canberrabirds

More thoughts on White-fronted Chats

To: <>
Subject: More thoughts on White-fronted Chats
From: "Geoffrey Dabb" <>
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:31:11 +1000

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

 

cheers

 

Steve