I’m very sorry to hear that David, hopefully you will be able to find a healthy second fledgling.
My Magpie-lark nest in Chapman has failed. A bird was last seen on the nest on 27 April, but it’s been empty since, possibly predated as close examination reveals nest lining hanging over the side.
Regards
Jack Holland
From: David Cook <>
Sent: Thursday, 7 May 2020 10:52 AM
To:
Cc: 'COG Chatline' <>
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Common Bronzewings nesting in Wamboin
Jack,
Unfortunately, this breeding event has failed - we found a dead juvenile Common Bronzewing about 10m from the nest this morning. It was headless and tailless, but otherwise intact.
Not sure what the culprit could be, Pied Currawong or Magpie would be my guess, though a bronzewing, even a small one, would be too big to carry for either species. It may have just fledged and crashed into something, or chased, then predated on the ground.
The nest appears to be empty and as clutch size is usually two, we'll keep an eye out for another successful fledgling being fed.
David
On 25/04/2020 1:32 pm, wrote:
Many thanks David, that’s an even more remarkable breeding event, noting that the BIRD INFO data shows no Common Bronzewing breeding of any kind between March and July (inclusive) and only a single
each of on/leaving nest and nest with young for February.
The BIRD INFO data does show a longer/wider breeding season for the White-winged Chough, including a single record of nest building in April as well as in June.
It’s great that both these records will be captured on your GBS chart.
Regards
Jack Holland
Jack,
Further to your list of late-nesters, we have a pair of Common Bronzewings nesting in a Eucalypt in our backyard about 4m up and have recorded them as ON for the last 3 GBS weeks, and NB in the week before that.
Also, the Choughs had a flurry of mud-gathering and nest building after the last heavy rain a few weeks ago, but seem to have lost interest now.
David
Sent from my Xperia™ tablet
---- wrote ----
Many thanks Julie, that’s now 4 duck species with very young ducklings for April. Not entirely unexpected especially with the good rains
after the very dry period.
Very interesting is that I too found a female Magpie-lark on a nest off Kathner St Chapman on Thursday afternoon 23 April. Earlier in the
month I first found one taking mud to the spot, later a half-completed nest, and then a complete one.
The BIRD INFO data on the COG web site shows only 1 case of nest building and nest with young for the Magpie-lark over the many years of
data collection to 2017. It also shows one case of a nest with young in May, and 1 case of dependent young in both April and May but 2 cases in June.
So it is quite unusual.
Even more interesting to me is that my current nest is only around 400 m from the one in the Chapman horse paddocks I recorded during the
ACT Atlas period (1 Sep’t 1985 - 31 Aug 1989) and is noted in the book as the following “There was one extraordinary autumn breeding event in Chapman: an old nest was refurbished in March and eggs were laid in April. These hatched at the end of the month
and the young fledged in late May.” This is very similar timing to the current two nests.
The year is not recorded but I recall it was at the end of the data gathering period ie 1989. I expect this will be one of the examples
in the BIRD INFO data,
Also remarkable to me is, as I recently published in CBN, Magpie-lark breeding has been very poor in the area since 2015. This season I’ve
only noted one successful nest fledging 3 chicks well before Christmas.
Regards
Jack Holland
In addition to the Pink-eared Ducklings on Mulligan's Big Dam, there are also Grey Teal ducklings ....
9 when I last managed to count them and a brood of Pacific Black Ducks that I spotted today with at least 6 very young offspring. In the front dam is a Wood Duck family with 7 ducklings. Further south of the Big Dam in a new part of the reserve is another
small dam and a Wood Duck family with 5 ducklings.
Also, a sighting I found interesting today was a Magpie -lark sitting on a nest near the Big Dam. I know
now that ducks breed after rain, but is this common for other species?
On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 3:51 PM Terry Munro <> wrote:
There was a pair of Grey Teal with 6 small ducklings on the dam. Apart from this there was the usual suspects & I didn't see or hear any Superb parrots
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