Peter, and others.
Long story of the RTBC (formerly RTBC's).
Initially the RTBC's were originally sighted at the property of John and
Glenis Nevinson's north of Wanganella in a Black Box clump (observed feeding
on the ground by Phil Maher and others), and a few days later had moved on
into the Booroorban State Forest, with observations of the birds in Buloke.
For a little while after no reports had been passed my way.
Towards the end of May (around the 29th) I was talking to John Brickhill
from NSW NPWS in Griffith who said that they had been observed at the
recently aquired 'Oolambeyan Station'.
Phoning Evonne Domaille (the wife of Mick, Field Staff member @ Oolambeyan),
she said that she had been seeing only one bird for for about a week at that
stage. The bird back then started the morning close to the homestead, then
moved off wherever, returning to the homestead in the evening. Over a period
of about 5 weeks the bird would do this daily. During the time Evonne was
able to get quite an amount (30 minutes or so) of footage of the bird
feeding on catheads on the sandhill. From the footage you could see that the
bird being recorded was a female.
Only one bird though was observed. The other we found out later had met its
fate, being found by a landholder to the east of Oolambeyan under powerlines
at his shearing shed. He plucked a tail feather to show the NPWS guys, but
unfortunately lost it when his homestead was burnt to the ground (tail
feathers and all).
The bird was last seen on Sunday 23rd June at Oolambeyan and for quite some
time no records came through as to where it has headed to.
On Friday 30 August the female RTBC had returned to Oolambeyan, observed by
Mick and Evonne. Again only a solitary female, feeding quite happily on
catheads (three corner jacks or whatever other name people may call them).
I headed out with David Baker-Gabb, Matt Cameron and a few others on Wed 4
Sept and observed the bird, while members of the Southern Riverina Field
Nats to Oolambeyan on Sat 7 Sept observed the bird. On Friday 13th (while at
the staff meeting) Mick told me that she was still about.
She has been trying to fit in with the locals, a small group of Galahs, for
which they didn't seem too impressed.
Cheers
David Parker
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