Month: August 2015

RIP Trevor Ford

Just back from PNG, and very sad to hear that my birding mate Trevor Ford died peacefully with his wife Kym beside him on Aug 22; he had been under treatment for cancer for the past 18 months but seemed to be responding well, to the extent of planning trips again and debating taxonomy issues. Sadly he had a massive relapse about a month ago and never recovered. He and I did trips to Sulawesi and Halmahera, PNG, and just last year Socotra, Kuwait and Dubai. Kym will be scattering his ashes in various favourite birding spots, including of course Buckley’s Hole on Bribie Island, for which he penned an excellent booklet. I shall miss him, RIP mate. Phil Gregory ornithological writer/ bird guide/ tour organizer Website 1: Http://www.sicklebillsafaris.com Website 2: Http://www.cassowary-house.com.au

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BirdLife Victoria Portland Pelagic Trips in the first half of 2016

Dear Pelagic Birders, The BirdLife Victoria web site (see link below) has the details of boat trips from Portland in 2016 and, from tomorrow, I am taking bookings for the first six months of next year. If you want a spot (or spots), please follow the instructions there to make a booking. There are no spots currently available for the remaining trips in 2015 but I do maintain emergency lists and am also interested to hear from people who might want to be emergencies. Regards Chris Lester For details of future Portland trips, go to the BirdLife Australia web site at the bottom of the relevant Birdlife Victoria page at http://www.birdlife.org.au/locations/all-victoria-statewide/activities-vic For reports of past BA-Vic and BirdLife Victoria trips from Portland and Port Fairy, search the Birding-Aus archives for the trip reports at http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/birding-aus/

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White-faced Heron killing Another White-faced Heron

Yesterday bushwalking near Bobbin Head in Sydney’s north we came on an unusual sight: a White-faced Heron standing on another White-faced Heron in shallow water. The second heron was partly submerged and struggling to escape. The first Heron jabbed it repeated with its bill drawing blood and damaging the eye of the first bird and kept forcing it below the water. After being forced below the water several times over about 5 minutes the second heron apparently drowned. The first heron remained standing on or near its lifeless body for perhaps a minute then flew 50m across the estuary, called and started foraging in the shallows. If I’d realized what was happening immediately I might haved intervened, although the track was some distance from the water, but I’d have never seen anything like this behaviour from a heron. HANZAB mentions nothing like this. Reports of intraspecies-killing in birds are rare – although a Welsh swan made the news for it: h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_%28swan%29 Andrew

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Migratory patterns

Greetings I’ve been a member of Birding Aus for a couple of years, but rarely posted anything, so this is in some respects introductory. I’m a research scientist by training, commercial scientist by vocation, meaning that my career was primarily in the commercial domain of companies like Bunge, Cadbury and the sugar industry. I semi-retired 10 years ago and moved about 6 years ago to Swanwick, near Coles Bay on Tassie’s beautiful East Coast. I’d previously lived in East Gippsland, Melbourne, Canberra, Daylesford/Ballarat, Brisbane and Mackay (but there is no migratory pattern in that). I’ve birded over a wide range in Australia, including many of the must-visit spots like Bowra, Winton, Mt Isa, Karumba, Eungella, Barrier Reef islands, Cairns/Atherton Tableland, Gluepot, Cocoparra, most of Tas including Eaglehawk Neck pelagics etc. I’m not a lister, but have some enthusiasm for non-invasive wildlife photography, including habitats. The Swan River at Swanwick forms the lower extreme of a Ramsar wetland known generally as Moulting lagoon. Since moving here I’ve become very aware of the apparent randomness of bird migrations, with many of my observations not reproduced from year to year, or involving few or solitary birds. A few examples: Grey-tailed tattler: solitary bird turned up in late spring, at a place called River and Rocks, on the Swan River estuary 1km upstream from Swanwick township, for 3 successive years from 2009-2011; arriving variously from late October through early December, and leaving from late February through mid-April. Has not been seen since. Latham’s Snipe: Starting with a solitary bird in spring 2010 and reaching a maximum of 3 birds in spring 2013, these birds occupied a small damp grassy area adjacent the Swanwick golf course only until mid summer at the latest. After some interference with this tiny habitat, they did not return in 2014. Banded stilt: On one occasion only, in autumn (20/4/14), a migratory flock of about 50 birds turned up on a shallow tidal flat upstream from Swanwick in the Swan River. They stayed tightly packed, just resting, then flew on overnight or early the next morning. I have not seen them since in this location, but I have a vague recollection of someone (a non-birder) seeing something similar in autumn this year, without precisely identifying the species. Hoary-headed grebe: a large flock (about 250 birds) arrived in late July 2014. Initially very flighty, they settled into several (3-5) flocks dispersed over a stretch of Swan River 1-2 Km upstream from Swanwick, where they stayed until mid-September. I had not seen in earlier years, and it has not happened this year. Bar-tailed godwit: A small flock turn up on the Pelican roost (a tidal sandbank opposite River and Rocks) every year, usually in October and staying until March/April. Numbering 12-15 birds in 2009-11, only 7 arrived last year, tending to support a pattern of decline seen more generally. I have images of most of these if anyone wants them. There are other examples I could give, but suffice to say I’m reaching an obvious conclusion; that Tassie is at the migratory extreme range for a number of species, hence the apparently random events. On the other hand, a number of land species have patterns much more consistent, for example, some altitudinal migrants arrive in the coastal fringe in June/July each year and depart to higher altitude to breed in late winter/early spring (eg Crescent honeyeaters, Golden whistlers, Bassian thrushes). Others arrive in this area in late winter/early spring to breed through the summer months (Spotted Pardelotes turned up on 19/8 (normal), a Pallid cuckoo was heard on 22/8 (early by 2 weeks), but not heard since, and a Fantail Cuckoo was heard on 25/8 (at least a week later than last year). It has been the coldest winter for some years down here , and one could speculate on the relative influence of climate change, local or regional short-term climate variations, and increasing or decreasing day length as a migratory trigger, but they are discussions for another day, and need a lot more data than I can offer. Regards Graeme Bullock Email: gebullock08@bigpond.com> gebullock08@bigpond.com Skype: graeme_bullock

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How has the Night Parrot survived in south-west Queensland?

