Many vagrants to Australia can reasonably be explained as ship- or
storm-'assisted'. Those aside, I've often wondered whether every day there are
birds streaming off land masses in all directions - 99.99% of which drop into
the ocean before reaching landfall, the occasional Hoopoe or Wagtail or Pond
Heron arriving 'safely' (and, even more occasionally, colonising). I have read
about sailors encountering terrestrial birds flying past their ships when miles
out at sea, perhaps resting for a while on the mast or deck, and then
continuing on with no goal apparent.
Birds are, of course, capable of amazing migrations and peregrinations - thanks
to highly evolved and sophisticated brains. We are surely only just beginning
to appreciate how intelligent birds are? We're achieving this, in part, by
removing our own blinkers as to how intelligence might be made manifest. That
said, just as we humans - with our highly evolved and sophisticated brains - do
all sorts of stupid things, why not birds? Some of these birds may have mental
defects, some may just have made a strange (wrong?) decision. We have to be
careful we don't just regard birds as either perfect logicians or else victims
of storms / inadvertent stowaways.
Anyway, after years of voyeurism, that's my virgin sortie into birding-aus.
Cheers, Glen
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Message: 5
Date: Tue, 7 May 2013 22:39:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mick Roderick <>
To: Birding Aus <>
Subject: Forest Wagtail - theories?
Message-ID:
<>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Hi all,
?
My how Birding-aus has changed...we are getting a few updates from Chris, and a
few congrats from others, but I haven't seen any suggestion of how or why the
bird is where it is. When "the lapwing" was at Burren Junction, this list was
alive with theories, ranging from over-shooting, reverse migration to
conspiracies of jumping out of cargo boxes!
?
I think the story with the Forest Wag might be similar. At this time of year,
one would expect the bird to be flying north to their breeding grounds in
North-east China, Korea, Japan etc?from their wintering grounds in SE
Asia....GENERALLY similar to a Grey-headed Lapwing.
?
Perhaps this bird has simply gone south instead of north and presumably flew
over the only suitable habitat along the way in the suitably-vegetated Top End
and then struck gold in the comfy confines of an un-natural, but quite
acceptable piece of habitat in suburban Alice Springs? Why would a bird like
this over-shoot on a southerly trajectory at this time of year? Yes we know
that Wagtails are long-distance migrants capable of long 'over-shoots' (noting
that this is not a Motacilla Wagtail mind you), but the time of year suggests
to me that it's a reverse migrant.
?
If this is the case, then the bird might remain site-faithful (or at least in
the area) for a while to come?
?
The lapwing was first reported on the 19th June (2006), but it could have been
there since May and was there as far as I can tell until at least the 19th
Sept.??
?
Just a theory...or rather, a series of theories / questions....something to get
a good discussion going anyway.
?
Cheers,
?
Mick
p.s. cracking bird...it was always my #1 target when searching for vagrants on
Christmas Island but Lisa Preston beat me to it!
p.p.s to the Albany pelagic to Alice twitcher mentioned on Chris' blog - I
remind you again John, 2012 has ended!! ;-)
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