The Rainbowbird Volume 2 Number 94 May 2018 Editor: Allan Taylor – [email protected] Header Photo: Lindsay Cupper Contents of this Issue: 1. Fork-tailed Swifts 2. Club Outing – Merbein Common 3. Notes on Blandowski 4. Notes on our Pre-history 5. Nesting Habits – Nankeen Night-herons 6. Our Topography 7. Western Gerygones 8. Species Sub-species 9. Grey Fantails 10 Excerpts from “The Emu” 11. Outing to Ron Gol/Garston 12. Duck Shooting at Merbein Common 13. Article in “Mildura Living” Fork-tailed Swifts e have had a series of storm-fronts or upper-level troughs passing through our district in late-January, early-February. On 22nd of January several of Mildura BirdLife’s members W saw Fork-tailed Swifts flying over parts of Sunraysia during the day. This day was quite humid with cloud covering, coinciding with a weather front passing through. This combination seems to attract the birds to visit our area occasionally – seemingly, perhaps, around once per year. One such visit was around 1961 when John Hobbs, the late ornithologist from our area, recorded seeing some 90,000 around the Dareton/Gol Gol area. This sighting was mentioned to me by Professor Michael Tharburton who is conducting an extensive study into the species but I couldn’t find any other reference to the sighting in the old editions of the “Emu” or elsewhere. This swift species is highly nomadic and appears to use air currents to assist it in its perpetual search for its food-source - flying insects. Bird enthusiasts record its appearance at, seemingly, random locations and times all around Australia. The only real pattern is its appearance in Australia in early spring after breeding in eastern Asia – mainly southern China. The correct name for this swift is the “Pacific Swift” as it is only one of four species that make up the family of Fork-tailed Swifts. Once it has nested and bred on a rocky crevice or a man-made concrete or brick structure it leaves for warmer climates in late August. These migrations are usually to South-east Asia and Australasia. There it uses the weather-patterns to find food sources. There are records of flocks of the swifts feeding on insects that are fleeing the sulphur clouds emanating from an active volcano in Indonesia; bushfires in Australia; dust storms and other extreme weather events. Although our experience in Sunraysia seems to indicate that their presence here is associated with rain, other reports indicate the reverse. It has been suggested that the sighting of really large flocks of Fork-tailed Swifts is associated with the onset of droughts – the larger the flock and the higher they are flying, the more severe the anticipated drought. Hobb’s sighting of the huge flock in 1961 doesn’t appear to fall within this category because 1961, 1962 and 1963 seemed to have been average rainfall years. Maybe there was drought in other areas of Australia, though. This bird is quite large and, with its swept-backed wings, can be mistaken for a small bird of prey when viewed in the air from a distance. On the few occasions that I have seen them, the fork tail is not always obvious as it is often compressed back into a point when hawking for insects. It is distinguished from other swifts and swallows by white band over its rump. It rarely comes to earth to perch as it sleeps on the wing and has rather small feet which it seldom uses other than at nesting time. Because of its flying and manoeuvring ability, it has few predators. The Hobby has been named as once of the exceptions. I guess that this would mean that a Peregrine Falcon would also, occasionally, pose a threat. Club Outing – Merbein Common fter an extremely hot day the day before, Sunday 11th February turned out to be a very pleasant one – in fact it was a little cold for the first hour of the morning. A We were lucky enough to have Richard Wells lead us around the Merbein Common, which is unexpectedly large for anyone driving over the whole area for the first time. Richard’s commentary made a pleasant morning all the more enjoyable as we learned a little of the history of the Common and of the various areas within the common that we visited. We commenced our travels in the Common by driving down Mondellimin Track towards the river before turning right into Chaffeys Landing. After a short look around that area where Richard spoke of the little settlement of destitute families who lived in bag or hessian huts in the area during the Great Depression, we moved northwards along the river to where the main boat ramp has been constructed. Richard told the story of the explorer Blandowski who briefly made his main camp (which he