birding-aus

Great Crested Grebe thoughts

To:
Subject: Great Crested Grebe thoughts
From: Hugo Phillipps <>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2002 10:16:12 +1000
Hi everybody -

On Saturday (24 Aug) I saw a Great Crested Grebe (GCGR) in the SW corner of
Swan Bay, near Queenscliff, Victoria.  I am not very familiar with the area
(though I intend to become so as I am moving house near there) but it did
set me thinking about GCGRs generally and how common or rare they are.
While not as common as muck, they are not really in the rarity class either
- at least in SE Australia.  One of those species that - if you are not
already doing an Atlas survey - you might still send in a form for as an
incidental record.

For me it is a species that gives me a buzz every time I see one (which is
not often), though I note that the Atlas of Victorian Birds states
'...concentrations of birds may occur on tidal bays and saline lakes,
particularly during winter' and they may be regular visitors to Swan Bay at
this time of year.  Having only seen single birds - maybe an occasional
pair, a concentatration would be great to see.

Hundreds of Chestnut Teal and Little Pied Cormorants around as well, with
several Hoary-headed Grebes, Australian Pelicans, Great Cormorants and
Silver Gulls.  Then, glowing in the late afternoon sunlight, a flock of
about a dozen Blue-winged Parrots settled momentarily in the strip of
salt-marsh along the bay - only five metres or so away from me - before
flying off.  A couple seemed even brighter than the others but I couldn't
quite convince myself that they were Orange-bellied Parrots (though I tried).

Cheers,
Hugo

Hugo Phillipps
Communications Coordinator
Birds Australia
415 Riversdale Road
Hawthorn East 3123, Australia
Tel: (03) 9882 2622, fax: (03) 9882 2677
Email: <>
Website: <http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au>

Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to 


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU