Black-necked Stork Update 7
Correction:
In my Black-necked Stork Update 4 I misspelt the specific
name of the real Jabiru
Jabiru mycteria. I wrote it as
Jabiru
mycterus.
Moree storks: Very exciting news from Jen Southeron of Moree,
northern New South Wales. She and her husband Bruce have located an active nest
of the Black-necked stork near Moree. It presently has three nestlings. I had
planned a trip to document this nesting event but it had to be postponed due to
the rain. A postponement due to rain is a rare event these days! Anyway we are
heading out west in early July – weather permitting. Jen and Bruce had suspected
local nesting of storks for a few years due to the young age of birds observed
in the area but confirmation did not occur until this year. This is the first
confirmed New South Wales breeding record of the species west of the Great
Dividing Range.
Start to local breeding: The pair of storks at Arndilly north,
Tullymorgan were sitting on the nest (and presumably on eggs) last week so the
breeding season has started. However, yesterday June 23, no activity was
detected on the nest despite an hour’s nest watch. I don’t blame the bird for
sitting tight (and low) if it was there as we had moderate and very chilly winds
blowing. I will be checking the nest tomorrow. No other local pairs have started
nesting (at least to my knowledge).
Black-necked Stork breeding diary: K. S. Gopi Sundar, Principal
Co-ordinator – Indian Cranes and Wetlands Working Group has asked me to
collaborate with him to maintain a diary of BNS breeding throughout the species’
range. I will co-ordinate records in Australia. Anyone with information on
breeding of storks in Australia, including historical information, is encouraged
to send it to me for collation and forwarding to Gopi. Gopi has asked for the
following: location name (nearest town, village, waterbody etc.); Brief
description of locality – water availability, protection status of wetlands,
threats to habitat and birds; details of nesting activity – location of nest (in
tree, shrub etc), nest tree species, years observed breeding, breeding results –
no. of young produced. Additional information such as egg laying dates, fledging
dates etc. would be valuable. People providing data will be acknowledged in any
published papers that may eventuate.
Storks and Steers Part 4: Ever since my encounter with the rogue steer I
have been keeping a weather eye on the local cattle. As over 90% of stork nests
that I have documented are situated in areas where cattle grazing is the main
land use it is only natural that I will come into contact with these animals
regularly. When checking out a stork nest site near Kempsey I was slushing
through a muddy wetland, weighted down with spotting scope, binoculars, camera,
tape measure, height meter and dictaphone, having just tiptoed around a very
large Brahman bull in one paddock and a very solid Charolais bull in another,
when we came face to face (almost!) with a cow and calf. Having visions of
attempting to jump the fence with all of the valuable and delicate gear and
being with someone whose fear of cattle was greater than mine we decided that
discretion was the better part of valour, and retreated. She was probably only
curious but the one thing worse than a charging bull is a charging protective
mother cow. At a banding weekend at Tullymorgan recently I was told that I could
erect some mist nets over the fence in the next paddock. "Oh by the way there is
a bull in there but he shouldn’t be any problem". This was despite the fact that
the bull had just put its owner in hospital with a few broken ribs. My nets
stayed on the ‘bull free’ side of the fence.
A visit to the Gorge, on the Clarence River, where we were checking out a
large dam where Black-necked Storks have been seen, brought us into contact with
another large bull. We had made our way around the edge of the wetland when
suddenly the bull decided to stake his claim on the paddock. Down went the head,
up came the dust and we were in no doubt that he resented our intrusion. I
didn’t mind this display, but because I have a vivid imagination, and a good
memory of the rogue steer, I didn’t want to hang around to see what the next act
entailed. I had visions of swimming fully clothed in the dam with my spotting
scope! What really worried me was that my companion, who had walked around
Africa alone and seems to have no fear of animals said that he thought that,
maybe, we should head back to the vehicle.
Post Graduate Conference: Next Tuesday I will be presenting a PowerPoint
presentation at the UNTAMED postgraduate conference at the National Marine
Science Centre in Coffs Harbour. The title of the presentation is ‘Feeding
behaviour and diet of and endangered waterbird, the Black-necked Stork’. It will
be a trial run for the Australasian Ornithological Conference to be held at
Blenheim, New Zealand in December 2005 where I hope to present an upgraded
version of the same talk. By the way UNTAMED stands for ‘UNE Terrestrial and
Aquatic Management and Ecology Discussions’.
Tweed Valley: Despite an earlier diagnosis that the BNS was extinct in
the Tweed Valley I have received a number of recent observations of the species
there. No nest yet but I am hopeful. To encourage the Tweed Bird Observers and
to provide them with some information on the species I presented a talk at their
May monthly meeting. It was well received and the club members were very
friendly and hospitable. I visited the former nest site at Stotts Island but
didn’t find a current storks’ nest but did find a new Osprey nests on the
Island. I observed the Island from the mainland on the northern bank of the
River.
Your observations: The rumour that I don’t want any more stork records is
not true. Please keep them coming in. I will be keen to keep receiving stork
records indefinitely and not only while I am doing my PhD. I hope to be able to
collate all of the records eventually and will endeavour to enter them into the
NSW National Parks Wildlife Atlas Database. If you are sending me records that
have already been entered into this, or another, database, can you indicate that
at the time to avoid me double entering them.
Thanks to all of those people who have provided me with records, photos etc.
since my last update.
Regards
Greg
