The party of Painted Snipe that have been on a local property for two months
now have been joined by another female, making a total of two females and
four males.
For the first week or two there appeared to be just a female and three
males. Consistently, just three males. Daily visits, regular scanning,
definitely just three males. Then, when I counted four males one day I
thought that maybe I'd missed one all along. Surely they couldn't be
recruiting in this small indistinctive field, not part of any wetland system
- only wet at all just at one end by virtue of a leaking capped bore.
Now, there are two females with the four males! Six birds.
I wonder how this recruiting happens. Are individual Painted Snipe just
happening across this group, and joining it? Or has this been a regular
breeding location over years, to which they return? The latter seems less
likely given that this field doesn't have any long-standing wetland history.
It's often just as dry as everywhere else nearby.
Another possibility is that I've been miscounting all along, overlooking
some hidden birds. But, although I don't doubt that this probably does
happen more than I realise, I don't think it's the case here. The numbers
have been consistent for weeks at a time whether the birds were spread in
various parts of the paddock, or gathered together in a group. On the two
occasions when there has been a variation in the count, it has been upwards,
and once the new male appeared he remained regularly visible over subsequent
visits.
The new female is perhaps an immature bird, less well-marked than the first
female, but still showing the clean unspotted bronzeish back, and whiter,
but not yet clear white eye patch. The bills of both females are distinctly
bi-coloured, with pink lower halves, the males much less so, or not at all
so.
I find it remarkable that this small party of birds in a mostly dry paddock
is somehow attracting new members. But there's such a lot going on out there
that is remarkable!
Good rain overnight. Oriental Cuckoo still here, but camera-shy,
Channel-billed Cuckoos raucous this-morning, two Koels calling from a tree
alongside the verandah, Nankeen Night-heron sitting on a mid-creek snag as I
write. Black-tailed Native-hen still on a farm dam just down the road. A
party of sixty or so Plumheaded Finches came through the garden on Sunday.
Bill Jolly
"Abberton",
Lockyer Valley, Queensland.
Visit our website at http://www.abberton.org <http://www.abberton.org/>
Email: <>
Ph: (+61) 7 4697 6111 Fax: (+61) 7 4697 6056
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