birding-aus

Crake up a Tree

To: Dr Richard Nowotny <>
Subject: Crake up a Tree
From: Paul Dodd <>
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:20:53 +0800
Hey Richard,

I remember when we saw the Lewin's at Mt St Joseph's Pond last year - one thing that surprised me was seeing Spotless Crakes perched on top of the reeds, and sometimes bushes too.

Paul Dodd
Docklands, Victoria

Sent from my iPhone

On 29/12/2008, at 7:05 PM, "Dr Richard Nowotny" < > wrote:

By way of background:

1.    There is a large waterside sculpture ("urban art") in Melbourne
Docklands consisting of a stylized cow up an equally stylized tree. It goes
by the catchy but somewhat unimaginative title of "Cow up a Tree".
2. I visited Herdsman Lake in the western suburbs of Perth last Tuesday morning (30/12) and to my surprise saw 5 Spotless Crakes at 3 different locations (first a swimming pair from the boardwalk, and then 3 separate single sightings around the lake edge). This was surprising in part because on 15 previous visits at which I have kept records since April 2005 I have seen no crakes at all (although Buff-banded Rail is not uncommon). [I am aware that crakes are certainly present (other birders' records, presence of
calls, regular sightings at nearby Lake Monger, etc) but I have not
previously managed to see any there - this in spite of a bird-list for the site which has now reached 87 species - and was 64 species last Tuesday.]

However, what was most surprising was that the sighting of the fifth
Spotless Crake was of a bird flying out of a small lake-side Swamp Paperbark (Melaleuca rhaphiophylla) into a larger WA Flooded Gum (E. rudis) where it perched on a small branch around 6 metres off the ground for a few minutes (hence "Crake up a Tree") until I inadvertently disturbed it, whereupon it flew a short distance into a second small Swamp Paperbark (perhaps 2 metres tall) and then disappeared - into the thick grass around its base I presume (I could find no sign of the bird on quite close inspection of the tree and
its immediate surrounds). I have never before seen a crake of any type
anywhere in the world in a tree, let alone perching high in a eucalypt like a song-bird. Has anyone else seen this entirely unexpected behaviour? Is it reported in HANZAB, HBW or elsewhere? (I'm presently on holiday and don't have access to my library. I could find no reference to such behaviour on
the Web - for Spotless Crake specifically.)

Richard Nowotny





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