Over-wintering Yellow Wagtails in Australia? At this stage, more properly a winter record.

Hi Mick, Why assume that because a Yellow Wagtail is seen on 22 June in Australia that it is necessarily overwintering? One can only make that claim if the bird is seen throughout the winter, not on just one day. Someone else made the same claim about another species seen recently on a single day and although it raised my ire, I didn’t complain. If it is still around in September then it will have overwintered. Until then, this is just a winter record, as significant as that may be. A true case of overwintering was the Spotted Redshank found at the Eastern Treatment Plant SE of Melbourne on 14 March 1992, that disappeared from that site on 29 May 1992 but rediscovered on a nearby wetland on 17 June and after moving to a number of other wetlands in the district was last seen in the area on 14 September 1992. Besides Yellow Wagtails, both White and Citrine have also appeared in Australia in winter. A White Wagtail of the race leucopsis was present at Portland, Victoria from 7 June to 23 August 1992 (I’d accept that bird overwintered), and an adult male Citrine Wagtail was present at Goolwa, South Australia from late May into early June 1987 when it suddenly disappeared. Nearly two decades later we learnt that it had been shot and prepared as a stuffed skin! It was found when a private collection was gifted to the South Australian Museum following the demise of its owner! And that wasn’t the only rarity that he had collected! Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136 —– Original Message —– From: “Bill Stent” <billstent@gmail.com> To: <birding-aus@birding-aus.org> Sent: Monday, June 30, 2014 3:40 PM Subject: [Birding-Aus] Over-wintering Yellow Wagtails in Australia > See below. Replies to Mick, Please > > Bill (moderator) > ————————————————————————- > From: Mick Roderick <mickhhb@yahoo.com.au> > To: “birding-aus@birding-aus.org” <birding-aus@birding-aus.org> > Cc: > Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 22:18:21 -0700 > Subject: Over-wintering Yellow Wagtails in Australia > Hi all, > > A Yellow Wagtail was seen on Hexham Swamp, Hunter Estuary, NSW on the > 22nd June by Karen Thumm and Andrew Stauber. It was thought to be a > tschutschensis (EYW) bird due to the white eyebrow. The observers had > close and extended views of the bird and there is no doubt about its > identity (they have seen the birds before both here and in the > northern hemisphere). The sighting was reported to Birdline NSW. > Unfortunately no images were taken and no one has been able to find > the bird since. > > The sighting is significant because as far as I can tell it would be > the first over-wintering EYW recorded in NSW. In fact, HANZAB lists > just a few examples of over-wintering Yellow Wagtails in Australia and > a couple of those are given as “possibly” (whatever that is supposed > to mean). The more definitive records from HANZAB are for Dawson River > (Qld, June 1905), Heron Island (June, 1979), Weribee STP 31/07/2000 > (as detailed in Twitcher’s Corner in Wingspan December 2000) and > August records at Eyre Bird Observatory (WA) in August 1984. > > Is anyone else aware of over-wintering Yellow Wags in Australia? I’m > surprised that there aren’t any from NW WA or the Top End. > > Any details would be appreciated. > > Cheers > Mick _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org