I have just returned from a week's fieldwork at Ned's Corner in NW
Victoria.
While looking for megafauna bones and Aboriginal occupation sites at Little
Lake Walla Walla, we came across a deposit of small stones that were
clearly not cultural and were not a result of normal sedimentary processes.
The best explanation we could come up with was Emu gizzard stones or
gastroliths (or perhaps Genyornis gizzard stones).
I recall a paper several years ago that looked at the use of Aboriginal
stone artefacts as gizzard stones and their subsequent re-distribution
across the landscape but I am not aware any papers on gizzard stones. If
anyone knows of any gizzard stone studies, I would appreciate the
reference.
There is an inherent conflict between archaeology and bird observation but
I did manage to look up on enough occasions to see a good range of Mallee
birds including Mulga and Red-rumped Parrots, Bluebonnets, Mallee
Ringnecks, Southern Whitefaces, White-winged Fairy-wrens, Yellow- and
White-plumed, Singing and Black Honeyeaters, Grey and Pied Butcherbirds
(with overlapping territories), Black, Whistling and Black-shouldered Kites
and lots more.
Thanks
David
**********************************************************************
Any personal or sensitive information contained in this email and
attachments must be handled in accordance with the Victorian Information
Privacy Act 2000, the Health Records Act 2001 or the Privacy Act 1988
(Commonwealth), as applicable.
This email, including all attachments, is confidential. If you are not the
intended recipient, you must not disclose, distribute, copy or use the
information contained in this email or attachments. Any confidentiality or
privilege is not waived or lost because this email has been sent to you in
error. If you have received it in error, please let us know by reply
email, delete it from your system and destroy any copies.
**********************************************************************
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|