canberrabirds

Winterbirds project

To: Geoffrey Dabb <>
Subject: Winterbirds project
From: Lindell <>
Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2010 21:45:02 +1000
This afternoon, Cooleman Ridge revealed a group of 4 Black-faced Cuckoo Shrikes and on Wednesday there was a lone Aust Reed-Warbler hiding out in the reeds on the south-east corner of pond 6 at the Fyshwick Sewerage ponds.
 
Lindell
 
 
 

 
On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 8:19 AM, Geoffrey Dabb <> wrote:

Today is the start of the nominal ‘low’ period for this 8-week exercise, the framework of which is repeated below.

Martin has helpfully provided summary data for 8 of the 10 species for 28 years of the GBS – the other 2 not being recorded in gardens in the 8-week period.  Of itself, this table seems to raise some interesting points, but enough of that for now.  This exercise is of course not limited to GBS sites and extends to the whole COG area of interest.

Full Period

RAOU_number

New_name

Total # birds

# sites

A

F%

338

Fan-tailed Cuckoo

25

22

0.0021

1.3

401

Rufous Whistler

410

364

0.0344

20.8

424

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

2287

1586

0.1916

90.7

453

White-throated Gerygone

13

10

0.0011

0.6

463

Western Gerygone

12

9

0.0010

0.5

547

Dusky Woodswallow

175

15

0.0147

0.9

645

Noisy Friarbird

306

139

0.0256

8.0

671

Olive-backed Oriole

20

20

0.0017

1.1

Site weeks

sites active

Denominators

11934

1748

Shaun Bagley has pointed out that some of the subject birds might be not absent but silent, which is part of the challenge.  A silent reed-warbler skulking somewhere in a reed-bed (which the ACT atlas suggests one or two might do) would be quite a find.

Previous message:

From: Geoffrey Dabb [
Sent: Wednesday, 2 June 2010 11:06 AM
To:
Subject: 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.

 





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