Earlier, I circulated a request for information about sightings of this elusive species. A serious monitoring project is now planned, and in connection with this Matt Herring has suggested I circulate the below link about it to this forum –
https://chuffed.org/project/paintedsnipe
The movements of this endemic species are certainly a mystery. I remember being at Western Treatment Plant in 2008 when I was told one was at Edithvale Wetlands, so I made a quick visit there where I was able to see it from the car park. (I even wrote a poem about it in which ‘typha’ provided a convenient rhyme with ‘lifer’.) Small numbers occasionally turn up in Canberra, at Kelly Swamp, a local wetland only about 3km in a straight line from the national parliament where important matters are being discussed right now. This made me consult eBird to check on other cities, and the species seems to have an unexpected preference for urban locations. Brisbane (City Botanic Gardens) 1976, Melbourne (Royal Park) Nov 2011, Sydney (Olympic Park) Oct/Nov 2011, 2012. There are very few reports from WA, but small numbers have ben recorded around Perth, including a couple seen Perth airport, Aug 2011. Seems to have been a dispersion event around 2011. Worryingly, not much that’s very recent (except Canberra, relatively speaking a ‘hotspot’) but eBird has a great photo of 4 females in 2017 in the Adelaide suburb of ‘City of Charles Sturt’.
Geoffrey
