Canberra Bird Notes
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Canberra bird notes ISSN 0314-8211 Volume 4 Number 8 EDITORIAL We have a lead time of approximately two months for the production of Canberra Bird Notes. Normally we publish the Annual Bird Report in October each year, but as much of the material on which the report is based is not in the hands of the Records Officer until the July meeting, production of the ABR has always been something of a rush. We are hopeful that C.O.G. will have a larger volume of records available in future from which to prepare the ABR, so this is an appropriate time to put its publication back to the January issue. CBN 4 8 1 October 1979 NOTES ON THE BACKGROUND OF ‘BIRDS IN THE AUSTRALIAN HIGH COUNTRY’ Betty Temple Watts In 1958 Robert Carrick suggested that I should do illustrations for a book on the A.C.T. birds. I did one plate of the Ibis and Spoonbills before coming to Canberra to live. Warren Hitchcock, John Calaby, Robert Carrick and I made a list of the birds which had been recorded in the A.C.T. and added some which we thought might turn up. We divided these into a series of plates for me to draw. Five of these were not altered after they were finished. All the others were drawn and redrawn as new birds were found and had to be fitted in. I was greatly helped in learning about the trees and plants which I needed for the illustrations by Alec Costin and Nancy Burbidge, both scientists with CSIRO. Don Lamm and John Calaby made early lists of the A.C.T. birds, and then Don Lamm, in Canberra again for a second period with the Embassy of the United States, with Bill Belton, also of that Embassy, and Steve Wilson and his sons gave a big boost to the bird list and, especially when banding started, to the knowledge of A.C.T. birds. When I first finished the plates Robert Carrick took them to Scotland and the publishers Oliver and Boyd were ready to publish the book and kept the plates for two years. As there was still no script, the plates were brought back to Australia by Max Day of CSIRO. The script really got going only when Harry Frith took over as editor, and I do not think the book would have been published without his help. The meeting which arranged this was at Steve and Nonie Wilson's home, with Hal my husband present. At this stage I repainted the Heron plate, the Ducks and Pigeons, made a new plate with the Bustard, Brolga and the Black Swan, and made some other alterations. Harry Frith enlisted the help of the contributors named in the book . For a time Lansdown Press were going to publish the book but in the end it was done by A.H. & A.W. Reed. In the following notes on the plates I have quoted the bird names used in the book. CBN 4 8 2 October 1979 I. When I first drew the Emus in Ian Baird's paddock one tried to eat my pencil and coat buttons, then the two birds went to the dam, kicking their legs in the air and soaking their feathers. Later I sketched the female displaying and the eggs. Actually the nest was in thistles but I substituted Poa Grass, drawn where Emus used to live. Jocelyn Long drove me on this and many other occasions. II. The Pelican background is Lake George. The plate was altered to fit in the Little Black Cormorant and the Crested Grebe. When the Pied Cormorant turned up, it was fitted in as an obvious late arrival. III. Repainted to fit in Plumed, Little and Cattle Egrets. IV. The White Ibis immature is shown raising its wing nearest to an adult when begging and is from a photo by Robert Carrick. The Straw-necked Ibis has a Plaque Locust in its bill. The breeding Royal Spoonbill is from a photo by Max Downes. Except the Glossy Ibis, the birds were sketched at Heafesville, Victoria, at the Sir Colin MacKenzie Sanctuary. V. The ducks were repainted in 1967 when the Freckled Duck and the Grass Whistle-duck were added. Bea Holt drove me out to Gungahlin to draw these and the Blue-billed Ducks on the pond. The Wood duckling I found on my nature strip with three Magpies gathered round it. Ken Keith brought up that duckling and I was able to draw it again as an adult. VI. The Swamp Harrier was from a photo by Michael Sharland (Tasmania). The immature Brown Goshawk was a road casualty which I released when it recovered. David Fleay gave me permission to draw from the photo of his beautiful