Hi Phil, Peter, BBO and birding-ausers,
This is an exciting record. As Phil and Peter have suggested, this does
appear to be a first for mainland Australia.
Apart from the previous records mentioned by Peter (the one off Dampier was
Dec 1985; specimen now in WA Museum) there have been reports from Ashmore
Reef in Dec 1990 (apparently photographed - see Andrew & Eades, Wingspan 1:
18), and one claimed for Ashmore in March 1992 (I don't know what details
there are, if any, for this one).
Late last year there was a reliable sighting of two birds on Ashmore and
there is also the bird(s) rumoured to have been seen by George Swann at the
Lacepedes - has anyone seen any details of the Lacepedes report ??
So - six previous reports that I am aware of, with various degrees of
reliability, but this is the first I am aware of from the mainland. One
assumes that they are probably regular visitors to the NW coast in small
numbers, but would be very easily overlooked and perhaps assumed to be an
odd-looking gerygone.
Cheers,
Allan
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Allan Burbidge http://cygnus.uwa.edu.au/~austecol/birds.html
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