canberrabirds

Forde Creek Chicks

To: COG Chatline <>, John Harris <>, "Bill & Raelene" <>, Wallaces <>, Alison Turner <>
Subject: Forde Creek Chicks
From: Julie Clark <>
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 22:07:47 +1100
Hi All,

The crakes and rails have continued to breed at Forde.

The original pair of Spotted Crakes have produced another chick.... now around 12 days old.

There has also been a second Buff-banded Rail brood, originally four chicks, but now I think only three remaining.

This is definitely not the brood Alison and I saw on December 21. I haven't sighted those chicks again.

The new chicks were sighted twice on January 1, with both people seeing only three chicks. I managed photos on Jan 3 & 4 and there were definitely 4 chicks. Another COG member also saw them on Jan 6 ... 4 chicks.

Recent sightings have been a real challenge! For the past week I had only caught  a couple of brief glimpses of an adult and perhaps one chick in long grass. I haven't seen both adults together at all.
Today I  clearly saw one adult and 3 chicks ... now 18 days old and looking like miniatures of the adult.

Photos of both the crake and rails are attached. Most of them have been taken from quite a distance, so as not to disturb them, so the quality is pretty ordinary.

The Spotted Crakes & chick are pretty easy to view ...... standing on the footbridge doesn't seem to disturb them, although they do seem a bit more protective with this single chick.

The rails are much more secretive most of the time.

I've indicated on the photos the progression of days from first sighting.

Cheers
Julie

Julie Clark
 
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