Butcherbird in Wanniassa

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Hello Chris,

 

Have confidence in thine own abilities. No reason why there wouldn't be a Grey Butcherbird in Wanniassa. Hearing them at 7.30 am is pretty typical of them. (Altogether much more likely than mimicry by something else. Not many birds are interested in mimicking at this time of year.)

 

The GBS Report has already shown show that this is the time of year they come through the suburbs and on a long-term basis, they clearly are on an increasing trend. Martin's graph of what I think is raw numbers included in the GBS data, suggests that the increase has continued since then. This is interesting to see, though I think not surprising. It is also worth pointing out that Martin's other graph of GBB by week has the year arranged as January to December. Nothing wrong with that. However, unfortunately the difference could be confusing to those trying to compare it to the graphs in the GBS Report or the graphs in the old ABR (when we used to include monthly histograms from the GBS in the mid to late 1980s). These all show the year as July to June. I chose to be consistent with the ABR tradition and use the year graphs in the GBS Report as the GBS year runs (July to June). Anyone else is entitled to show it any other way they wish. When reversing either about the middle, it is clear that the basic shape of the graph Martin presented is virtually identical to mine (again this is not at all surprising).

 

As for Geoffrey's contribution about Honeycomb the alpaca. I reckon a butcherbird of that size would be interested in eating Honeycomb. I seem to recall an item on ABC Stateline last year about Honeycomb the alpaca.

 

Philip