Hello Geoffrey,
I'm sending you a photo of a bird we saw (but don't know if it was the one
making the noise) - attached. We listened to some sound recordings and
although hard to remember the detail now, the song we heard could well have
been a skylark. Please let us know your diagnosis of the photo, even if we
can't send you a sound recording.
Caroline.
-----Original Message-----
From: Geoffrey Dabb
Sent: Monday, 9 August 2010 1:49 PM
To: 'Eric Wenger'
Subject: White fronted chat
Interesting question for you, Caroline. Skylarks and pipits both sing while
ascending or stationary at a height. The skylark goes on and on rather
monotonously and often is so high you can't tell where the song is coming
from. On the other hand the Ruf Songlark is a migrant that could be
arriving about now. Usually sings while perched but also has a territorial
songflight. The typical song is varied with 'splintery' phrases and often
punctuated with a loud 'witch-er' a bit like a Willie Wagtail. They could
all be there - as well as Brown Songlark and Singing Bushlark! g
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Wenger
Sent: Monday, 9 August 2010 1:13 PM
To: 'Geoffrey Dabb'
Subject: White fronted chat
Hello Geoffrey - I'll have to get back to you on that. Our bird identifying
expert, Lucy, was not with us on the walk. We did take a couple of photos
of what I thought at the time might be a richard's pipit but the call of the
bird we heard was totally different. It had a very musical call but we never
managed to track the sound down to the bird that was making it. Back at
home we listened to a sound recording of the rufous songlark and it seemed
pretty similar to what we could remember. I'll get Lucy to help me locate
bird calls to cross check if it might have been a skylark, will also check
the photos we have and report back.
Caroline
-----Original Message-----
From: Geoffrey Dabb
Sent: Monday, 9 August 2010 11:23 AM
To: 'Eric Wenger'
Subject: White fronted chat
Caroline - Do you have photos of the Rufous Songlarks? This would be an
early record. Were they in song-flight and if so what was the pattern?
(There are a lot of skylarks around there) Geoffrey
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Wenger
Sent: Monday, 9 August 2010 10:40 AM
To:
Subject: White fronted chat
We saw some white fronted chats yesterday afternoon - this seems to be a
fairly unusual sighting in the A.C.T. They were with diamond & rb
firetails, wrens and yellow rumps. There were also some rufous songlarks
singing. Have attached some photos, taken by husband Eric.
To get there, take Coppins crossing road. Park near the locked gate closest
to Uriarra Road. According to the 'Canberra' topographic map, the
coordinates where we saw the birds are 684.10 E; 6091.5 N. (ie, follow the
path at the gate and when you get to a 'cross roads' keep going straight and
it's fairly close to there). We saw at least 4 of them at any one time but
there could have been more. They swallowed some huge caterpillars.
Caroline Wenger.
Attachment:
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