Ornithological Discoveries – The work Paul Walbridge, Dave Stewart, myself and a few others elsewhere are doing on this as yet unidentified Storm-Petrel will be a major event – once we have more data. This is work in progress – it’s either a long lost rediscovery (Lined Storm-Petrel – last seen & collected in the mid 1800s) or a totally new species. Watch this space – approximately 40 birds have been sighted and one examined in the hand. More field work is planned for early 2016. Rob Sent from my iPad > On 30 Aug 2015, at 07:40, Peter Shute < pshute@nuw.org.au> wrote: > > Interesting discussion. It’s probably hard to compare achievements like that, and Laurie’s example of clearing Macquarie Island of ferals, and perhaps Gould’s Birds of Australia, with finding a Night Parrot population. > > While all of them required good planning, funding, persistence and determination, the first three only required enough of those things to guarantee success. John’s task had a huge chance of failure the whole way, no matter how much he put into it. Lots of others have tried and failed. > > Lots of birders would know what it feels like staking out a cryptic species. You sit there for hours, thinking about the other birds you could be seeing right now, knowing you might see what you came for at any moment, or wait that long again and go home having seen nothing at all. > > Peter Shute > > Sent from my iPad > >> On 29 Aug 2015, at 11:30 pm, Charles < ccgfh@yahoo.com.au> wrote: >> >> Yes, good call. >> >> Any others? >> >> Cheers, >> Charles Hunter >> +61 402 907 577 >> >>> On 29 Aug 2015, at 9:58 pm, Philip Veerman < pveerman@pcug.org.au> wrote: >>> >>> Well how about HANZAB? >>> >>> Philip >>> >>> —–Original Message—– >>> From: Birding-Aus [mailto:birding-aus-bounces@birding-aus.org] On Behalf Of Charles >>> Sent: Saturday, 29 August 2015 7:47 PM >>> To: martin cachard >>> Cc: birding-aus@birding-aus.org >>> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] How has the Night Parrot survived in south-west Queensland? >>> >>> What other achievements in the last 2-3 decades are there? >>> >>> Interested to know what people think other avian achievements (in Australia) that may compare. >>> >>> Cheers, >>> Charles Hunter >>> +61 402 907 577 >>> >>> >>> >>>

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Eungella Honeyeaters

Got the Eungella Honeyeater yesterday. A pair in a dense tree just off the track but giving enough of a look to match the facial and eye characteristics. Bev could hear them calling in the area for about 20 minutes. While my number is a bit fuzzy, this is near enough to 600 for it to be counted as such. Bev’s 600 was the Citrine Wagtail near Mudgee last year. A plea for help, off-topic. For some reason, I lost all my emails on the iPad last night. I had done a restart and when it came back on, the email app had nothing. After several restarts, some of the inbox came back each time, but not all of them. All were shown as unread, and many that I had deleted also came back to the inbox. None of my drafts or sent have come back. I would like to recover some lengthy drafts. Any ideas? Peter and Bev Morgan The conservation battle is never finally won; the development battle is.

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How has the Night Parrot survived in south-west Queensland?

Interesting discussion. It’s probably hard to compare achievements like that, and Laurie’s example of clearing Macquarie Island of ferals, and perhaps Gould’s Birds of Australia, with finding a Night Parrot population. While all of them required good planning, funding, persistence and determination, the first three only required enough of those things to guarantee success. John’s task had a huge chance of failure the whole way, no matter how much he put into it. Lots of others have tried and failed. Lots of birders would know what it feels like staking out a cryptic species. You sit there for hours, thinking about the other birds you could be seeing right now, knowing you might see what you came for at any moment, or wait that long again and go home having seen nothing at all. Peter Shute Sent from my iPad > On 29 Aug 2015, at 11:30 pm, Charles < ccgfh@yahoo.com.au> wrote: > > Yes, good call. > > Any others? > > Cheers, > Charles Hunter > +61 402 907 577 > >> On 29 Aug 2015, at 9:58 pm, Philip Veerman < pveerman@pcug.org.au> wrote: >> >> Well how about HANZAB? >> >> Philip >> >> —–Original Message—– >> From: Birding-Aus [mailto:birding-aus-bounces@birding-aus.org] On Behalf Of Charles >> Sent: Saturday, 29 August 2015 7:47 PM >> To: martin cachard >> Cc: birding-aus@birding-aus.org >> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] How has the Night Parrot survived in south-west Queensland? >> >> What other achievements in the last 2-3 decades are there? >> >> Interested to know what people think other avian achievements (in Australia) that may compare. >> >> Cheers, >> Charles Hunter >> +61 402 907 577 >> >> >> >>

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How has the Night Parrot survived in south-west Queensland?

Well how about HANZAB? Philip —–Original Message—– From: Birding-Aus [mailto:birding-aus-bounces@birding-aus.org] On Behalf Of Charles Sent: Saturday, 29 August 2015 7:47 PM To: martin cachard Cc: birding-aus@birding-aus.org Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] How has the Night Parrot survived in south-west Queensland? What other achievements in the last 2-3 decades are there? Interested to know what people think other avian achievements (in Australia) that may compare. Cheers, Charles Hunter +61 402 907 577

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