In NSW maybe the reason for the movement towards the coast can be traced to
the many ephemeral wetlands inland that are drying. Especially, so since the
heat wave hit last week. It's surprising how fast these shallow wetlands
along the Lachlan and Darling Rivers dry out. The birds that have enjoyed a
number of floods over the last two years need to move some where. I'm
guessing what we are seeing at the moment is part of that dispersal towards
the coast.
-----Original Message-----
From: David Adams
Sent: Monday, January 7, 2013 10:22 AM
To: Birding-Aus
Subject: Is this an outstanding year for crakes and rails
forsome reason?
I'm located on the far south coast of NSW near Bermagui where I've been
seeing Spotless Crake (1) and Spotted Crake (up to 3 at a time) in a
location where I've not seen them before. There's also Buff-banded Rail
there, which is not a surprise Further south in the shire, the crakes are
showing up as well. The Canberra bird list has been alive with crake and
rail sightings (Spotted, Spotless, Baillon's, Buff-banded and Lewin's.)
There have also been a few reports of crakes from various places along the
east coast from people on this list.
Is this just an excellent year for crakes and rails generally? I've been
figuring that after so many years of drought followed by a few good, wet
seasons that there's been a lot of breeding inland. Does anyone know about
the breeding activity of these groups of birds? Are we seeing dispersals
from breeding events inland or locally?
Any thoughts or information welcome.
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