the crake package

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Thanks for these messages. I went to the Namadgi Visitor Centre pond this morning from 10:00 a.m. till 11:45 and as my foot is still sore but getting better, I mostly sat down in the shade of a I think tea-tree that would have sort of hidden me, just above the closest point of the pond to the building.

 

I got to see, all well and clearly for at least several minutes, in the corner of the pond closest to the building: Baillon's Crake (1 or 2), Spotted Crake (1), Spotless Crake (1), Buff-banded Rail (1 or 2 parents + 2 young). Apart from one period of about 5 minutes these were all at different times. There are many Dusky Moorhen chicks and for a while just one adult was behaving very excitedly, running around, chasing and being very noisy. Also 4 or 5 juvenile Australasian Grebe plus one adult appeared to be on a nest. Rounding it out, one Hardhead among the many Black & Maned Ducks.  Unfortunately no Lewin's Rail for me. In many visits there before I haven't encountered any of these special species. A male Leaden Flycatcher flew over in a rather jerky noisy display flight with its head held high.

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----From: Megan Mears [ Sent: Friday, 11 January 2013 3:03 PM      To:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] the crake package [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

Wow Namadgi sounds awesome.

I'm having luck with the Baillon's Crake and saw one on the small island
at Dickson Wetlands this morning.

There is also a juvenile Australasian
Grebe at the Dickson College end of those wetlands. I saw it this morning and
also yesterday in the middle of the day. Yesterday it caught a nice yabbie for
lunch. I put some pics here. http://choosebirds.blogspot.com.au/

This morning 8 gang gangs flew over the wetlands towards Mt
Majura.

Megan Mears

On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 12:49 PM, Heather Allsopp <> wrote:

We spent a couple of hours at the Namadgi Visitor Centre pond this morning from 7:20 and saw 5 different crakes and rails:

• Baillon's crake
• Spotted crake
• Spotless crake
• Lewin's rail
• Buff-banded rail (parent + 3 young)

Heather & Fred Allsopp

On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 9:53 AM, Perkins, Harvey <> wrote:

John and all,

Mark Clayton described our sighting of the immature Lewin’s Rail on Saturday morning, but earlier that morning I had also seen a Spotted Crake and Baillon’s Crake – so, yes, all five local rails/crakes appear to be present at the Namadgi Visitors Centre pond currently (ie within the past week or so). Quite an amazing occurrence!

Harvey

From: John Leonard [ Sent: Monday, 7 January 2013 9:40 AM      To: Canberra Birds
Subject: [canberrabirds] the crake package

Interesting that several different spp of Rails/crakes are being observed at the dam at Namadgi Visitors Centre (Buff Banded Rail/Lewin's Rail/Spotless Crake).

Along with my memories of reported observations at various wetlands in the ACT, this suggests that the spp in the ACT "crake package" (the above spp plus Spotted and Baillons Crakes), are equally likely to turn up in suitable wetlands, that is once a wetland becomes suitable (enough mud &c) then any or all of the five can be expected.

Or does anyone have any observations that suggest that these spp have slightly different requirements?

--
John Leonard