Australian Hobbies in Melbourne - seasonal influx or changed behaviour?

Our data for the Melbourne city of Bayside support Lawrie's
observation. March and May are the only months for which we
have hobby records in all our 18 broad survey areas. The
most records are in February - see table below.
 
 Jan  Feb  Mar  Apr  May  Jun  Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct  Nov 
Dec      
  56   68   53   46   49   23   25   28   26   22   17   21 

A lot of the February activity seems to be adults with young
birds so my guess the peak is simply about the young birds
learning and then heading off on their own. 

We have only a couple of records which clearly relate to
young being in the nest: prey being fed in January and
fledging in late January (different sites and years). 

Michael Norris
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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