On the weekend, I visited Weddin Mountains National Park on one of my
regular banding trips with Richard Allen. However, as I had a six week old
son in tow and the thought of camping in winter (as it turned out in the
rain) was not really appealing so Cate and I stayed in a motel in Grenfell
(about 15kms to the east). When I drove out on Saturday morning I flushed a
nightjar from the side of the road. By the time I turned around to find it
again, it had disappeared (and as I wanted to get out before dawn) I didn't
search too hard. The interesting thing was that the obvious feature was the
large white wing flashes, which to me indicates Spotted Nightjar. We
regularly hear White-throated Nightjars at Weddins over the spring and
summer months, and the park would probably be the western edge of this
species' distribution at this latitude. However, we have never recorded
Spotted Nightjar and looking at the NPWS Atlas sight (I have changed jobs so
don't have access to all the data currently at work) there are few records
of this species from the central west slopes. HANZAB says east to
Cowra/Temora/Wagga Wagga (whic probably runs through Grenfell) but not
certain how many recent records from this area.
Admittedly the sighting was very brief, though the wing spots were very
clear in the headlights and White-throated should be well north at this time
of year, so I am confident of the ID. Habitat was a rocky ridge with Mugga
Ironbark forest.
Would be interested in any comments.
Cheers,
Peter
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
