strong southeasterly winds demanded attention on Sunday, but I didn’t get to the point until 11.00 due to prior commitments. Thousands of Short-tailed and Wedge-tailed Shearwater streamed south in a continous flow against the howling wind. A lone Pomarine Skua, a single Brown Booby and about a dozen Common Noddies seemed to … Read more
Hi Birders, On 2.11.12 I wrote that there appear to be some inconsistencies in the naming of Common and Pacific Emerald Dove. I now accept that the naming is at least internally consistent. My thanks to Mick Roderick, Alastair Smith and Dave Torr for providing helpful information that enabled me to better understand the split. … Read more
Hello Birding-Aus people, One of the most wondrous sights in nature is watching a very large flock (a murmuration) of starlings wheeling around in continuously variable pattern at dusk in late autumn. Some photos of this can be seen in today’s Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2012/nov/11/murmuration-starlings-gretna-pictures#/?picture=399199217&index=0 Video of the phenomenon obtained by entering “Starling Murmuration” into Google. The … Read more