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Birdline Australia Weekly Update

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Subject: Birdline Australia Weekly Update
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Date: 2 Jan 2012 01:30:19 +1000

Birdline Australia

Published sightings for the week ending 1 Jan 2012.

Thu 29 Dec Eastern Yellow Wagtail Ash Island, Hexham, New South Wales
Eastern Yellow Wagtail (2) Seen along Wagtail Way. Very flighty and hard to get close too
Grant Brosie

Tue 27 Dec Spotted Whistling-Duck Leanyer Sewage Ponds, Darwin, Northern Territory
Observed for nearly an hour and a half amongst many other ducks (mostly Wandering Whistling-Ducks). Photographed with old film camera so awaiting photos tomorrow. Nervous and continually harassed by Wandering Whistling-Ducks. This is a new bird for the Northern Territory and the first Australian record outside of north Queensland. Please remember that this is a restricted access site and only those who have been inducted can enter the ponds.
Peter Kyne

Black-winged Monarch Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge, Julatten, QLD, Queensland
A Black-winged Monarch was first seen on 26th December but not confirmed. The following day in the early morning it was found again and after some persistence a few images were taken in the gloom of the rainforest. This resulted in some noisy pictures but good enough to separate it out from the more common Black-faced Monarch. The black around the face did not extend over the eye and onto the forehead, the overall grey of the upper body was a lighter grey than Black-faced and there was a definite contrast in the wing between the blackish primaries and the grey wing coverts. The calls of the Black-winged and Black-faced are very slightly different making them difficult to separate out without experience. There have been a couple of records on the Atherton Tableland including one at nearby Abattoir Swamp. The Black-winged Monarch normally has a distribution on Cape York as far south as Shiptons Flat (90km north of Julatten) but in recent years they are very rare here. The most reliable location for the southern distribution is now McIvor River which is about 165km north of Julatten. So it is very exciting to see this bird so far south of its "normal" range and to confirm the identification.
Kath Shurcliff, Lindsay and Keith Fisher

Mon 26 Dec Oriental Plover, Oriental Pratincole, Little Curlew Frances Rd Turf farm, Edmonton, Queensland
We found a single Oriental Plover this morning in close association with the same lone Oriental Pratincole discovered here 2 days prior at this site by Dom Chaplin. (The attached rough pic by Martin Cachard shows this close association). The single Little Curlew that has been present recently was also seen here this morning. We believe this is the first record of an Oriental Plover at this new site - they were uncommon but fairly regular to the now closed Edmonton Turf farm on nearby Warners Rd. It is indeed a great day to see these three very uncommon visitors to the Cairns floodplain all at the one small site.
Martin Cachard & Adam Arnold

Birdline Australia is sponsored by Birds Australia and co-ordinated and hosted by Eremaea Birds.

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