Good morning all,
I am doing my January clean up of my email file and found the Bittern
discussion.
At one of my local patches Little Bitterns have been breeding and
observers have been flocking to see them during most of January.
The wetlands is Metroplex which is a small wetland in the middle of a
large commercial and ware-housing estate on the Brisbane River just
west of the Gateway Bridge. the Street address is Borthwick Ave
Murrarie.
The wetland is joined to a larger wetaland by water under the bridge
and closer to the river. This larger wetalnd has an island with
breeding colonies of Aust White Ibis, Little Pied Cormorant in good
numbers and Royal Spoonbill, Little and Great Egrets in smaller numbers.
The Bittern Wetland is about 500m from the river.
the wetland is about 200 metres long and 60 metres wide it is
surrounded by trees about 6 to 8 metres tall and has a stand of
melolucas 8m high in the water towards the northern end. Much of rest
of the area consists of reeds of two different types. I'm no botanist.
Six Bitterns have been recorded but there could be more. Seen at the
one time were two adult males. One adult female has bee seen on a
number of occasions. This could be one bird seen many times or more
than one bird. three Juveniles were seen and photographed together.
Because of plumage is is possible there were more than three
juveniles. One photo shows one bird with lots of down and another
taken the next day shows three with very little down.
I visit this wetland often and have not heard or seen any evidence of
Aust Bitterns. I played the calls on a number of occasions but got not
replies.
I hope this ads a little to what you are attempting to establish.
Peter
On 17/12/2008, at 2:42 PM, James O'Connor wrote:
Hi all,
This spring and summer Birds Australia is undertaking a national
survey of wetlands looking for both Australasian and Australian
Little Bitterns. This is being done for two reasons. Firstly,
because it appears that the Australasian Bittern population and
distribution are declining. If you look at the BA website you will
see atlas maps showing just how dramatic this decline appears to be.
While numbers of birds from some areas are still high, in others the
birds appear to be missing altogether.
Secondly, very little is known about the Australasian Bittern life
cycle, feeding requirements and seasonal movement and without this
information conservation strategies are difficult to formulate. All
information would be helpful. Do you know a wetland that used to
have Aust Bitterns, but no longer does? Have Aust Bitterns recently
arrived at a wetland in your area? Have irrigation changes in your
area, past and present, affected Bittern numbers? Do you know of
Aust Bitterns breeding in your area?
More information about Aust Bitterns, the survey and a survey kit
can be downloaded from the Birds Australia website at
<http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/our-projects/bittern-survey.html>http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/our-projects/bittern-survey.html
or you can email the survey team at <
> if you want a hard copy of the
survey kit sent out or have any information.
Surprisingly, observers report Australian Little Bitterns to blogs
and the BA Atlas more often than Australasian Bitterns. While the
Australasian Bittern is the main target of the survey, BA would like
to get a better understanding of the Australian Little Bittern as
well. It appears that they may be taking advantage of the small
suburban wetlands that are being placed in new developments as well
as urban storm water retarding basins. It would also be interesting
to know if any of them are resident in Australia all year round, as
they are believed to migrate to New Guinea from March to about
October, but this may not be the case for all birds, especially
those in northern WA, NT and FNQ.
Thanks
Andrew Silcocks
James O'Connor
Research Manager
Birds Australia
Suite 2-05
60 Leicester St
Carlton 3053
email:
Ph (03) 9347 0757
Fax (03) 9347 9323
Toll free: 1300 730 075
Website address: http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au
Atlas website: http://www.birdata.com.au
ABN: 87 004 076 475
Australian Partner of BirdLife International. Are you a member of
Birds
Australia? If not, why not join us?
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