Hello all,
Russell Woodford wrote (in a message primarily about something else) that "your CC: message (of the one to Bob Inglis) to Birding-Aus bounced because it was too big - over 20Kb as it had the HTML version appended".
This non-spangled drongo doesn't even know what an HTML version is, let alone how it got there, or how to append one. So how to get rid of it? I wouldn't know!
Anyway what I've done now is to select and copy the text in the original message in my "Sent Mail" box, and paste it below. If this doesn't work, I'll seek technical advice, before typing it as a new message.
...........................
Hello Bob,
On 1 May 2000, you wrote:
>
>Fran's comment that Spangled Drongo is absent from her area (100km north of me and JB) during winter is interesting. Maleny, approx 500 metres higher in altitude than Redcliffe, can be somewhat cooler than Redcliffe at that time of the year. However, the Australian field guides don't mention altitudinal migration; they do mention north and south movement after breeding (in eastern NSW?) and suggest that drongo is both sedentary and migratory (along with - resident, nomad, summer vagrant, winter vagrant).
Movement after breeding seems to be to both warmer and cooler climes. Could it be that the 3 >sub-species have different habits in that regard?
>
I write to suggest that they are altitudinal migrants, and that perhaps you should look for your S. Drongos in summer in the D'Aigular Ranges. You have already Fran's advice re Maleny and I will now add similar advice, albeit 30 years old, for Tamborine Mt., also about 500 m in elevation.
For those not interested in detail, I found S. Drongo present on Tamborine up to April 14 in 1970, then absent until Sept 6; present until Jan 27 in 1971, then absent until early September; present from at least Sept 20 until Jan 31 1972; then absent until probably Oct. - definitely present on Nov 4, 1972, and still there when my study ceased 31 Dec, '72.
Detail of my study follows for anyone interested.
My lyrebird studies on Tamborine Mt used equipment loaned by CSIRO Wildlife which had microphones on long leads back to auto-record gear to take a 10 second sample of sound every 6 minutes, from 6 am to 6 pm ... when it worked. Every fortnight I had five hours of recordings to read out. CSIRO had used this with Superbs in Tidbinbilla. Their read-out was 'no sound'; 'lyrebird only'; 'any other species'; 'lyrebird plus any other species'. The results gave a lovely graph of number of samples per day that showed the lyrebird at their maximum through the winter months 'but all others' hardly singing at all.
"Ahah," said Norman Robinson, "That shows that the lyrebirds can mimic all these other species without causing any confusion." He wanted me to duplicate the results with the Albert. But I knew that it wouldn't work, because our Tamborine Albert habitat is not quiet in Winter; quieter than Spring/Summer, sure, but not quiet apart from the lyrebird. So I went to the trouble of reading out all species. I knew the calls of the species fairly well, and at the time my mother was still alive, she had lived on Tamborine for 70 plus years and knew them all every well. So any I didn't recognise, she identified for me. (And one of the hazards of the operation was to be doing a read-out and trying hard to identify a very soft sound with volume at maximum, and the next sample has the lyrebird right under the mic. in the middle of his territorial call!)
>From Norman's point of view the exercise worked out well for we found that several species which had calls that seemed ideal for a lyrebird to use, he did not. And these were species that called well during Winter. Whipbirds and Logrunners, for example, that nest in winter on Tamborine.
I'll now give you a summarisesd account of the results for S. Drongo. It is appreciated that absence of an S. Drongo sample on any particular day, doesn't prove none were there, but with 120 ten-second samples per day, one certainly picked up any species that was calling more than just very occasionally. As I don't know how to present a table in an email and have it appear in the same format when received, I'll just give 7-day tallies. The study kicked off 1 January 1970:
(Note: The time switches were relatively primitive mechanical ones and being out in the bush in all weathers and subject to a number of unexpected problems, e.g. being jammed by an accumulation of cockroach dung, there was scope for breakdowns, which of course would not be seen until the end of the fortnight, when the tape change was due. In the following list, if less than 7 samples were recorded for any 7-day period, the tally is shown as, for example, ">3(2)", which means only 2 days samples, for a total of 3 S.Drongo.) If no samples were available for the 7-day period, this is indicated by a "?".
1970
Jan 1 - Jan 28 145 88 68 34
Jan 28 - Feb 25 13 20 24 8
Feb 26 - Mar 25 10 7 >3(2) ?
Mar 26 - Apr 16 >4(5) 1 1 0
No S.Drongo samples from April 14 to September 6
Sep 7 - Oct 2 1 >1(5) ? 20
Oct 3 - Oct 30 54 >26 (3) 77 ?
Oct 31 - Nov 27 22 19 17 15
Nov 28 - Dec 31 9 23 16 1 nil Dec 26-31 (Had a short Christmas
holiday away? :-)
1971
Jan 1 - Jan 28 40 34 19 0
No S.Drongo from Jan 27 until early Sept. Samples missed Sep 1 - 19
Sep 7 - Oct 2 ? >2(1) 17 21
Oct 3 - Oct 30 51 >13(1) 37 40
Oct 31 - Nov 27 34 33 21 >1(1)
Nov 28 - Dec 31 >6(2) ? >15(1) 56 51 for Dec 26-31
1972
Jan1 - Jan 28 40 34 ? >11(6)
One S.Drongo sample on Jan 31, then none until somewhere between Oct 4 and November 4.
I recall my mother describing the nature of an S.Drongo nest: so thinly woven that one could look up from underneath and see whether it had eggs in it. I conclude that S.Drongo breeds in Spring/Summer on Tamborine, then disperses to the lowlands in winter. But the latter idea is only because of your winter records. On my records, all I know is that they leave Tamborine; they could go anywhere.
Cheers
Syd
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