Author: nagrompr

Watching, right now, 6 Frigatebirds “floating” just over the beach in front of our house at Brooms Head, northern NSW. rain and wind make it hard to discern more than the white breast markings, so cannot decide between Great and Least.

Peter and Bev Morgan ===============================

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Martin said:: “”I have been wondering for quite some time what everyone thinks about the distinctive race ‘rowleyi’ Striated Grasswren preferred habitat is – in my experience with this race, I’ve only found them on SAND-PLAIN spinifex in Bladensburg NP & in the general Opalton area, NOT on rocky ground with spinifex. BUT I noticed the other day that on Tim Faulkner’s trip recently to Opalton area that there is an image showing the bird inhabiting spinifex on ROCKY ground !! This is something that I didn’t know about. It seems maybe this race is more of a generalist & inhabits sandy & rocky ground. Does anyone care to share their experiences of this race so far as habitat preference is concerned…?? Is Graeme Chapman out there to comment?? Cheers for now, Martin Cachard””

My wife, Bev, and I saw the Striated Grasswren on the top of a rocky hill just past Opalton last year. It seemed to be the place that had been described on Eremaea (I think). Two were in clear view as they bounded across a rocky ledge with not much spinifex on it. A short time after, we saw another getting about, still on the ledge, but in a larger clump of spinifex. We could not be sure it was a third, but it think it was. That was about 1pm. Later, Bev heard some down on the flat at road level (you have to be there to appreciate her hearing!), and after a while, we did see two others where she was hearing them from. That was about 3.30pm.

We also picked up the Kalkadoon at Mica Creek and the Carpentarian on Macnamara’s Rd from Mt Isa. Each of those were between midday and 1pm.

We rang Rob Forsythe to talk about our sightings at Mt Isa, and he said he only ever saw the grasswrens in the middle of the day, not before 10 o’clock. We had spent many early mornings, at Bladensburg, taking our breakfast out to catch (not literally) the Striated early in the morning, working on the basis that birds go quiet in the heat of the day. When we got it on a return trip, the first sighting seemed to confirm Rob’s advice. I Wonder what other people have found on the best time to see grasswrens?

Peter and Bev Morgan ===============================

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Martin said:: “”I have been wondering for quite some time what everyone thinks about the distinctive race ‘rowleyi’ Striated Grasswren preferred habitat is – in my experience with this race, I’ve only found them on SAND-PLAIN spinifex in Bladensburg NP & in the general Opalton area, NOT on rocky ground with spinifex. BUT I noticed the other day that on Tim Faulkner’s trip recently to Opalton area that there is an image showing the bird inhabiting spinifex on ROCKY ground !! This is something that I didn’t know about. It seems maybe this race is more of a generalist & inhabits sandy & rocky ground. Does anyone care to share their experiences of this race so far as habitat preference is concerned…?? Is Graeme Chapman out there to comment?? Cheers for now, Martin Cachard””

My wife, Bev, and I saw the Striated Grasswren on the top of a rocky hill just past Opalton last year. It seemed to be the place that had been described on Eremaea (I think). Two were in clear view as they bounded across a rocky ledge with not much spinifex on it. A short time after, we saw another getting about, still on the ledge, but in a larger clump of spinifex. We could not be sure it was a third, but it think it was. That was about 1pm. Later, Bev heard some down on the flat at road level (you have to be there to appreciate her hearing!), and after a while, we did see two others where she was hearing them from. That was about 3.30pm.

We also picked up the Kalkadoon at Mica Creek and the Carpentarian on Macnamara’s Rd from Mt Isa. Each of those were between midday and 1pm.

We rang Rob Forsythe to talk about our sightings at Mt Isa, and he said he only ever saw the grasswrens in the middle of the day, not before 10 o’clock. We had spent many early mornings, at Bladensburg, taking our breakfast out to catch (not literally) the Striated early in the morning, working on the basis that birds go quiet in the heat of the day. When we got it on a return trip, the first sighting seemed to confirm Rob’s advice.

Wonder what other people have found on the best time to see grasswrens?

Peter and Bev Morgan

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Forwarding a lengthy comment on this from my son who uses the app on his iPhone. The third para raises the question of piracy which is possible with Android devices, and the last asks if the problems have been with them.

Peter Morgan

Begin forwarded message:

> From: John Morgan > Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Updated Morcombe app > Date: 3 June 2012 10:12:37 AM AEST > To: Peter Morgan > > > I’ve never experienced this and never heard of it. I also read through the itunes reviews and no one has reported this as a problem there. You should ask if people could post a screenshot of the failure to validate notification (press home & power buttons simultaneously & look in the photo app). > The report sounds odd because there is no reason for a developer to validate a license on the iphone/ipad. This would be an anti-piracy measure, to ensure a legitimately purchased app is being used, not a pirated app. But piracy on iOS is essentially non-existant, because apps are only available from Apple’s app store, and can only be loaded onto devices by the App Store app or iTunes on a pc. You can’t move apps from one device to another, or download from a website or other non-Apple source. (You can do this by jailbreaking the device which allows app copying and hence piracy. But the small number of users who bother to do this is is not commercially interesting to developers, and are not worth the expense of coding anti piracy measures or inconveniencing the legitimate users for.) So I’ve never heard of an iOS app requiring a license validation. For instance, I use a password manager (OnePassword) which is available on the mac and also the iPhone/iPad. The mac application requires a validated user license, but there is no license needed for the iPhone app. > > However, the Morecombe app is also available on the Android store, where piracy is a problem. Pirated apps can be (and are) placed in the Android store, and Android devices can also install apps from other sources, so developers on Android do need to consider this, especially for an expensive app like Morecombe. > > So I wonder if the reports of an offline license validation problem are coming from users on Android devices. Can you confirm this with someone who has experienced the problem? > > john >

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Just sitting on our deck at Brooms Head, north coast of NSW, watching a Peregrine Falcon zooming back and forth low over the beach. Has flown over the house 4 times, nearly taking the roof with it. When we first saw it about 15 minutes ago, it was being pursued by a Kestrel.

Only seen a Peregrine once before out here.

Two weeks ago, we had another unusual sighting of a Brown Falcon along the road about 400m from the coast. It was seen at about 9am add again at midday.

Peter and Bev Morgan ===============================

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Tim, John and Bev Morgan saw what was either an albino Figbird or Oriole on James Ck Rd (just past the Harwood Bridge on the Clarence River, on the way to Yamba, 29 Dec. Feeding on red berries with Figbirds; pink eye, legs and bill.

iPhone photo shows stark white bird against greenery, but not good enough to see details.

Peter Morgan ===============================

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