Spotted Harrier

[Bob Rusk <>]

Hi Philip

Like you I've seen 5 of these in the Canberra area. Four in the Jerrabomberra area and one at Belconnen tip. While on the subject of unusual birds, we had a member of our small birdo club take a snap of a Black Noddy, last seen at Termeil beach(20 klm south of Ulladulla) last Saturday.

Bob

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From: Philip Veerman <>
To:
Sent: Thursday, 10 May 2012 11:08 PM
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Spotted Harrier

Hi Julian,

 

I'll leave interpreting map expertise to others but I'll comment on this. Of course it depends on how far back in time you go, but at least in my local memory there is surely more than "a couple of sightings at Kellys". As I know of 3 if not 4 of those couple are mine (although to what extent they are on what system. I'm not sure), plus several others that were not mine, that I know of.

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Julian Robinson [
Sent: Thursday, 10 May 2012 10:52 PM
To: 'martin butterfield'; canberrabirds chatline
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Spotted Harrier

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 <m("iinet.net.au","gdabb");" target="_blank" href="">> 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.