Hi David and Jill
In Annotated Birds of the Top End (Thompson and Goodfellow, 1990), several
sightings of S.n. addenda (as we knew it) are reported from Leanyer Sewage
Ponds, Fogg Dam and Kakadu by John McKean and others. These birds visit
Darwin during the Wet Season.
A specimen from the sewage ponds was found in December 1989, and I assume
this in the the NT Museum collection, if anyone is interested.
--
Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
PO Box 3460 NT 0832, AUSTRALIA
Ph. 61 08 89 328306
Mobile: 04 386 50 835
Birdwatching and Indigenous tourism consultant
PhD Candidate
Interpreter/transcriber, Lonely Planet Guide to Aboriginal Australia
Vice-chair, Wildlife Tourism Australia
http://www.denisegoodfellow.com.au
http://www.earthfoot.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/baby-dreaming
www.fatbirder.com/
For copies of Birds of Australia¹s Top End or Quiet Snake Dreaming, visit
amazon.com
http://www.facebook.com/Wildlife.Tourism.Australia
on 18/3/11 12:18 PM, David James at wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> Hi Jill,
>
> The earliest Australian records of affinis were two collected at the estuaries
> of the North and South Alligator Rivers in Feb 73 and October 84 respectively
> (See Schodde 1991: Bull. B.O.C. 111(4): 216-6). John MacKean (1981:
> Australasian Seabird Group Newsl. 15: 11-15) reported small numbers of affinis
> in the Darwin area between Sept and April, and implied that they were
> regular. I haven't spent much time in the top end at all, but I saw a few
> affinis types on a bank in the Adelaide River at the mouth of Leaders Ck on
> 9/10/00. I'd be surprised if there weren't many more records, because they are
> certainly there.
>
> I didn't find them in NQ during 9 yrs there between 1993 and 2002, though I
> didn't look very often.
>
> I checked my notes and the first Gull-billed's from SEQ were found by Chris
> Corben and David Stewart in early December 1990. These were an adult and a 1st
> yr bird. When I went to look at them with Dave on 20/12/90 only the first year
> was there. I guess the ones at Wynum that Paul Wallbridge referred to were a
> different lot?
>
> Dion Hobcroft and I saw one at Stockton Sandspit, (Hunter River) on 22/2/91.
> I'm not aware of any other NSW records, and had assumed this to be the
> southern most record in Australia until we learnt about the Murray Bridge
> record on B-A the other day.
>
> For the sake of completeness I have also seen a single affinis on Christmas
> Island, (where macrotarsa is possible but less likely) and in large numbers at
> Derby, WA.
>
> Actually, I have doubts that the correct name of these birds is affinis. There
> is a only the slightest cline between affinis and nominate nilotica. The type
> locality of affinis is Java where the species does not breed. Some years ago I
> tried to find out where it might breed, and concluded that it must be
> north-eastern Asia. This means that affinis appears to be incorrectly used for
> eastern populations of nilotica migrating through southern Asia and the birds
> we see are probably nilotica. Mathews named the breeding birds in China as
> addenda, which makes things a little more complicated.
>
> --- On Fri, 18/3/11, Jill Dening <> wrote:
>
>
> From: Jill Dening <>
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Affinis Gull-billed Terns, more
> To: "birding-aus" <>
> Received: Friday, 18 March, 2011, 12:20 PM
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I was talking offline with a list member, about the sightings of affinis
> gullbills, and wondering why there don't seem to be any reports of sightings
> across the Top End, when they seem to appear regularly during the summer in
> the North-west (Broome) and the North-east (Cairns). Or have I missed reports
> of them? Do they appear in between west and east during the summer period when
> they are present? Can anyone enlighten us? (The New Atlas doesn't
> differentiate between subspecies.)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jill
> -- Jill Dening
> Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
>
> 26° 51' 41"S 152° 56' 00"E
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