Archive for the 'General' Category

I was awoken this morning in a very pleasant manner.

A Grey Currawong was calling in our garden.

Currawongs are widespread in our district without being common anywhere. Over the 20+ years we have lived here we would occasionally hear one calling in the distance, but they never visited our home garden.

This has changed dramatically in the last three to five years. Their visits have become quite frequent, usually once or twice a week, sometimes daily. A family of five, including three young, passed through the garden on several occasions last year.

As I said, a lovely way to be woken up. Could think of much more alarming methods.

Last Saturday my wife and I visited Monarto Conservation Park. This park is about 15 minutes drive from our home here in Murray Bridge South Australia. The park is some 65 km south east of Adelaide. The park consists of a variety of habitats but is predominantly mallee. From a slight rise part way along the only walking trail one can look over a sea of mallee trees.

Plants of the Park
In between thick stands of mallee trees (Eucalyptus diversifolia) there are open heath like patches of vegetation. It is like a natural garden and when the plants are in flower it is really delightful. There is a wide variety of plants present including Daisies, Correas, Acacias, Astrolomas, Baeckia, Leucopogons, Boronias and several types of native orchids. The park promises to be absolutely filled with flowers later in the year. (For more information on the plants check my wife’s blog by clicking here.)

Birds of the Park

Over the years our visits have shown a great variation in the birdlife. Sometimes there is hardly a whisper of birdsong and one has to work hard to list even 15 different species. At other times, usually when the plants are in flower, the chorus of birds is – well, not quite deafening, but noisy – and birds seem to be everywhere. My total species list is around the 50 mark which is quite good for this type of country.

Quiet Day

Saturday as one of those quiet days, despite many plants being in flower. I saw or heard a total of 19 species, with some notable dips. Not seeing a Southern Scrub Robin was the major dip.

Here is a list of the species I recorded, in the order of seeing or hearing them:

• Yellow-rumped Thornbill,
• Little Raven,
• Grey Currawong,
• Red Wattlebird,
• Spotted Pardalote,
• Australian Magpie,
• White-browed Babbler,
• Welcome Swallow,
• Purple-crowned Lorikeet,
• Nankeen Kestrel,
• Weebill,
• Grey Shrike-thrush,
• Mallee Ringneck Parrot,
• Brown-headed Honeyeater,
• Striated Pardalote,
• Willie Wagtail,
• Red-rumped Parrot
• Peaceful Dove.

For those starting out in birding it could be useful to have a complete checklist of birds of Australia. The Birds Australia website has a checklist available for downloading.
Please note that this is not an official checklist as it is still in draft form.

To download the list click here.

Yesterday I mentioned in passing the Atlas of Australian Birds. This atlas was published in 1985 as a result of birders all over Australia recording their sightings and submitting them to the Atlas office of the Royal Australiasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU – now called Birds Australia).

Volunteers

The atlas database consisted of many thousands of individual records of bird sightings made by over 3000 volunteer birders. Birders all over Australia contributed their records during the five years from 1977 to 1981. Some contributed only a few record sheets; others, like myself, sent in many hundreds. These records were collated and the data used to produce a map of distribution for each species. The maps also recorded where each species was observed breeding. These maps were published in book form in 1984.
The New Atlas of Australian Birds

After about twenty years it was realised that this data was quickly becoming out of date and a new atlas programme was initiated. This ran from 1998 to 2002. This time over 7000 volunteers contributed over a quarter of a million survey sheets listing over five million individual bird sightings. It was the largest continent wide bird survey in the world. Again I contributed many hundreds of survey sheets. This new atlas was published in book form in 2003.
Electronic Atlas

In order to keep the data up to date and relevant, the Ongoing Atlas means volunteer birders like myself can make a continuing contibution to bird conservation in this country. One does not have to be a professional ornithologist to make a very valuable contribution. In the Ongoing Atlas records are available on the internet, making the data accessible to everyone.

For details of Birds Australia click here.

For details of the New Atlas of Australian Birds click here.

For details on contributing to the Ongoing Atlas click here.