Hello Philip,
The white fronted chat photos were sent in an earlier email.
However, in that email I mentioned which birds were around at the same time.
These included what I thought (after listening to some recordings at home)
sounded like a rufous songlark. However, we never managed to spot the bird
that was singing. Geoffrey thought it was a bit early for a songlark and
queried whether it might have been a skylark and if I had any photos of this
bird as well to verify. Not having spotted the bird we didn't. The only
one remotely resembling a skylark that we had was the picture in the photo
you've just seen - but pipits make a different call to the one we heard.
The real purpose of my original email was the white fronted chat and it
seems to have got lost in the side issue!! Oh well.
Caroline
-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Veerman
Sent: Monday, 9 August 2010 6:51 PM
To: 'Eric Wenger'
Subject: White fronted chat
The photo is certainly not a White-fronted Chat. Although surely you
know that. I am a bit confused as to what you are thinking, as the
subject line is White-fronted Chat.
I suspect it is a Pipit.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Wenger
Sent: Monday, 9 August 2010 4:48 PM
To:
Subject: White fronted chat
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.
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