Hi Philip
Quite right. I was only reflecting
on my own data and observations over the past ten or so years. On the
basis of that, it appears that this was a poor breeding season at my site.
Regards
Lindsay
From: Philip Veerman
[
Sent: Monday, 21 April 2014 7:03
PM
To: 'Lindsay Hansch'; 'COG-L'
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Bird
Breeding Season
Over the history of the GBS (although I
don't know the last 10 years), sites with habitats for breeding of water birds
have been few and far between. I would not think there is enough old data on
water bird breeding to make a comparison. Such as I did in The GBS
Report for the low level of breeding in year 2 (a drought year). Indeed
Appendix 2 shows the only water bird breeding records were Aust Wood Duck
(24 records) & White-faced Heron (2 records) in the whole 21 years.
-----Original Message-----
From: Lindsay Hansch
[
Sent: Monday, 21 April 2014 3:57
PM
To: COG-L
Subject: [canberrabirds] Bird
Breeding Season
Reviewing my Garden Bird Survey numbers recently, it
occurred to me that this season gone was a particularly poor breeding one for
Jerrabomberra. Our resident pair of Swans had a failed attempt in Spring
and so far have not attempted an Autumn nesting. We usually see around 20
young Swamp Hens per season, this year we had only 5 from two nests.
Moorhens produced only 2 young – usually at least 12-15. No
Coots produced at all. Even our resident pair of Magpies produced only 1
young for the year and I did not see a Magpie Larks nest. There were no Grebes
nesting and only one family of Black Ducks. The exception has been Crimson
Rosellas with significant numbers of green birds around. I wonder if this
poor season is reflected elsewhere? A possible reason for the poor return
on water birds may be the decline in typhus reeds around the local lake for
which most birds rely on for nest sites.
Regards
Lindsay Hansch
