Seems weird but it’s in The Age so it must be true! ===============================
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Roger,
Hope your Common Loon wasn’t a woodpecker 😉 Someone picked up a “loon”, put it in their bathtub to keep it comfortable and called a birder to have a look at it. When the birder arrived, he was surprised to find a soaked unhappy Hairy Woodpecker in the bathtub. An almost deadly misidentification…
Cheers 😉
Nikolas
Â
As a Wires rescuer in the Blue Mountains I have several times picked up Aus. and Hoary-headed Grebes that have come to grief on wet roads. No injury, just need to be put in the nearest body of water. Last September a Great-crested Grebe was found on a doorstep in Leura. When released on Wentworth Falls lake it immediately made contact with another GCB. They were there for some months. Not sure if they are still there. Cheers, Jill
Here in Northern Norway we now and then, particularly after storms, have similar problems with alcids, particularly the Little Auk (or Dovekie) Alle alle. When they land in the snow, it is impossible for them to fly up again, and they are dependent on people to rescue them and bring them to open water—which in winter may necessitate a long drive to the nearest fjord.. We occasionally also have had Atlantic Puffin in the same predicament, but by far the majority of these victims are Little Auks. But in our case they are really victims of the wind, not birds that miscalculate and believe wet asphalt etc are water surfaces.
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum 9037 Tromsø, Norway wim.vader@uit.no
________________________________________ Van: birding-aus-bounces@lists.vicnet.net.au [birding-aus-bounces@lists.vicnet.net.au] namens brian fleming [flambeau@labyrinth.net.au] Verzonden: donderdag 15 december 2011 7:49 Aan: Carl Clifford; Birding-aus@vicnet.net.au Onderwerp: Re: [Birding-Aus] Grebes mistake car park for lake
I have heard of many cases of Musk Ducks, Blue-billed Ducks and all three Australian grebe species landing on moonlit tin roofs. Old copies of “Wild Life” magazine used to carry reports, often from people puzzled because they believed that Musk Ducks are unable to fly.
I notice that all these birds are very poor walkers and may not be able to fly without a water take-off. Presumably after landing on a solid surface, other waterbirds were able to get up and fly on. One Australasian Grebe landed on a friend’s garage, and subsequently fell or jumped off the roof, was found in garden by Labrador dog, rescued and released at Banyule Flats, Heidelberg.
I wonder if the Walmart car-park had a coating of frost or otherwise looked like a lake, perhaps in moonlight?
Anthea Fleming
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I have heard of many cases of Musk Ducks, Blue-billed Ducks and all three Australian grebe species landing on moonlit tin roofs. Old copies of “Wild Life” magazine used to carry reports, often from people puzzled because they believed that Musk Ducks are unable to fly.
I notice that all these birds are very poor walkers and may not be able to fly without a water take-off. Presumably after landing on a solid surface, other waterbirds were able to get up and fly on. One Australasian Grebe landed on a friend’s garage, and subsequently fell or jumped off the roof, was found in garden by Labrador dog, rescued and released at Banyule Flats, Heidelberg.
I wonder if the Walmart car-park had a coating of frost or otherwise looked like a lake, perhaps in moonlight?
Anthea Fleming
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I have actually experienced this a few times and expect it is not uncommon. While living in the states I picked up a Common Loon off a country road deep in the mountains of North Carolina, it was a migrant and the previous night was a full moon…Loons are only passage migrants through this area. When in NZ two years ago in the “pelagic capital of Kaikoura” I drove around the town and picked up over 30 Hutton’s Shearwarters off the main highway and dropped them backinto the surf. The following day there were many squished birds along the roadside…then last year we had a Whistling-duck thud onto the tin roof of our cottage out in Samford…however this was an almost a moonless night.
Cheers,
 Roger
Roger McNeill Samford Valley, SEQ
________________________________ Sent: Thursday, 15 December 2011 3:05 PM
A few months ago a friend of a friend living in the Blue Mountains, NSW reported an adult Hoary-headed Grebe in a backyard near Wentworth Falls whilst another had made it to a nearby lake. They were subsequently reunited. I was interested in the report, Here is the gist of the email correspondence,
Me “I am interested in the the story of the Grebe in the backyard. Grebes are nomadic and generally fly at night in their search for water. They pick a clear moonlit night and look for water reflecting in the moonlight. However it is not uncommon for them to mistake shiny tin roofs for water and in the bush many a farmer has been startled by Grebes and other waterbirds landing on their roof in the dead of night (probably not as startled as the birds!). Another explanation is you live in the mountains and what may have started as a clear night suddenly became hazardous as mist or cloud rolled in making water spotting impossible. Obviously I don’t know the details of your Grebe but just thought it worth mentioning! It’s great the story had a happy ending and let’s hope lots of Greblets are forthcoming.”
