Roy Sonnenburg wrote
. . .They take advantage of these conditions to breed and come from near
and far. . .
. . .Any clues anyone? Or as with many
things avian do we just don't know?
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G'day all,
I also don't know how !
I also don't know why !
But is something different also happening
this year ?
Our Lake Moondarra is now absolutely bare of
waterfowl
No Ducks, Swans, Coots, Crested Grebes, Pelicans
etc
. . .only a few Darters and Little Black
Cormorants.
Our Sewage Ponds only have a handful of birds that have
stayed behind.
For instance where there were normally +1500
Pink-eared
Ducks there are now
5 !
Yet a pair of Pacific Black D's who did stay behind
have just
bred in a pond on our Leichhardt River at the north end of town.
(The 1st Atlas did not show them breeding at
all in the Isa area)
On April 2, at Urandangie (150km SW of Mount
Isa)
breeding Plumed Whistling-Ducks, Australian
Wood Ducks
and Grey Teal were seen with their
ducklings.
Strangely, the first
Atlas did not record any of these 3
species (breeding or not) in that 1 degree
square.
We sighted another 10 species also not recorded at
all in
that 1 degree
square by the 1st Atlas.
Over the Easter, between 5 and 40km Sth
of Winton (again
with
John and Sue
O'Malley) several species were sighted
that may
be considered
outside of their normal territory.
(Plum-head Finches, Pictorella Mannikins,
Rufous-Throated
H/e and
Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush)
It rained both at Urandangie and Sth of Winton
!
Is anything different happening this year ?
Possibly not !
Maybe, the answer is that birdo's don't generally
go
atlassing
Australia's inland during the wet breeding season
and the Atlas only
reflects for inland Australia the records
taken during the dry and cooler "tourist" season
?
Western Qld and parts further Sth are slowly
drying out and
this may allow
observers to get in quickly and check out the
rivers and billabongs before they dry out, and
perhaps give
us an insight
of "where have they gone". . other than Lake
Eyre.
The question of "how do they know??" is much
more difficult.
I'll just keep looking for my lost
socks
Regards...Bob Forsyth, Mount Isa,
Qld.
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