Back to the original question for a moment .... go to the Atlas mapping page on
the ABC site
http://www2.abc.net.au/birds/mapviewer.html
and generate a map for Common Blackbird.
You'll be amazed. From the edge of the Nullabor in western SA, through
Kangaroo Island and much of the SE; all through Victoria including the northern
Murray Mallee towns; up through the NSW Riverina, southern bit of the inland
slopes, South Coast; and trickling up to the single dot in Queensland's Darling
Downs. It also occurs in most of Tassie, including the Bass Strait islands and
along the west coast into the southwest wilderness. Breeding has been recorded
in the Atlas 2 period over much of that range.
This is a bird on the move - compare August 2000 with the 1901, 1901-50,
1951-76 and 1984 maps in Atlas 1, and it's slowly but surely expanding West and
North. How far north can it go? I predict that it will eventually (50-100
years out) colonise most of the mesotherm archipelago (Bassian-like mountain
top environments) up the east coast, probably even into the tropics. And
west? It will soon be target practice for the feral bird shooting squad in
coastal WA. So long as there are people with watered gardens, irrigation
schemes, etc., it will cross suboptimal and inhospitable country to reach the
more desirable stuff.
L.
--
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L A W R I E C O N O L E
3 Gezireh Street, Pascoe Vale South, Victoria 3044 AUSTRALIA.
Phone (03) 9354 2484; Mobile (0419) 588 993
E-mail: <>
Twitchathon 2000 info: http://www.bluep.com/~oco/vthon2000.html
My Twitchathon site: http://www.bluep.com/~oco/cdph.html
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