What is the ‘right place’ for
a bird? I can recall some years ago in a COG presentation on the species
David McDonald saying that he had once thought the WFC was an inland bird and
was surprised to find that it occurred on the coast. My own experience
was exactly the reverse. In my early birdwatching days, more than 55
years ago, I would find it around foreshore areas with sticky black mud and
that squashy plant that I now understand to be ‘beaded glasswort’.
That was in the Geelong area, where good spots
were Limeburners Bay
(otherwise known as the Geelong
Grammar School lagoon)
and Point Henry. I used to wonder why I had no luck finding those other,
more brightly-coloured chats that were next to the WFC in my Cayley. I
notice from the BA atlas that while the WFC is thinly distributed over much of
SE Australia, and Canberra is, spatially, well
within its range, the true stronghold of the species is the Bass
Strait islands, where one wonders if it might not have
occasionally gone into the soup along with the shearwater.
From: Steve Holliday [
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 3:51
PM
To:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds]
White-fronted Chats near Weston Creek
Two chats were seen in the same place around 11.30 this
morning
