Hi Niven et al,
Not sure of the significance of this per your comments but on the 27th June
last year I saw two large(ish) mixed flocks of White-browed / Masked
Woodswallows in the vicinity of Edith Falls, about 50km N of Katherine. The
first flock was of about 150 birds, which appeared over the escarpment near the
top falls at about 1315. The interesting thing (in hindsight) was that
White-broweds outnumbered the Masked by about 2:1 (so 100 roughly WbWS;50MSW).
I have a couple of photos that clearly show more White-broweds than Masked.
This happened about 40 minutes after I photographed a Red Goshawk back along
the track before you descend towards the creek. Pretty much at the same time as
I saw the Woodswallows (ie 40 mins after I photographed the goshawk) I saw 2
raptors circling in the distance which I was 99% certain were both Red
Goshawks. There were also small groups of Little WS on the lower slopes
clumping in tree branches.
The second WS flock was slightly larger (so say 200 birds for argument's sake)
and was seen along Edith Falls Rd in the late afternoon (no prizes for guessing
where I was going!). I didn't get a good handle on which species was the
dominant, but they were both in there.
At the time the Woolybutts were in full bloom and there were great
concentrations of Banded HE's (and Browns) on the Top Falls track where the
goshawk and woodswallows were seen. Perhaps White-broweds and Maskeds might
push into this area to feed on the Wollybutt blossom? But then again, they
would likely head further north if that was the case?
I saw Hooded Parrots and Gouldians late that afternoon - it really was a
memorable day's Top End birding.
Mick
________________________________
From: Niven <>
To: Birding Aus <>
Sent: Tuesday, 7 August 2012 7:46 AM
Subject: Dusky Woodswallows near Darwin, NT
White-browed Woodswallow at Gunlom is worth noting. It seems that a line
roughly through Katherine is a bit of a cut-off for them normally, and
north of that they could be considered at best sporadic. There's possibly
another invisible line, maybe the Adelaide River, though from a birders'
perspective it's the Marrakai road between the Arnhem and Stuart Highways,
north of which White-browed could be considered very uncommon, if not
vagrant. Between the two lines, Masked is perhaps irregular rather than
sporadic, but still uncommon.
Little Woodswallow is a bit odd, with some years numerous birds around
Darwin, and some years none. It's probably several years since we've had an
influx there, though they are not too uncommon in the area between the two
invisible lines, and are also regular east of Marrakai.
Niven
On 6 August 2012 21:58, John Weigel <> wrote:
> On 2 July this year I saw/photographed a single White-browed Woodswallow
> at Gunlom Falls in a group of a dozen or so Masked Woodies. A fairly
> northerly record, yes?
>
> John Weigel
>
>
> On 06/08/2012, at 12:0
>
> > Message: 3
> > Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2012 11:09:21 +1000
> > From: "Gil Langfield" <>
> > To: "'Birding Aus'" <>
> > Subject: [Birding-Aus] Dusky Woodswallows near Darwin, NT
> > Message-ID: <>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> >
> > I have a record of Dusky Woodswallows at Mindil Beach Reserve, Darwin on
> 3
> > July 1986. Until today, I did not realise that they were unusual in the
> NT.
> > So my record may be a case of mistaken identity.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Gil Langfield
> > Melbourne, Australia
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 4
> > Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:37:22 +0930
> > From: Denise Goodfellow <>
> > To: Bas Hensen <>, Birding Aus
> > <>
> > Cc: "" <>
> > Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] sight record of Dusky woodswallow near
> > Darwin NT
> > Message-ID: <>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
> >
> > I recall Martin Schulz saying he'd seen Dusky Woodswallow in the Top End
> > back in 1990.
> > Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
> > 1/7 Songlark Street,
> > Bakewell, NT 0832
> > 043 8650 835
> >
> > PhD candidate, SCU
> > Vice-chair, Wildlife Tourism Australia
> > Nominated for the Cond? Nast international ecotourism award, 2004 by the
> > renowned American website, Earthfoot.
> > Wildlife Adviser, BBC?s ?Deadly 60?
> >
> > Birds of Australia's Top End and Quiet Snake Dreaming available on
> > amazon.com
> > A second edition of Fauna of Australia?s Top End used by the University
> of
> > NSW as a text for 12 years is now under preparation.
> >
> > 'It gave me huge insight into the lives' of Aboriginal Australians?,
> > Jonathon Franzen, American author, birder, conservationist (August, 2011)
> > on Quiet Snake Dreaming.
> >
> > www.denisegoodfellow.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 5/8/12 4:03 PM, "Bas Hensen" <> wrote:
> >
> >> I posted the following observations on ntbirds a few days back and did
> not
> >> receive too much of a response.
> >
> > Lightly edited copy: "we saw 2 (dusky)
> >> woodswallows in the company of a large flock of Masked birds. They had
> very
> >> contrasting whitish wings and entirely dark blackish body plus
> tail"....It was
> >> only when we checked Simpson & Day that we realised we might be onto
> something
> >> unusual. We saw the birds once more afterwards and they still looked
> the same,
> >> ie. not white-browed, black-faced or little, but looking like dusty!
> >
> > "They
> >> appeared to be the same size as the masked, which were flying with
> them. We
> >> saw many little woodswallows all day, and minutes after sighting the
> higher
> >> flying flock of masked, and these birds were clearly different, with
> little to
> >> no contrast between body and wings.
> > We only saw the birds in flight from
> >> underneath, so could not see a white streak on the leading edge of the
> >> wings.
> > My question is: are there any previous records of Dusky in the NT ?
> >> Could the somewhat unusual weather pattern with sustained strong SE
> winds have
> >> something to do with it?
> > The large flock was in exactly the same
> >> area/airspace as the one observed during the Fieldnats excursion on
> July 8.
> >> (namely where the Marakai track crosses the Adelaide river). Hope to
> hear re
> >> woodswallows. Does HANZAB have any records ?" Dominic Funnell was the
> second
> >> observer.
> >
> > Considering that :
> >
> > 1. Woodswallows are nomadic
> >
> > 1. Woodswallows
> >> often form mixed flocks
> >
> > 2. The known ranges of masked and dusky woodswallows
> >> show considerable overlap.
> >
> > Should the occasional sighting of dusky
> >> woodswallow in the Top End be much of a surprise?
> >
> > Comments please
> >
> > Cheers.
> >> Bas Hensen
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 5
> > Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2012 11:45:35 +1000
> > From: "Paul Walbridge" <>
> > To: <>
> > Subject: [Birding-Aus] Carleen Bush
> > Message-ID: <>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> >
> > Hi All, does anyone know a contact for Carleen Bush, I lost her e-mail
> contact and I need to contact her re; the August 18th Southport Pelagic.
> Cheers - Paul W.
> >
> >
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> > Message: 6
> > Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2012 11:58:19 +1000
> > From: Dave Torr <>
> > To: birding-aus <>
> > Subject: [Birding-Aus] The dangers of "the cloud"
> > Message-ID:
> > <
> >
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> >
> > Thought that it would be worth bringing this to people's attention -
> >
> http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/apple-cloud-burst-how-hacker-wiped-mats-life-20120806-23orv.html
> > .
> >
> > Storing stuff - photos, sighting records etc - online is incredibly
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> > make sure that they have their own backups of all such material!
> >
> > Dave
> >
> >
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