Certainly did – nice pic – and nice to meet you on Sunday Laurie.
While these are the first recorded birds, my personal theory is that they are
probably regular visitors (eg Liam Murphy reckoned he might have seen but not
recognised them last summer). One can see how they might easily slip through
the net as they are:
1. superficially similar to non-breeding Commons (and possibly other
non-breeding visitors) so might not get a second glance;
2. there’s a lot of east coast and (relatively) not that many birders covering
it; and
3. nobody has been specifically looking for them as nobody knew they would be
here to be looked for (increasing the impact of 1. above)
On 2. there must be huge stretches of the east coast, particularly in
Queensland that receive little or no birder coverage due to accessibility,
conditions at that time of year, other hazards further north (eg crocs, having
to get past the mangroves etc)
So that all adds up to great work by Liam Murphy in finding them.
Cheers
Tom Wilson
From: Peter Shute
Sent: Tuesday, January 9, 2018 6:49 AM
To: Laurie Knight
Cc:
Subject: Aleutian Terns - A BARC Question
The list server removed Laurie's photo, I suspect because of the way Apple Macs
format email attachments. Just checking if it lets it through if I attach it
with my iPad.
[image1.jpeg]
Peter Shute
Sent from my iPad
On 8 Jan 2018, at 10:22 pm, Laurie Knight
<<>> wrote:
G'day
I had the pleasure of an hour or two with the Aleutian Terns at Old Bar
yesterday. I was travelling from Sydney to Brisbane, and it was no difficulty
to divert the dozen km off the highway.
The terns were remarkably settled and very tolerant of people. They only took
to the air while I was there when some people were flying threatening shaped
kites behind the Little Tern nesting area.
Normally when rarities are recorded in Australia, they either show up on the
periphery, not an outrageous distance from their normal range, or as single
birds. The reports from Old Bar [thousands of km from their known range]
suggest there are a potentially a dozen individuals or more - potentially a
flock?
My question is how often has BARC recorded a flock of a species not on the
Australian list in the southern half of the mainland? Does this suggest a
major shift in the distribution of Aleutian Terns or a gap in Australian
records?
Regards, Laurie.
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