Hi,
9 White-throated Needletails flying over Hurdle Gully Scientific Area, Coominglah State Forest, Monto, QLD.
Sat,9 Oct, approx 2 PM
Cheers, Nev Capell ===============================
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Sorry Helen and anyone else interested. 25 km SE of Canberra is close enough. Martin Martin Butterfield http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/ On 17 March 2014 12:18, Helen Larson < gobywan2001@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: _______________________________________________ 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
hello all… my apologies for this much delayed posting, but I’ve had major computer & on-line issues…something of a constant frustration up here at the moment!! some 2 weeks ago on 01/03/14 I had the lucky fortune to witness a massive mixed flock of hawking swifts above the southern end of Trinity Beach, where I live north of Cairns. conditions were stormy & time was from 7:30-8:30am. amongst the flock I counted at least 80 White-throated Needletails, 50-ish Aust Swiftlets, 100’s (i’m guessing 2000+) of Fork-tailed Swifts, together with many White-breasted Woodswallows & a few Welcome Swallows… flying ants were their prey… this is the highest recent count I’ve had of needletails on the Cairns lowlands in many years…many of the Fork-tailed’s were in tail moult but there were no House Swifts discernible in the group, all birds with shortish forked tails were definite Forkies. a truly amazing morning!! cheers martin cachard, Cairns _______________________________________________ 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
I wonder where Whiskers Creek is. Here at Wongaling Beach, FNQ (17 deg 55’00” S 146deg 05′ 48″ E more or less) we saw at least 12 White-throated needletails hawking overhead at 8am, with only 5 Aust swiftlets with them, on Saturday 15 March. First we’ve noticed for this year. They really are fun to watch, must be good for neck flexibility as they zoom past. Helen < ')/////==< On Saturday, 15 March 2014, 9:27, Martin Butterfield <martinflab@gmail.com> wrote: Thanks to a tip-off from Ros Cornish I have just recorded 6 White-throated Needletails hawking over Whiskers Creek. Although seen *from *my GBS site they were about 500m upstream so couldn’t be counted for that purpose. They did oblige nicely for my “Bird-a-day” project however. Martin Butterfield http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/ _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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
Hi Mike,
Thanx for your reply – am glad that you pretty much agree with what I’d put forward to the list regarding salient ID features of House Swift v’s Fork-tailed Swift…
I have just got home now from 2 days up at my Black-winged Monarch study site, north of Cooktown – I saw a loose group of about 20 White-throated Needletails whizzing low over me above the road there yesterday morning, but not a single FTS!! Weather conditiions when I saw the needletails were humid, clear but with some storm activity closeby, & with a shower there an hour earlier…
Other birds at the site, apart from about 15 Black-winged Monarchs (all adults or at end of first year), included: Black Bittern, myriad Oriental Cuckoos (prob 25 or so within 3kms), nesting Noisy Pittas, nesting Azure & Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfishers, nesting Papuan Frogmouths, nesting Shining Flycatchers, Chestnut-breasetd Cuckoos, all 3 fruit-doves, Northern Fantails, White-browed Robins, & some very camera-shy Tropoical Scrubwrens etc etc …. plus so many more… not a bad spot to visit at least 10 times per year!!
I’m still yet to see any FTS here in north Qld this season!!
Cheers for now,
Martin Cachard Cairns
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G’day Martin
Sorry for the delay – my e-mail program has crashed and doing everything from web-mail is taking longer.
I think all of your points for separating FTS from HS are valid. Quite a few observers are seeing either moulting FTS or non-moulting HS at the moment and at least one of them looks valid, for a claim to HS.
If you can see all the features you have mentioned then I think you can ID the bird. Problem is when the bird is too far away or it just whizzes past once, and we are tempted to see what we want to see, we may be deceived.
There are some photos of HS at: http://www.google.com.au/images?q=Apus+nipalensis+photo&hl=en-AU&gbv=2&gs_l=heirloom-hp.3…2976.11829.0.12307.18.17.1.0.0.0.201.2740.0j14j1.15.0…0.0…1c.1.Q9qgY520-wo&sa=X&oi=image_result_group
But be warned: at least one of the initial photos labelled HS is a FTS – which becomes clear as you go into individual photos.
