Blitz wind up

[Michael Lenz via Canberrabirds <>]

While I had quite a good species number for the Blitz of the Campbell Park area (52), it is evident (for a long time) that many once rel. common and regular species are now scarce or absent (e.g. Dollarbird, Leaden Flycatcher, Sacred Kingfisher etc. etc.). Of course, this is just one example, and the issue is similar in many other areas. The flood of email checklists we see these days, may in part camouflage the problem, espec. if a limited number of birds is reported multiple times from a given site by several observers. 

After the ACT Atlas (1992), Campbell Park was deemed a 'hot spot' for Brown Treecreeper and Diamond Firetail (see Taylor & Day 1993). In this case, there was only 1 group of Brown Treecreepers and the Diamond Firetails were also only very localised. Both species  disappeared soon after  from the area.

In Europe or the Americas, a large number of  species have declined dramatically. But in these parts of the world at least large-scale documentation via various monitoring programs is available. A more current continent-wide atlas for Australia, as Mark has suggested, would be a wake-up call. Such a project is indeed urgently needed.

Locally, the Atlas of New South Wales & ACT has documented declines for a number of species (published 2014-2020). For the ACT past Annual Bird Reports, records in the COG database and those in ebird could be used to illustrate and highlight the issue, even if only a few representative species are selected. 

Michael Lenz

On Mon, 23 Oct 2023 at 14:43, <> wrote:

Hi Mark and others

 

It might be a very good time to propose to BirdLife Australia that an Atlas of Australia would be a very god idea sitting on both the Blitz and the Aussie Bird Count. I have just met with the new CEO of BLA and would be happy to raise this suggestion with her if it is felt this would be a good thing to do.

 

Regards

 

Alison

 

 

Alison Russell-French OAM

PO Box 101

Curtin  ACT  2605

M: +61 419 264 702

 

 

 

From: Canberrabirds <> On Behalf Of Mark Clayton via Canberrabirds
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2023 12:50 PM
To: Philip Veerman <>;
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Blitz wind up

 

I know that Philip is a very good birder and for him to say that things are not good bird wise just backs up what I said in an email to Nicki this morning and have been commenting on for quite a few years now. Climate change with the two extremes in weather we have had, coupled with the excess removal of trees, both natural and planted, for the expansion of suburbia and on farmland, and the general “cleaning up” of paddocks has had a major impact on birds EVERYWHERE. I have been surveying birds both professionally and as an amateur for nearly 60 years. I think it is now time for Birdlife Australia, if it wants to continue as supposedly Australia’s premier birding organisation, to redo an “Atlas of Australia’s Birds”, I think they will get an almighty shock as to just what is happening. I can remember 30 – 40 years ago driving down country roads and seeing Willie Wagtails and Yellow-rumped Thornbills fly off the road, other Thornbill and fairy-wren species doing much the same. Now the occasional Magpie-lark, Apostlebird and a lot fewer White-winged Choughs are to be seen. There are some birds on the ACT”s Threatened Species list that I, and I know a lot of others, consider should not be on it, and a lot more that should. We are finding the same is happening with our bird banding site near West Wyalong, an area that still has a lot of native vegetation in the general area. I was surprised to find species like the Noisy Miner, Common Starling and Common Myna were in very few numbers in areas I have surveyed in previous years.

 

Be interested in hearing people’s comments.

 

Mark

 

Sent from Mail for Windows

 

From:
Sent: Monday, 23 October 2023 10:31 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Blitz wind up

 

I did 10 sites over the 2 days, with about 95 km travel, which is the most travel I have done for birding for a very long time but probably a lot less than most other people. Even though pleasant being out, the low numbers of birds in species and individuals is getting concerning. For example at Castle Hill which in most years it has been so full it has been a struggle for just me to get to find most of what is there, yesterday I had to look pretty carefully to come up with the list I did. Though it was nice to be there. Previously it has had Hooded Robin, Brown Treecreeper, Diamond Firetail, Leaden Flycatcher, White-browed Woodswallow, none of them left (at least within the area I look at).

 

Good bits were a Tawny Frogmouth on nest with at least one chick in I think exactly the same spot on a tree as last year (or was it 2 years ago?). A pair of kestrels, male seen hunting and female seen flying around a group of trees so presumably nesting in one of them, although the tree they were nesting in 2 years ago has now fallen down. Unlike 2 years ago I was not accosted by a woman who saw me at Kambah Pool and I thought she wanted to know what I was looking at (the above mentioned Tawny Frogmouth on nest) but she saw I was standing still and rushed at me and launched a barrage of preaching Jesus at me. The car park at Kambah Pool on Saturday afternoon was totally full of cars, even along the access road.

 

Otherwise fairly ordinary.

 

Philip

 

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