canberrabirds

Festival of the Straggler

To: "'Geoffrey Dabb'" <>, <>
Subject: Festival of the Straggler
From: "Philip Veerman" <>
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2010 14:12:56 +1000
And as always in this issue, (unless the birds are observed close to every day), it may not be that the individuals present during those low times are individuals that have not moved or are not on migration. They might be individuals that are passing through from further south or higher elevations.
 
Philip
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Geoffrey Dabb [
Sent: Wednesday, 2 June 2010 11:06 AM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Festival of the Straggler

Putting aside those species that leave the Canberra area altogether,  we all know about those species that become a bit scarce in the local area in the Winter months.   July is the low month for several of those species.  Actually the lowest period might be something more like 20 June – 20 July.  This year let’s take a closer look at the 8 weeks ending on 31 July, starting this Sunday 6 June.  There are signs that with the wet Autumn more food might be around this Winter.

 

It’s a bit arbitrary, but these are the 10 species I suggest are of main interest in this regard:

 

Fan-tailed Cuckoo

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

Australian Reed-Warbler

Rufous Whistler

Rufous Songlark

Western Gerygone

White-throated Gerygone

Noisy Friarbird

Olive-backed Oriole

Dusky Woodswallow

 

None impossible, some more likely than others.

 

If you come across any of those 10 species in the ACT/COG area 6 June to 31 July.  I would be very interested to get a report of it (with numbers) with a view to collating the results.  You could send a report to the chatline or to me directly.

 

Incidentally, I do not myself like the term ‘straggler’, which suggests some kind of character defect or other weakness that leads to the bird being seen in Canberra in Winter.  There will be a reason for the bird’s presence even if we don’t understand what it is.

 

At the risk of causing some irritation I will send a reminder about this at 2-week intervals.

 

I hope this might add a little interest to your Winter watching.      

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