Birding Aus newsgroup
I have been a contributor to the Australian birding newsgroup Birding-Aus for about nine years now. Over that time I have sent many hundreds of messages for other birders in Australia to read. Some of these have created further comments and feedback – even controversy at times – from other birders.
“Birding-Aus is an information centre for everyone with an interest in Australia’s wild birds, their conservation and behaviour.”
Quoted from the home page.
This is an excellent way of learning more about Australian birds, where they are being seen, news of rare sightings or unusual behaviour. It is also very good for planning places to visit on holidays where one will see certain birds.
From time to time there are even debates about various issues relating to birds and their conservation. Most posts to this newsgroup are archived. These archives are an excellent resource in finding out more about birds and good birding spots. Just follow the links to find the archives.
There is a links section listing links to many websites about birds here in Australia and overseas. Anyone can join the mailing list and receive all of the messages posted each day. Members can also send messages to the group.
Link:
- Birding-Aus home page.
Sacred Kingfisher
Birds at the Test Cricket in Adelaide
The current Test Cricket match between Australia and England is being played at the beautiful Adelaide Oval in South Australia. Since England won back the coveted Ashes Trophy last year in England there has been great interest in this current series. Usually my daughter and I attend at least one day of the Adelaide Test Match every year. Because of the intense interest in this series I, along with many tens of thousands of other cricket enthusiasts, was unable to get any tickets.
So I am confined to the comfort of watching the cricket from my favourite chair in the lounge room. That is no excuse for not doing some birding. The Adelaide Oval is well known for the hundreds of Silver Gulls that congregate on the grass during the match. The numbers seem to increase as the day progresses. I guess they come to help clean up the mess left by the crowd, things like dropped chips, meat pies, bits of rolls and other items of food from the fast food outlets.
Other species have noticed during the telecast of this test match are Welcome Swallows and Magpie Larks. On my various visits to the oval for cricket matches I have seen the following species:
- Silver Gull
- Pacific Black Duck (the River Torrens is just a few metres south of the oval)
- Rock Dove
- Spotted Turtle Dove
- Crested Pigeon
- Galah
- Rainbow Lorikeets
- Adelaide (Crimson) Rosella
- Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo
- Welcome Swallow
- Tree Martin
- Willie Wagtail
- White Plumed Honeyeater
- Red Wattlebird
- Noisy Miner
- Magpie Lark
- Australian Magpie
- Little Raven
- Common Starling
- House Sparrow
This certainly is a good list. Many more species could be added if I included the nearby River Torrens and the parklands. Watching the birds during slow periods of play maintains one’s interest, to be sure. The photo below was taken several years ago during and interstate match. The white patch on the grass centre right is a large flock of Silver Gulls.
Adelaide Oval, South Australia
Bird Word: Corvids
- Corvids: birds that belong to the crow or raven family of birds
Crows and ravens, members of the corvid family of birds, are a common species in much of the world. In fact, this family of birds is found throughout the world except the polar caps and the very tip of South America. According to the Wikipedia article this family also includes rook, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies and nutcrackers. It claims that there are over 120 different species of corvids in total.
In Australia the members of this family include:
- Australian Raven
- Little Raven
- Little Crow
- Forest Raven
- Torresian Crow
Little Raven
Related Articles:
- Thieving birds – our resident ravens are caught stealing something very unusual.
- Ravens v Choughs – fights between the White Winged Choughs and the Little Ravens in our garden.
- Clever Crows – the may be cunning, they may be annoying, but they really are clever.
- Something to crow about – more about clever crows
- Glossary of bird words – more words about birds explained.
Bird Word: colour morph
- Colour morph: variations of colours of individuals of the same species, either lighter or darker plumage, as in some eagles.
Colour morphs, especially in some of the eagles of Australia, can be very confusing. I must explain that I am definitely NOT an expert in this area, so I won’t add to the confusion. Many of our eagles and hawks are confusing enough as it is – without the colour morphs thrown in to further muddy the water.
The only advice I can give is: study the field guides carefully – and ask someone more experienced!
For more in this series of articles check out the Glossary of Bird words here.
Grey Currawongs
Grey Currawong
Grey Currawongs are widespread throughout the area where I live in South Australia but they are not common anywhere except perhaps in the Adelaide Hills. Around home here in Murray Bridge their preferred habitat is mallee scrubland. There are still a few remnant patches of scrub ranging from a few hectares to several hundred hectares. In addition, there is a significant amount of remnant mallee scrub that makes up the roadside vegetation in this district. These remnant habitats are probably very important to the Grey Currawong’s continued existance in the mallee areas of our state.
Unlike the Pied Currawong in other parts of Australia, the Grey Currawong here is not an urban dweller. It was with a little surprise then that last week I saw a group of three currawongs in a park next to one of the factories here in Murray Bridge. This park is surrounded on all sides by either light industrial establishments or low density housing.
Perhaps they are moving from the bush to become “townies”.