Good morning COG/Canberra Birds members and chat line subscribers, a reminder that the monthly COG/Canberra Birds meeting will be held tomorrow evening Wednesday 14 August
from 7:30 pm at our usual Canberra Girls Grammar School venue. However, please note the changed access arrangements which will be in place while the construction in the Gabriel Drive parking area continues.
Details are below. There will also be signs to help you navigate your way - unfortunately the map is too big to put on the COG chat line.
Everyone is welcome so please come along and learn how to identify the (just arriving) Horsfield’s and Shining Bronze-Cuckoos and hear about the very strong links between Australian
and New Guinean birds.
There will be the usual raffle and you will also be able to enjoy a cup of tea or coffee after the meeting.
Jack Holland
The August 2024 meeting will be a normal face-to-face one held at our usual venue. As COVID is still widespread in the community attendees should heed social distancing and
good hygiene practice etc, and use their common sense and stay home if they have COVID symptoms. Mask wearing is recommended.
Jack Holland -
Horsfield’s and Shining Bronze-Cuckoos
Leo Joseph – Tales of Australian Birds in New Guinea and New Guinean Birds in Australia
Please note that construction is currently occurring around the Gabriel Drive parking area, and access to there is not available. So please use the Chapel Drive entrance
and park there. Then proceed to the Multi-media Centre (MMT) using the alternative route the Canberra Girls Grammar School has provided as shown in the map on p 8 of the August 2024 issue of Gang-gang, or on the Home page of the COG/Canberra Birds web site.
Once parked proceed down past the Chapel and smaller Admin Offices, keeping them to your left. Just past the latter turn left along a relatively flat and straight broad
path keeping the columns to you left. Near to the end, go left up the 3 m wide steps, turn half right and you will find an open glass door. Go through this, across the empty room and past the toilets, and then either enter the MMT either through the bottom
MMT door or go further along and up the steps where you reach the usual entry door. Though it is well lit, as it will be dark a torch for finding your way to the MMT and back to your car after the meeting is recommended.
The Bird of the Month presentation will be by
Jack Holland on the “Horsfield’s and Shining Bronze-Cuckoos.”
Jack will outline the diagnostic identification features of this often-confused pair of species. The purpose of this talk is to refresh identification skills for these just
arriving spring/summer migrants.
The main presentation will be by
Leo Joseph, Director of the Australian National Wildlife Collection at the CSIRO on “Tales of Australian Birds in New Guinea and New Guinean Birds in Australia.”
Although we often think and talk about the birds of Australia, one of the most important lessons to come out of the last 60 years or so of research is that the birds and indeed
much of the fauna of Australia and New Guinea are two sides of one coin. Consider Canberra’s familiar King Parrots. Their formal vernacular name is the Australian King-Parrot. That reminds us that there are two other species, the Papuan King-Parrot across
New Guinea and the Moluccan King-Parrot on Indonesian islands and the far west of New Guinea. In this talk, Leo will take us on a tour of some recent (and not so recent) research stories about orioles, monarchs, kingfishers, logrunners, owls and even magpies
that will remind us of why we should always be thinking of the birds of Australia as being part of an avifauna shared with New Guinea and indeed other surrounding areas.