The reply “You are quite right of course to mention the grebe predilection for inappropriate landing sites! Most of the grebes that come into care have simply landed in the wrong place and can’t take off from dry land. Those pesky lobes aren’t built for walking! Sometimes it’s a backyard where they’re found sheepishly standing beside a goldfish pond and often it’s beside a strip of bitumen road which they’ve clearly mistaken for water. I haven’t heard of landing on rooves but that’s a wonderful piece of information – thankyou. I put forward exhaustion as a theory when we realised there was a partner – why would one come down and not the other? It’s interesting to ponder but we’ll probably never know!
Usually it’s the dispersing juveniles who get themselves into trouble. I released one such juvenile Great Crested onto Wentworth Falls Lake a few months ago. It was therefore very exciting to see an adult in breeding plumage up so close and personal!
The pair is still on the Lake and were seen today performing their courtship dance on the water so it’s looking good for grebelts.”
Cheers Chris Gregory
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A few months ago a friend of a friend living in the Blue Mountains, NSW reported an adult Hoary-headed Grebe in a backyard near Wentworth Falls whilst another had made it to a nearby lake. They were subsequently reunited. I was interested in the report, Here is the gist of the email correspondence,
Me “I am interested in the the story of the Grebe in the backyard. Grebes are nomadic and generally fly at night in their search for water. They pick a clear moonlit night and look for water reflecting in the moonlight. However it is not uncommon for them to mistake shiny tin roofs for water and in the bush many a farmer has been startled by Grebes and other waterbirds landing on their roof in the dead of night (probably not as startled as the birds!). Another explanation is you live in the mountains and what may have started as a clear night suddenly became hazardous as mist or cloud rolled in making water spotting impossible. Obviously I don’t know the details of your Grebe but just thought it worth mentioning! It’s great the story had a happy ending and let’s hope lots of Greblets are forthcoming.”
The reply “You are quite right of course to mention the grebe predilection for inappropriate landing sites! Most of the grebes that come into care have simply landed in the wrong place and can’t take off from dry land. Those pesky lobes aren’t built for walking! Sometimes it’s a backyard where they’re found sheepishly standing beside a goldfish pond and often it’s beside a strip of bitumen road which they’ve clearly mistaken for water. I haven’t heard of landing on rooves but that’s a wonderful piece of information – thankyou. I put forward exhaustion as a theory when we realised there was a partner – why would one come down and not the other? It’s interesting to ponder but we’ll probably never know!
Usually it’s the dispersing juveniles who get themselves into trouble. I released one such juvenile Great Crested onto Wentworth Falls Lake a few months ago. It was therefore very exciting to see an adult in breeding plumage up so close and personal!
The pair is still on the Lake and were seen today performing their courtship dance on the water so it’s looking good for grebelts.”
Cheers Chris Gregory
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When I worked for a month at Newhaven Reserve back in 2004 I had a Coot land on my roof at about 3am and wander around quite confused for half an hour (very noisily). It was on a bright moonlit night and the tin roof would have glowed like water from above I’m sure.
Cheers, Chris
Sent from my iPhone
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It is quite a common phenomenon in Europe that grebes accidentally land on wet freeways or parking lots. However, the numbers in this Utah case are shocking.
Cheers,
Nikolas
Â
I too have frequently heard of ducks (mostly pacific Black Ducks) landing at night on corrugated iron roofs of outback sheds, but have not seen it personally.
On Christmas Island the 3 species of frigatebirds are in the habitat of drinking from freshwater pools in mine clearings.I sometimes saw them trying to drink the air just above hot dusty road surface. I assumed that their vision (which is adapted to seeing fish below the surface, flying at night, and probably many other things) must have mistaken heat haze off the road for pools of water.
 David James,
Jakarta burunglaut07@yahoo.com ==============================
________________________________ Cc: birding-aus Sent: Wednesday, 14 December 2011 8:07 PM
I once heard a rumour that grebes often land on the runways at Perth airport and every morning a truck goes out with people to gather them up and return them to a nearby wetland – but I have never seen/heard proof of it. Now I’m tempted to see if I can find out more.
Belinda Stirling W.A.
I once heard a rumour that grebes often land on the runways at Perth airport and every morning a truck goes out with people to gather them up and return them to a nearby wetland – but I have never seen/heard proof of it. Now I’m tempted to see if I can find out more.
Belinda Stirling W.A.
Dave,
I would believe it. Walmart stores seem to attract bizarre behaviour in a range of species, though this seems to mainly have occurred in Homo sapiens. For examples, Google “Walmart people”.
On a serious side, does anyone know of this type of incident happening in Australia?
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/thousands-of-birds-make-fatal-crash-landing-in-walmart-car-park-20111215-1ovgw.html
Seems weird but it’s in The Age so it must be true! ===============================
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I have heard of Blue-billed Ducks doing likewise on iron roofs of large sheds in inland NSW on rainy nights.