Spotted Harrier

[martin butterfield <>]

I'm not sure that the small dots represent a single sighting.  Certainly they represent a small number, so Julian's point is fair enough.  To paraphrase his comments the dots for Spotted Harrier form a (quite widely separated) string following the Monaro Highway.  

However my main interest when I originally got the maps from Birdata was to compare the distribution of the 2 Harrier species in the broad COG AOI.  So I repeated Julian's zoom for Swamp Harrier and found that the Monaro Highway corridor was empty of observations while there is a cluster in popular birding spots, and along the roads, in Namadgi.  


Martin

On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 10:52 PM, Julian Robinson <> wrote:

I’m always wary of those large squares on the Birdata maps and have an interest in coming across a local Spotted Harrier, so zoomed in one stage further … I believe it indicates a couple of sightings at Kellys, one at maybe Narrabundah Hill (Weston Ck) and one out west around Brindabella Rd.  To the south none until well after Michelago then three along the Cooma Rd.  The apparent band on the map of squares is an artefact, with no actual sightings between Canberra and nearly Bredbo.

 

 

Julian

www.flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/

 

 

From: martin butterfield [
Sent: Thursday, 10 May 2012 15:22
To: Geoffrey Dabb
Cc:

Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Spotted Harrier

 

The birdata distribution map for the Spotted Harrier shows that the species is reasonably often reported along a band of land from Southern Canberra down to Cooma.  The patch described by Geoffrey is at the Northern end of that strip. 

The same source suggests Swamp Harriers to be more common to the North and West of that corridor.

Martin

On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 3:07 PM, Geoffrey Dabb <> wrote:

Over grassland south of Hindmarsh Dve between Canberra Ave and Monaro Hwy, 1-45 pm.  There have been intermittent reports over the years of the species around that location.