> It seems to me that I hardly ever see (or hear) ARs in southern
> Victoria. My records since 1985 indicate that in the south west they
> are found only in the Grampians and only on the mountain ridges and
> peaks - not apparently in the lower areas. My other records are for
> the north east and Mallee areas.
>
Steve
In my experience around Geelong (on the SE fringe of SW Victoria) since
the late 1970s, Australian Ravens are predominantly birds of large
continguous forest blocks in the region; rarely found on farmland and
never in town. They are widespread and often heard in the Brisbane
Ranges, in various contiguous forests leading from there towards
Ballarat, and in drier parts of the Otway Ranges. They are absent even
from rather large woodland remnants such as Inverleigh FFR (~1,000
hectares).
Little Ravens are ubiquitous just about everywhere else in town and
country, yielding only to ARs deep in the big forest blocks, and to
Forest Ravens in the Otways. LRs are the quintessential "town crow" in
this area, contrasting with other cities up the east coast where ARs and
Torresian Crows, or in Tasmania FRs, fill this urban niche.
FRs, in my experience, are widespread in the forested Otways, then
patchy on farmland/coastal scrub right across to Portland, and
straggling up into the Wannon region almost to the bottom of the Wimmera
(rare in Jilpanger FFR just south of Arapiles-Tooan SP, west of
Gariwerd/Grampians).
In the the Victorian Mallee region, ARs are more-or-less the main Corvus
sp. that comes to mind if I dredge my memory. In parts of the
Murray-Sunset NP near Lindsay Island there are significant numbers of
Little Crows from time to time too; but even this far north there are
also a few Little Ravens.
I've often thought that some long Corvus survey transects across parts
of SW Victoria would prove interesting, but have not ever quite managed
to do that yet ........
Cheers
Lawrie Conole
58 Holden Street, Fitzroy North 3068 Victoria, AUSTRALIA
Phone AH (03) 9486 4575
Ph Mob (0419) 588 993
Email <>
PS: FFR shorthand for fauna & flora reserve, NP for national park, and
SP for state park, in case anyone wondered.
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