Hi Folks,
Happy new year, I hope it’s a birdy one.
2004 was not particularly birdy for me. In 2003 I saw 394 birds including 101
ticks (not of the invertebrate type), however last year I managed only 194 birds
and got no new ticks at all! On
reflection the reason was clearly that I was spending most of my spare time on
Honours and had little time for anything else.
The up side was that I was studying the reasons that birds nest in
mistletoe and my study area was a pretty special place. I conducted my experiments at Morgan’s
Ridge, a 2600 hectare patch of private land east of Holbrook in southern
NSW. The birds were great with
Turquoise Parrots early in the year, a Barking Owl at the end and in between
seven species of Robin (Flame, Scarlet, Eastern Yellow, Red-capped, Hooded, Rose
Robin and Jacky Winter). Other
highlights were large numbers of Speckled Warbler and Painted Button-Quail and
an Australian Owlet Nightjar. While
not in the national reserve system, much of this area is being responsibly and
actively managed by the land-holders for its conservation value and they should
be commended for such actions.
This year, being thrilled by my first foray into ecological research, I
am undertaking a PhD at ANU. I will
be looking at the behavioural and more particularly the breeding ecology of
Hooded Parrots. We will probably
spend this year in Canberra preparing the study before spending a couple of
years in Darwin to undertake the fieldwork. I’ve not been to Darwin and there are
probably fifty birds there just waiting for me to twitch!
Therefore the Cooney’s are packing up and leaving Victoria and so to the
second purpose of this email.
Before leaving these southern parts I have a bit of time this summer to
knock off the twenty or so birds in Victoria that I haven’t yet seen. I’ve missed Orange-bellied Parrots
(again) but many of the others should be twitchable. The list follows and I
would appreciate any specific information held by the collective wisdom of the
Birding-Aus public. I have general
details for previous years from the Victorian Bird Report (still available if
you’ve not got yours yet!), but would be interested in recent sightings with GPS
locations.
Thanking you in anticipation of your assistance,
Stuart
January 2005 Target
Birds:
Malleefowl
King Quail
Little Bittern
Black Bittern
Lewin’s Rail
Little Button-quail
Red-chested Button-quail
Plains-wanderer
Elegant Parrot
Ground Parrot
Masked Owl
Mallee Emu-wren
Pilotbird
Chestnut-rumped
Heathwren
Rufous Fieldwren
Redthroat
Slender-billed
Thornbill
Black-eared Miner
Painted Honeyeater
Red-lored Whistler
Red-whiskered
Bulbul
