birding-aus

RE: White-browed Babbler at The You Yangs, Victoria

To: "'Margaret Cameron'" <>
Subject: RE: White-browed Babbler at The You Yangs, Victoria
From: "Paul Dodd" <>
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:01:16 +1000
Hi Margaret,

Thanks for the email.

I would be happy to write up the sighting, but without a photograph or a
second independent sighting the best that could ever be hoped for is that it
is noted as an unconfirmed report (or as Lawrie so elegantly put it,
unreliable).

I know that this sighting has piqued the interest of a number of birders, so
hopefully there will be either more observations or a photograph or two. I
must admit that I'm kicking myself, because both Ruth and I had our cameras
with long lenses, but we both thought that the photographs of the babblers
would have been at too large a distance to make "good" photographs, not
quite realising the significance of the sighting at the time. We were
certainly aware that the babblers were out of their normal range, but we
assumed at the time that there would have been more frequent sightings in
the area. In addition, I left my GPS in the car, so didn't get an exact fix
on the location.

I think that another visit or two to the site, with cameras at the ready,
and the GPS on hand will be in order. Perhaps then there'll be an article
worth writing.

Paul Dodd
Docklands, Victoria


-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret Cameron  
Sent: Monday, 29 September 2008 10:23 PM
To: Paul Dodd; 'Lawrie Conole'; 'Birding Aus'
Cc: Marilyn & Dean
Subject: White-browed Babbler at The You Yangs, Victoria

Hello Paul, Graeme etc

This is a significant record. White-browed babblers have been considered 
extinct in the area for over 60 years, having been last reported in the You 
Yangs in the 1930s (HANZAB). There are no records as far as I know in the 
annual Geelong Bird Report (1984 on), nor in the Atlas (and no-one reported 
them on any of the hundreds of Atlas sheets for the Geelong region that I 
read).

Paul, you have done the right thing by reporting your rare bird.  Your 
message says "from the other responses I've had, it appears that babblers 
are an infrequent visitor to the You Yangs. Certainly not common, but 
definitely not unheard of."
It would be really helpful if people who saw unusual birds like this did 
report them. As far as I know, they are "unheard of" by local birdwatchers -

at any rate by me but I have not been there for 4 years. An Atlas form for 
an Incidental search and an Unusual Record Report Form would be one way to 
do it. A photograph would be excellent.

As rare birds editor for Australian Field Ornithology I would welcome a 
paper about these recent records but I would really like a photograph to go 
with it.

Margaret Cameron
2 Cintra Street
Eastern Heights, Qld
Australia 4305
07 3282 9151


No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com 
Version: 8.0.169 / Virus Database: 270.7.4/1695 - Release Date: 28/09/2008
1:30 PM

===============================
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: 
===============================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU