G'day B-Ausers
With 2 sightings in NSW in Aug & Sept and one today in the NT it is
time to remind all observers that it is probably worth looking up
into the sky once again to observe and record swifts.
Jill Rossiter & Sue Casson saw 4 FTS at Warrawee (Sydney) 22nd Aug,
and Maria MerklingHavens saw 3 probables near Bawley Pt (Sth NSW)
28th Sept. Then This morning Mat Gilfedder saw some at Nightcliff
near Darwin.
Fork-tailed Swift (Apus pacificus) Report for 2011/12 Season.
[Summary of 202 sightings sent to me or published where I could
find them]
This seasons reports are 50 more than last years. Again the first
report was from WA. Robyn Pickering saw 2+ on 31th Aug in a suburb of
Perth. Jess Campbell reported an undefined number at Mt Seaview in
NSW 15th Sept. These first two sightings were very early and well
south for first sightings. However, recent work using geolocators
on Common Swifts have shown that they will travel more than 300 km in
24 hours, and do not always fly together or along the same route.
This means almost anything is possible with an Apus and we depend on
observers making valid identifications. An old hand Bob Green saw 15
at Redden Island near Cairns 2nd Oct. Elizabeth Shaw saw three at
Jerilderie, NSW 6th Oct.
It was three days later before the first (2) were seen in NT. David
Webb saw them at Black Jungle, just 5 days before Bas Hensen saw one
near Leanyer. A group of 500 were seen near Tennant Creek, by Kevin
Stracey 2th Nov. The fascinating thing was that no large flocks were
seen all season in WA.The largest group seen in WA was just 40 birds
at Muggon Station in the Murchison seen by a Birdlife WA group.
There were also very few sightings in SA.
However, numbers started to build in Qld. Martin Chachard estimated
3,000 birds near Cairns on Christmas Day, with a thousand still there
three days later. John Grant saw 1,000 at Wonga Beach on 29th Jan &
Chris Armstrong saw 9,000 at Undara on 3rd & 4th of Feb. The largest
group seen in Qld was seen SE of Townsville on 26 Jan. Birdife
Townsville members were in three vehichles participating in a co-
ordinated wader count when they all started being distracted by
scores of thousands of FTS. Len Ezzy co-ordinated their observations
made over 45-50 sq. km. Len & Chris Ezzy, Janet Robino, Peter
Valentine, & John & Christine Stewart, estimated they saw 215,000
FTS. This is 125,000 more than any other estimate I have record of
in Australia.
Such a large group in Qld does explain the paucity of sightings from
WA, SA, Vic and for most of the season the NT. Such a large flock
also tells us that there are a lot of FTS flying around Australia
that never enter our note books or statistics. Even though I went
looking for FTS in four states this season, I only found them in Qld.
The first Vic report was of just one bird seen at Seaspray by Tim
Bawden.
The first SA report was of 90 birds seen by Nathaniel Doecke on 26th
Feb, and 50 birds on Kangaroo Island seen by Jane Renwick. The only
other sighting for SA was also on Kangaroo Island where Chris Baxter
saw 200+.
Once again I have no reports from Tas and only one report from ACT
for last season. Terry Munro saw 4 at the Watson Shopping Centre, ACT.
One of the features of the end of the previous season was that the
last birds persisted around the Eyre Bird Observatory and around
Darwin. This year was different for EBO. FTS were seen there by the
wardens (Gavin Pitman & Kirsty MacGregor) on only one day. Around
Darwin, Dominic Funnell and David Webb were still recording FTS 27-29
April & the 1-15 th May. These were also the last reports from
Australia.
Of the 198 sightings I know of, 107 were made in Qld (up 33 on last
year), 17 in WA.(down 12). 33 in the NT (up 25), 22 in NSW (up 5), 21
in Vic (up 12), 3 in SA (down 2), 1 in ACT and 0 in Tas.
Greg Bortolussi made the most observations (14), closely followed by
Ed Pierce with 10.
I thank all these contributors:
ALCORN, Richard & Margaret (1), ALEXANDER, Peter (1), ALLAN, Irene,
ARMSTRONG, Chris (6), ASHTON, Tony (1), BARNES, Chris1), BARTELS, P.
(1), BAWDEN, Tim. (1), BAXTER, Chris (1), BAXTER Richard (2), BELL,
Andrew (1), BORTOLUSSI, Greg (14), BOYD, Ian (1), BRUCE, Niel (1),
CACHARD, Martin (7), CAMPBELL, Jess. (1), CANNING, Glenys & Jeff (1),
CANTON, Alexandra (1), CHAPLIN, Dominic (1), COOK, Bob (2), CRAWFORD,
Alan (1), DEAN, Barry (1), DOECKE, Nathaniel (1), EWERS, Glen (3),
EZZY, Len & Chris (3), FISHER, Keith & Lindsay(5), FREEMAN, P. (1),
FUNNELL, Dominic (6), GARDNER, Marc (4), GARLAND, Clive (1),
GILLANDERS, Allan (9), GILLIES, Glenn (1), GRANT, John (1), GREEN,
Bob (1), GREGORY, Phil (2), HADDEN, Don (2), HAVENS, Maria (1),
HENSEN, Bas. (2), HERRINGTON, Doug (3), HOUGHTON, Dave (5),
JACOBSON, Paul (2), JEFFERS, Len (1), JONES, Paul (4), KATON, Anthony
& Vicky (3), KATZ, Sarah (1), KYNE, Peter (5), LATTAWAY, Jude. (1),
LEEHONG, Trish (1), LILLEYMAN, Amanda (2), MANN, C. (1), MacGREGOR,
Kirsty (2), McCONNELL, Pat & Kath (4), McGOVERN, Roger (1), MESSER,
Cec. (1), MOLONEY, Peter (1), MOORHEAD, Bill (1), MORRIS, Tim (1),
MORRIS, Will.(1), MULVOGUE, Colin (1), MUNRO, Terry (1), OLDE, Graham
(1), OOREBEEK, Margot & Ray (3), PATERSON, Luke (1), PICKERING, Robyn
(1), PIERCE, Ed (10), PITMAN, Gavin (2), POTTER, S. (1), PRESTON,
Ivor (4), RAMSEY, Michael (1), RANDALL, Nick (1), RAWLINSON, John
(3), RENWICK, Jane(1), ROBERTS, Greg (1), ROBINO, Janet (2),
RODERICK, Mick (4), ROSS, Sonja (1), RUTHERFORD, Bill(1), SCHRADER,
Neville (2), SHAW, Elizabeth (1), SHURCLIFFE, Kath (5), SMITH, Graham
& Brenda (1), SMITH, Ross (1), SPILLANE, Nicole (2), STANTON, Matthew
(1), STEWART, David (1), STEWART, John (2), STRACEY, Kevin (3),
TARBURTON, Mike (2), TAYLOR, Peter & Rose (1), TORR, Dave (1),
TYNAN, Brian (1), VALENTINE, Peter(2), WATSON, John (1), WEBB, Dave
(3), WILK, Kathy (2), WILSON, Tom (2), WOOD, Michael (1), WOOD, Peter
(1), WREN, Jon (2), WRIGHT, Ian & Meryl (1).
Please remember to send me (preferably directly (ie off-list) all
your FTS & WTNT observations with estimated number of birds and any
interesting behaviour and weather data.
Cheers & thanks
Mike
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Michael Tarburton
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