On Saturday I started out attacking 'the whole of cell L15' beginning at
0625 with a walk around the suburbs. This soon demonstrated that the
further I walked the more C Blackbirds and R Wattlebirds etc were
monotonously adding to the numbers on the sheet, so I decided to conserve
the time and try the strip to the east of Mugga Lane, followed by the main
undertaking, a walk over Callum Brae and the northern half of the Mugga
lease (using what is known,technically, as an ABCDHL return transect - 4
legs each in the shape of a dog's hind leg conjoined in the shape of the ABC
logo).
Concluding this at about 1400 I was well aware that I had taken on,
geographically, far more than I could acquit, so I decided to account for
cell K15 with a 500m radius survey of 'east East O'Malley'. This was
particularly depressing, confirming the Noisy Miner (15) domination of this
near-wasteland, but was enlivened by a set of the most aggressive A Magpie
swoops I have experienced.
Barely able to walk by this time, I decided to fit in an unpromised quickie
at Oaks Estate in distant N15, mainly to see if I could get 'Old Swoop', the
ACT's feistiest goshawk onto the record books. I could, and he did,
managing to fit about 10 of his famous stuka impersonations into the 20
mins. The 2-tone chatter of the nesting pair brought back old memories. Not
much else there, though.
On Sunday, with the drizzle and the time adjustment it was 1000 before I
started in K15 on a 4-hour sweep taking in parts of the 'Barron Woodland'
and the Woden and Mugga leases. At the end of that it was raining again,
and I thought I'd done enough for the week-end.
There's a lot of luck-of-the-day in this sort of thing, so the total number
of species recorded doesn't matter much. There were unexpected ticks
(Peaceful Doves back on Callum Brae) and omissions (not a single finch in
the 2 major woodland sweeps). Not as much nesting activity as I'd have
expected, although I got breeding records for 22 species. I thought small
birds were markedly down in numbers.
My most-recorded species was the Eastern Rosella (146), followed by starling
(132) and Crimson Rosella (119), all probably being under-recorded,
particularly the starling. Starlings were the most numerous species on the
K15 site, and about 20% of those seen were 'carrying food'.
I put down 70 Australian Ravens, but there were probably more. Most of
these were in a single aggregation on the high (750m) unnamed wooded hill at
the southern extremity of the Mugga lease. These were not 'flocking' as the
term is usually understood but gathered towards midday, singly or in loose
groups of 3-5. At one point an overflying WT Eagle caused them all to rise
briefly, calling and swirling, and there would have been at least 50 ravens
in the air at the one time. I looked/listened for Littles among them, but
could not definitely identify any. For any raven enthusiasts out there, the
gathering is probably a daily pattern.
Thanks to Barbara for organising this event, where the minimal discipline
required certainly made me notice a thing or two. I can use a bit of a rest
before the next one though - unless I acquire the patience to convert to the
chairborne school of bird-tallying. The trouble with THAT is that you never
know what recordable something or other might be just over the hill.
Geoffrey Dabb
email :
ph/fax : 02 6295 3449
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