Plains-wanderer breeding success in 2014 in the Wanganella area of the Riverina

Hello I spent most of yesterday studying the 2014 rainfall in the Deniliquin and Wanganella districts and our plains-wanderer sightings for the year. I thought birding-aus might be interested in getting an update on how plains-wanderers fared in 2014 in the our district in another atypical year, weatherwise. Erratic climatic conditions have made 2014 another challenging year for plains-wanderers. While rainfall varied from property to property in the Wanganella district, March, April, June and September measured much better than average although the September rainfall was particularly patchy. Some months saw a serious shortfall in their averages, particularly January, August, October and December. Despite this, we¹ve witnessed the best breeding success of plains-wanderers for many years. The year was notable in the number of months when plains-wanderers had been either paired up or females were heard calling to males, indicating breeding is imminent. Birds were recorded paired up ready to breed in February, June and courting (calling) in March, May and August through to December. There is no doubt that plains-wanderers¹ interest in breeding was due to the year¹s fickle rainfall, prompting them to attempt to take advantage of favourable conditions whenever they occurred, after several years of poor breeding results and the two previous years of low rainfall. Despite all this breeding activity, breeding success only occurred, as far as we know, in October and November, with males with chicks seen on 7 and 29 November and 14 December, with clutches of 4, 5 and 3 seen respectively. The clutch of 5 was a very good effort in such dry conditions. In total for the year, we saw about five separate pairs (low compared to the 1980s and 1990s) of which only two are known to have bred successfully. (One female is thought to have laid two of the three successful clutches). Despite a dry October and December, they have managed to raise at least some of these young to full size, evidenced by sightings of independent immature birds from late November until the present. Recently we¹ve seen an immature female that is just starting to develop a chequered collar, probably around two months old (fully coloured at three months) and most likely from the clutch recorded on 7 November. Only on one night (15 November) when two adult females were recorded, did we ever see more than one adult female in a night. During the year Robert and/or I went out 47 times, four of those times were reconnaissance trips; we missed seeing a plains-wanderer six times (a 33 year record). Robert, while working, encountered an adult female in the daytime on one occasion. Through 2014, we took out 196 birders, disappointing a total of 11 birders, and pleasing 185. The Latest News on our website details every plains-wanderer excursion and sighting. The next plains-wanderer weekend is the special NSW Parks weekend on 14/15 March. Cheers Philip Maher Australian Ornithological Services Pty Ltd PO Box 385 South Yarra 3141 Victoria Australia Tel: + 61 3 98204223 Mobile: 0417310200 http://www.philipmaher.com http://www.youtube.com/user/AOS3141