called Mondellimin) in the general area of Chaffeys Landing and recalled that as, well as being and extremely brave, strong and knowledgeable adventurer, he was a strong-willed person who didn’t mind offending those in authority whom he considered unworthy of their position. I have added a few extra comments about Blandowski that I obtained from the State Library of Victoria archives. A little further along the river we came to the mouth of the Horseshoe Billabong. Normally, it is possible to cross that mouth, which is reduced to a small creek at that spot but the bridge that enabled such a crossing is in a state of disrepair at the moment. This really was of little concern to us as we had decided to drive around the billabong in search of water birds. We, virtually had no sooner started than Richard stopped to enable us to look at some Nankeen Night-herons that he had spotted in the dead saplings near the mouth of the billabong. We spent some time peering through the saplings to get a look at these impressive birds. Moving on we drove towards the other end of the billabong where, at first, we had smoko and then, a littler later, stopped to look at Red-necked Avocets, White-fronted Stilt, Grey Teal, Pink-eared Ducks, an Australian Shoveller, two Black-fronted Dotterels, and Pelicans which were all searching for food in the shallows of that end of the lagoon. We continued our expedition in a little more comfort than Blandowswki had experienced in his expedition where, at least, one of his horses had died from exhaustion and the explorers suffered as well. A short stay at Cowanna Lagoon preceded a final stop at the track between that lagoon and the Brickworks Lagoon. Again, we were fortunate enough to see a considerable number of water birds. These included more Pelicans, Grey Teal, Pacific Black Ducks and Pink-eared Ducks. For some of us, it was even more exciting to see a row of young Caspian Terns sunning themselves on our end of Brickworks Lagoon. There were also, 10 or 12 Red-kneed Dotterels and four more Black-fronted Dotterels. An interesting feature of the area is the dozen or so circular pieces of metal which have been hung from the power lines that run adjacent to the track where we had stopped. These have been erected in order to alert Pelicans to the danger of colliding with the power lines, usually with fatal consequences. Having packed quite a few viewing areas in our Grand Tour, we decided to finish the outing at 12.45pm. Birdlife Mildura - Club Outing to Merbein Common, 11th February 2018 List of Birds Sighted Prior to Common & Horseshoe B/works Chaffeys Landing River Drive Billabong Billabong Pied Butcherbird 2 Masked Lapwing 3 Rainbow Lorikeets 6 Red Wattlebird 1 Red-rumped Parrot 2 8 Bluebonnet Parrot 3 2 Wood Duck 4 6 Straw-necked Ibis 1 Whistling Kite 2 Little Raven 2 Australian Magpie 2 4 Superb Blue Fairy Wren 2 Feral Pigeon 8 Crested Pigeon 10 White Ibis 1 1 Masked Woodswallow 2 Australian Raven 3 Yellow Rosella 2 1 Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike 1 Caspian Tern 3 1 16 Sacred Kingfisher 1 Dusky Woodswallow 14 Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater 2 Singing Honeyeater 1 White-plumed Honeyeater 2 Rainbow Bee Eaters 2 Fairy Martins 4 Silver Gull 1 2 Noisy Miner 2 Darter 1 Blue-faced Honeyeater 2 Kookaburra 2 White-faced Heron 1 Galah 6 Great Egret 6 Nankeen Night-heron 6 Little Pied Cormorant 3 Little Black Cormorant 4 Little Friarbird 2 Pelican 80 20 Grey Teal 12 20 Red-necked Avocet 18 Australasian Shoveller 1 Pink-eared Duck 8 12 Masked Lapwing 2 White-fronted Stilt 1 Black-fronted Dotterels 2 4 Great Cormorant 1 Willie Wagtail 2 Magpie-lark 6 Grey Butcherbird 2 Australasian Grebe 4 Variegated Fairy-wrens 4 Peaceful Dove 2 Pacific Black Duck 4 Eurasian Coot 1 Red-kneed Dotterels 12 Welcome Swallows 40 Notes on the Blandowski Expedition landowski was a mining engineer and zoologist from northern Poland, although, in his time he was technically from Germany because of the different state boundaries at that time. His B mining pursuits in the Victorian Goldfields were successful and he made enough money to enable him to diversify into other pursuits that interested him. For several months in the first half of 1857 he camped at Merbein and made that the base for further expeditions along the Darling and Lower Murray. His notes of the expeditions mentioned “Golgol Ranges” but it isn’t clear as to where he was when he saw them. He did, however, mention that the “ranges” were hills in name only so he may have been referring to the cliffs on the Murray River near Paringi, but that is only speculation on my part.