Hi all,
As the composer of the statement "The Magpie Geese at Tidbinbilla
Nature Reserve are best regarded as a semi-captive population and
records from there are not normally included in the ABR..." I feel I
should add my comments to this debate.
I stand by my statement (which you will note is qualified rather than
dogmatic) which I feel best summarises the status of these birds -
the reasons for this status have already been discussed and I won't
reiterate....
The comment was made to highlight the fact that in 2003 there was a
single bird present at Brindabella Station, 16 km to the WNW of the
Tidbinbilla ponds, from 25 Oct to 28 Nov, ie some 8 months after the
January fires. I also commmented in the ABR entry for Magpie Goose
that this bird was likely "a stray from the Tidbinbilla population".
My purely intuitive feeling is that this bird was a refugee from the
fires that had managed to escape the flames but had not (yet) found
its way back to Tidbinbilla NR waterbird ponds. If so, it indicates
that the geese (or at least some of them) were able to flee the
fires. It also seems likely to me that they would subsequently return
to the only habitat in the region they would be familiar with.
In terms of records of Magpie Geese south of SE Queensland: on a trip
up to Iluka in July of this year I counted 40 Magpie Geese on a dam
beside the highway just outside of Grafton, and I recall seeing about
6-12 Magpie Geese at Gum Swamp (Forbes) in October 1996.
Harvey
--
................................................
Dr Harvey D. Perkins
School of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
The Australian National University
Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
ph +61 2 6125 2693; fax:+61 2 6125 0313
and:
Pest Animal Control Cooperative Research Centre
................................................
Editor, Canberra Bird Notes
(Journal of the Canberra Ornithologists Group)
42 Summerland Circuit, Kambah, ACT 2902
Ph: (02) 6231 8209 mobile: 043 886 9990
................................................
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