I was browsing through some old CBNs on the website.
These are easily accessible and a great resource. We owe a debt to the
scanner, Alastair Smith.
I was interested to read this passage (re songlarks and
woodswallows in particular) in the Annual Bird Report for the year to June
1981, compiled by Michael Lenz. Plus ca change ...
A number of new or rare species for our area were
recorded:
Little Bittern, Black-necked Stork (first ACT
record), Black
Falcon, Lesser Golden Plover, Common Koel (second
record for
region), Red-backed Kingfisher, Singing Bushlark,
Black-faced
Monarch (second ACT record), Brown Gerygone (first
ACT record),
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater (second ACT record),
Sharp-tailed
Sandpiper and Red-necked Stint were observed during
the winter,
and unusual numbers of Blue-billed Ducks were seen
at Lake
Bathurst. White-winged Triller, Brown and Rufous
Songlark and
White-browed Woodswallows reached population levels
not recorded
for several years.
The
search function works surprisingly well. As a test, I brought up ‘about
69’ results for ‘Channel-billed Cuckoo’, most of which
referred to the species, although a few referred to reports such as:
Near
the channel I observed a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike putting food
in the bill of a begging juvenile ...
I am probably failing to make use of a refining facility.
I notice the quality of the (now more frequently included) photos appears
superior to the printed versions. Moreover many are in colour, unlike the
printed versions. I assume the non-coloured ones were submitted in B/W,
suggesting that there might now be an advantage in staying with colour rather
than editing out of it for CBN purposes.
