The mention of rank grass below reminded me that I've been wondering exactly
what this term means. I've seen it mentioned in the field guides as habitat
for some species, but haven't been able to find a proper definition for it,
other than that certain species are considered to be rank grasses.
Peter Shute
________________________________________
From: On
Behalf Of bob moffatt
Sent: Tuesday, 3 February 2009 1:18 PM
To: 'birding aus'; Andrew Thelander
Cc: Stephen Debus
Subject: Water Hen Goes Nutty!
I have been monitoring this nest - they are Purple Swamphens, they (both a
male and female) commenced incubating nuts pre 8th Jan and are still
sitting!! I have more photos and considering writing a short note for
publication, the nest is certainly not the typical Swamphen nest of reed
stem sections but rather a bowl in somewhat rank grass - that has since been
mowed (slasher raised to avoid slashing nest!). I suspect they may have
lost a clutch of eggs(??) and the nuts are substitutes (?). I dont know
whether they gathered the nuts or whether the nuts may have accumulated in a
depression which may then have enticed them to incubate(?).
There is a recent report of Black swans incubation glass bottles (see Aus
Field Ornithology Vol.23 No1. March 2006).
Bob Moffatt
There was an article in a recent
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