Spotted Harrier records

[martin butterfield <>]

Philip’s message raised a number of interesting points, and having a few moments on hand I decided to have a look at what has been reported on the chatline, using the archives.  The attached document shows what I found.  In summary:

• there have indeed been many more reports mentioning Spotted Harrier to the chatline in 2012 than any other recent year;
• the 2012 chatline reports come from a wider number of locations than in other years; and
• it is certain there is more than one bird involved in the reports (but how many more requires further thinking - by some one else, using the database rather than the chatline).

Using the chatline in this way was rather interesting, but would be very time consuming to do in more detail (and definitely doesn't replace analysis of the database records for answering other questions).

 

Martin

On 8 October 2012 23:11, Philip Veerman <> wrote:

All these Spotted Harrier reports recently, are interesting (I'm just randomly responding to Martin's). Or am I imagining this? I can't ever recall so many Spotted Harrier reports within a short time. The COG Atlas certainly suggests much less frequency than the recent obs. I have only ever over the years, encountered the occasional one at JW (within the ACT that is). I wonder if there is a real influx or are many people observing the same few birds.

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----
From: martin butterfield [
Sent: Monday, 8 October 2012 9:55 PM
To: COG List
Subject: [canberrabirds] Banded Lapwings on Hoskinstown Plain

5 Banded Lapwings seen this afternoon in a private property paddock recently sown to forage brassica.  30 Black-winged Stilts on a nearby swamp.  Other excellent birds seen were 25 Australian Shelducks, great slow-motion fly-bys by the resident Spotted Harrier, 2 Golden-headed Cisticolas and a Brown Songlark.

Some images are at http://carwoolabirds.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/a-swampy-day.html

--
Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

-- 
Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

121009 Spotted Harriers on the COG Chatline.docx
Description: MS-Word 2007 document

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