Happy swift watching
Mike Tarburton ========
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A group of 10 Fork-tailed swifts went over our heads by the Wongaling Beach tip at 6.30pm on 10 January – we were watching the track where my first ever Pale-vented bush-hen had just trotted back into the bush (hoping it might come back) and only looked up after hearing the swifts skreeing as they sailed overhead. First for the season here on the FNQ coast. Swifts are fascinatingly difficult, but I rather like them. Helen
< ')/////==< ________________________________ Sent: Friday, 11 January 2013, 17:44 Hi Dom, Alan, Mike & all other swift enthusiasts... I think that it is very important when looking through groups of Fork-tailed Swifts for House Swifts that a number of things need to be considered... There a usually a high proportion of Fork-tails visiting our parts undergoing some tail &/or some wing moult, giving them a rather similar shape to House Swifts. Also to compound the ID difficulty, the white throat patch is rather variable amongst Fork-tails as well, with most showing the usual smaller & more diffuse white patch, whilst some others do show a brighter white & more clear-cut throat patch (so that it resembles the throat of a House Swift). What I have also looked for to help i.d. House Swifts are the darker underparts that lack the paler edges/tips typical of Fork-taileds in fresh plumage, which most are (I think?!) when in these parts in summer. Therefore, I think if you have a short & broad tailed swift with shorter & slightly broader wings than a Fork-tail, combined with a bright white & clear-cut throat patch (ie. throat patch like a needletail), & then combined with darker underbody parts without any scaly appearance....then & only then, you are most probably looking at a House Swift. Incidentally, I am yet to see any Fork-tails (or House) this season near Cairns - having moved away from the northern side of Cairns to the southern side has meant that I'm living in a very flat area inland on the coastal plain, well away from the foothills & coastline that these birds usually favour. It would be great if you guys get to look more closely at these House Swift-like birds when you next see some, as I would not be surprised that one or two actually were indeed House Swifts!! I have myself at least 5 records of them to the north of Cairns in the last 16 years. If Mike or anyone else has other ID features for House Swifts against Fork-tails then I think we all would benefit from them... I think that smaller size for House Swifts is mostly due to shorter tail length, so that tail-moulting Foork-tails appear similar in size (happy to be correcetd on this feature, Mike...) Cheers for now, Martin Cachard, Cairns, =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) http://birding-aus.org =============================== ===============================
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Hi Dom, Alan, Mike & all other swift enthusiasts…
I think that it is very important when looking through groups of Fork-tailed Swifts for House Swifts that a number of things need to be considered…
There a usually a high proportion of Fork-tails visiting our parts undergoing some tail &/or some wing moult, giving them a rather similar shape to House Swifts. Also to compound the ID difficulty, the white throat patch is rather variable amongst Fork-tails as well, with most showing the usual smaller & more diffuse white patch, whilst some others do show a brighter white & more clear-cut throat patch (so that it resembles the throat of a House Swift).
What I have also looked for to help i.d. House Swifts are the darker underparts that lack the paler edges/tips typical of Fork-taileds in fresh plumage, which most are (I think?!) when in these parts in summer.
Therefore, I think if you have a short & broad tailed swift with shorter & slightly broader wings than a Fork-tail, combined with a bright white & clear-cut throat patch (ie. throat patch like a needletail), & then combined with darker underbody parts without any scaly appearance….then & only then, you are most probably looking at a House Swift.
Incidentally, I am yet to see any Fork-tails (or House) this season near Cairns – having moved away from the northern side of Cairns to the southern side has meant that I’m living in a very flat area inland on the coastal plain, well away from the foothills & coastline that these birds usually favour.
It would be great if you guys get to look more closely at these House Swift-like birds when you next see some, as I would not be surprised that one or two actually were indeed House Swifts!! I have myself at least 5 records of them to the north of Cairns in the last 16 years.
If Mike or anyone else has other ID features for House Swifts against Fork-tails then I think we all would benefit from them… I think that smaller size for House Swifts is mostly due to shorter tail length, so that tail-moulting Foork-tails appear similar in size (happy to be correcetd on this feature, Mike…)
Cheers for now,
Martin Cachard, Cairns,
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Hi Interesting I have had an influx of fork-tails over Yorkeys Knob the last couple of days. On Thursday there were about 35+ over my house from early afternoon onwards. Today this has increased to over 150 birds, the fock has been highly mobile and difficult to keep in view. Within the flock there were several clear Fork-tails in wing moult and at least two others that I took to be in tail moult as when they spread their tails they were very square. The variability in white on the throat was quite marked in birds that came low enough to be studied properly, some having very bright clearly defined white chin patches and others far less distinctly marked. Dom
________________________________ Sent: Friday, 11 January 2013, 8:14
Mike, At least 17 Fork-tailed Swifts hawking over Petersen Creek Yungaburra yesterday evening. Maximum number something like 25.
There were also two other swifts there which I did not get good enough looks at to identify. They may have been Fork-tails in tail moult but one had a clear white throat. They may have been House Swifts. My impression was a smaller swift with a flight more like that of the Swiftlets. They were not Swiftlets. Regards, Alan ===============================
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Hi Bob, Well done getting White-throated Needletails near Cairns this season. Having Fork-tailed Swifts here in early October is very very unusual & this is therefore a very significant record, I think. Thanks for sharing. Cheers, Martin Cachard, Cairns, 0428 782 808
Hi Martin A few months ago now (I’ve passed the record on to Mike), but we had Wt Needletails and Ft Swifts at Redden Island (Cairns) in early Oct 2011, can’t lay my hands on my notebooks at present to confirm date but I think 2nd Oct.
Bob Green ===============================
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Hi Martin A few months ago now (I’ve passed the record on to Mike), but we had Wt Needletails and Ft Swifts at Redden Island (Cairns) in early Oct 2011, can’t lay my hands on my notebooks at present to confirm date but I think 2nd Oct.
Bob Green ===============================
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