Wedge- tailed Eagle. The Little Eagle ate two Magpies at Gungahlin and was too heavy to take off, so Warren Hitchcock held it while I photographed the wing pattern. I drew it before it flew off followed aloft by two resident Magpies. VII. The male Kestrel was from drawings and photos I made from a bird held by Warren Hitchcock. There was a dark phase Brown Hawk on this plate, but it was deleted when the Black Falcon was added. VIII. The Tawny Frogmouth and the White-throated Nightjar were both casualties drawn after recovery and released with Steve Wilson's help. This picture was finished, with a black background, when Wim Vestjins produced the skin of a dead bird he had found - a Masked Owl. So the plate was repainted with seven birds and a white back ground in keeping with the other plates. The Barking Owl was caught eating some Gungahlin study rabbits. CBN 4 8 3 October 1979 IX and X. Originally a small-scale Bustard and Brolga were at the top of the Quail plate. In 1967 I made a new plate of Bustard, Brolga and Black Swan, the latter from a photo given me by Ed Slater. King Quail were added above the other quail and the line of grass was hiding the join in the card. The Painted Quail was first seen when put up by Steve Wilson's dog, Snowball, off the Tharwa - Tidbinbilla road. The Stubble and King Quail were drawn in a mosquito net cage on my table while the Brown Quail was drawn in Hazel Vertigan's aviary, and first seen by Hal and me at Colinton, when a horseman from the other side of the river came to see what we were doing going round and round among the bushes. XI. The Spotless Crake was put up by my cocker spaniel. I sat for thirteen hours in all before I saw it again to get its silhouette. The spaniel found the Water Rail and Spotless Crake too, so that I was able to go back and watch them come down to drink in the reeds at the edge of the Glenelg River in Victoria. The Eastern Swamphen was watched from a boat floating past where it fed, till I could see how it held the rush root, took off the brown cover and ate the white inside. XII and XIII. I made a second wader plate in 1967. I wish I could take out the dark kink in the Common Sandpiper's white eye stripe. XIV. Gull-billed Terns were taken out and the Caspian and White- winged Black Terns were added. I saw the Stone Curlew chicks following an adult in western Victoria. The Caspian Tern was sketched over the Glenelg River. XV. The pigeon plate was repainted in 1967, adding the Brush Bronzewing and Domestic Pigeon, which is on Garema Place pavement. The Wonga is in Eucalyptus viminalis. Throughout the book I have used local background plants and perches in which I have seen the birds. XVI and XVII. Nearly all were drawn in aviaries round Canberra. I could hear the white ‘cocky’, so tracked it down and got permission to draw it. Like other ‘cockies’ it wrapped its wing covert feathers round itself. One Lorikeet was rubbed out and the Swift Parrot put in after a flock were found feeding on lerps in Narrabundah by Denis Wilson. We even found a recently dead specimen. XVIII. The Pallid Cuckoo is from a photo lent by Len Robinson CBN 4 8 4 October 1979 (Melbourne). The immature Fantailed Cuckoo was from a photo taken by my son Stephen and a dead bird found by Bill Helton. XIX. The colour of the Spine-tailed Swift's gape was ascertained by a telegram to Macquarie Island, where one had just been picked up. A suitable insect was provided by Wim Vestjens. XX. The Kookaburra was drawn from a semi-tame bird at Mallacoota, Victoria, and colour corrected from a local skin. XXI. Norm Robinson brought me the yellow cockatoo, blue Crimson Rosella feathers and Wahlenbergia from Tidbinbilla. The swept mound and bracken I saw at Tidbinbilla. XXII. A Cuckoo-shrike came on to my bird table while I was trying to paint one. Keith Hindwood (Sydney) lent me a number of photos to help with detail. Then too I had skins of all the birds from the National Museum in Melbourne or the CSIRO collection at Gungahlin. I also made notes from road victims I found. XXIII. Both this page and XXII were altered to fit in more birds. My first Grey-crowned Babbler had its tail down. Allan McEvey (National Museum, Melbourne) said it would be better up. On our way home Hal and I picnicked under a tree where I sketched the Babbler with its tail up.