Finch Central today

[martin butterfield <>]

Gang-gang editors may wish to use this as the basic copy for the bulletin.

30 members and guests gathered at various parts of Coppins Crossing for a walk to Finch Central.  The early arrivals were greeted by a fly past of 4 Australian King-parrots: a good omen for the rest of the day. Those who met at the Southern car park also saw the first Red-browed and Double-barred Finches for the day.  On transferring to the start of the pipeline service track a Nankeen Kestrel was observed sitting on the powerlines above the road.  A large numer - 27+ - of Common Starlings also graced (disgraced?) the lines.  Eurasian Sklarks were heard ascending over the farmaland to the North of the track, and on getting to the point where we moved down towards the Molonglo a group of 5 of these songsters was visible.  By thetime we actually got to Finch Central the species tally was up to a respectable 20.

3 Australian Pipts were seen near the track and the first Flame Robin of the day - a very colourful male - appeared adjacent to the fence around the old poo-pits. On moving through the area we saw all 4 'expected' finch species: Red-browed; Double barred and European Gold Finches and a pair of Diamond Firetails.  Several of the groups of Red-browed Finches were in the vicinity of roost-nests and the Diamond Firetails were carrying grass, mostly likely for contruction of such a nest.

Our second raptor species was a Wedge-tailed eagle soaring over the paddocks and the second Robin was an Eastern Yellow Robin heard adjacent to the Molonglo.

As we moved towards the end of the walk a family group of Flame Robins was seen on the barbed wire fence below the service track.  There was some discussion of whether the 'brown birdswere females or juveniles.  One member of the group has subsequently consulted a vintage (if not aged, coming from 1974) copy of 'Bird in the Hand' which comments that '"First year or 'brown' males cannot yet be reliably separated from
first year or adult females on plumage characters alone, both may have
some colour on the underparts.  It is not yet known when a 'brown' male
attains full adult body plumage.".  Unless banding theory has moved on, this suggests there is no chance of sorting out the demographics of brown birds some 2om away! birds.

All told we saw 30 species, listed in the attached spreadsheet.

Martin

090524 Finch Central.xls
Description: MS-Excel spreadsheet

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