International foulque challenge

[David Rees <>]

Geoffrey

I know of places in the UK where you can get a black swan or two in photos of Coot!

Right about the vultures though.

David

On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 2:12 PM, John Harris <> wrote:

To clearly defeat the French,  you need not go far from Canberra at all, in fact you can remain IN Canberra which I stress for the benefit of those who think Gungahlin is near Yass.

I have for some time been estimating the ‘Foulques’ - the Frenchified name sounds too posh for them really – the coots then, on Yerrabi Pond as 500 in my COG records. This is based on a fairly careful estimation about a year ago. If anything the number is now greater and I will be a bit more rigorous next time to begin my 2015 reports of Yerrabi.

However, Geoffrey, if the defeat of the French is at stake, I can come up with any number you like. Just ask me…..

From: Geoffrey Dabb <>
Date: Sunday, 25 January 2015 1:57 pm
To: chatline <>
Subject: [canberrabirds] International foulque challenge

The coot is at present a species of wide distribution.  I say ‘at present’  because there is probably a developing proposal for a split, which will see our species designated ‘Australian’ or ‘Australasian’ or (heaven help us) ‘Pacific’.  This morning I received an email from a French birdwatcher who was here a few weeks ago enclosing a photo taken that morning his time of counted ‘Foulques’ to the number of 110 in a flooded gravel pit near his home near Toulouse.  This is at 1 below. This being the Australia Day week-end,  I chose to treat this as a challenge to Canberra’s  own status as a Foulques Centre of Excellence so I set out this morning with a wide lens camera.  At QSP, and taking care  to avoid the restricted areas, I found about 140  foulques, which are somewhere in the wide-angle snap at 2. I concede that although countable in an enlargement  these are a little difficult to make out here, but some relevant specks are indicated by the arrow.  3 below is a crop showing 100 foulques.  A little care in identification is needed.  While the crop at 4 shows 20 foulques, that at 5 contains, in addition to some foulques and a Black Swan, 2 Hardhead Ducks.  I think there are probably other places not too far from Canberra where there will be hundreds of foulques right now.  And as I said to Jean-Pierre: “Ou est le Cygne Noir dans votre photo de foulques?”  Given the nearby Pyrenees, though, Jean-Pierre is way ahead of us regarding Lammergeiers and Griffon Vultures.

 

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