Fan-tailed Cuckoo Cacomantis flabelliformis
This is a forest and woodland inhabitant. It is less migratory than
other cuckoos, so its monthly pattern, although typical of cuckoos, is much less
well defined. This species is quite vocal, especially during spring. However the
call is probably not as far-carrying as Pallid or Brush Cuckoo. From a mid
winter low with very few observations, numbers increase sharply from August to a
peak in October, then decline quickly till December, staying in even reduced
numbers through summer and autumn before declining to the winter low. Numbers
have declined significantly, at about half the abundance from Years 12 to 21 as
for the first 11 years. The breeding record is one dependent young in January
Year 6 at Site 18.
Graphs on page: 95, Rank: 66,
Breeding Rank: 84, A = 0.01168, F = 15.43%,
W = 18.3, R = 1.113%,
G = 1.05.
Oh
dear, I don’t think I can take this any further. I have repeatedly put my
view that Ft Cuckoos are present and call throughout the Winter. Over
several past years I have often heard them eg at orienteering locations all over
our woodlands. In order to demonstrate this, I suggested for last Winter
a tallying of this and other species, and I reported the result to this
list. Now Martin and others say that that result only indicated the
(possibly unusual) presence of the relevant species last Winter. They are
quite correct. That is all that it shows, but it is also consistent with
the species being present in all Winters, or in most Winters, or in other
Winters that were like last Winter in some respect. If I repeated the
exercise for the coming Winter, those of the narrower view would say that
presence has only been shown for two years, and correspondingly if the exercise
was repeated for 20 years.
It
is quite true that species-presence does vary, sometimes markedly and sometimes
for the long term, eg Crested Pigeon, Koels (query whether long
term). No doubt changes are occurring right now. Each of us has
their own views on what is going on. If it came to the point, I don’t
suppose I would want the evidence on which I base my own perceptions subjected
to a rigorous scrutiny.
I
only raise this because ‘únusual’, expressed or impied, is the adjectival
comment that comes with many reports to this chatline. That’s fine.
The reader can regard the report as unusual or not depending on their own
experience and researches. However the cumulative implication of all this
is that SOMETHING IS GOING ON, the assumption by many being that this is
something associated with climate change. Perhaps that is indeed the
reason for some unusualnesses, perhaps not. Then again the reported
behaviour might not be so unusual after all.
From: martin
butterfield [ Sent: Friday, 8 April 2011 8:01
AM To: COG List Subject:
[canberrabirds] Sines of the Thymes
Two Fan-tailed cuckoos calling at
Carwoola this morning. Ever the optimists. Perhaps the birds are
going to hang around this Winter as they did last.
One regular event in
the colder months is the appearance of flocks of 10+ Noisy Miners in my GBS
site. The first of those turned up this morning, clearly demonstrating why
they are not called Silent
Miners.
Martin
