Is this an outstanding year for crakes and rails for some reason?

["Paul Doyle" <>]

David,
I was in Bermagui area last week and saw my first ever Baillon's Crake at
Cuttagee. Have you seen them there previously?

Paul.

-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of David Adams
Sent: Monday, 7 January 2013 10:23 AM
To: Birding-Aus
Subject: Is this an outstanding year for crakes and rails for
some 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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