Issue 6/12 December 2012

The Club aims to: • encourage and further the study and conservation of Australian birds and their habitat; • encourage bird observing as a leisure-time activity

CONTENTS President’s Column 2 Meeting Highlights: Banding Rehabilitated Birds 3 Banding and Flagging Caspian Terns with Leg Flags 4 Vale Heather Gibbs 4 Tracking Greater Sand Plovers 4 Club Activity Reports: Lake Glenbawn Camp photos 6 Green Wattle Creek Road 6 Spot the flag! Keep an eye out for engraved coloured leg flags whenever you watch shorebirds. See pages Ash Island 6 3 & 4 for details of where to send your sightings. Pied 7 Oystercatcher (P1 flagged on north coast of NSW) and Jerusalem Creek 7 Red-necked Avocet (ACB flagged in Victoria) photo- graphed in the Hunter Estuary by Chris Herbert. Welcome Shorebirds 8 Book Review Lyrebird! A True Story 8 Featured Birdwatching Site: Max Maddock’s Frontyard 9 Bird Snippets from Media Casualties of Toronto’s Urban Skies 11 Citizen Scientists Aid Birds 11 Hunterbirding 12 Snippets 13 Twitchathon Reports Dry-throated Buzzards 14 Hunter Home Brewers 16 Club Night Observations 18 Club Activities December-February 20

Please send Newsletter articles direct to the Editor, HBOC postal address: Liz Crawford at: [email protected] PO Box 24 New Lambton NSW 2305 Deadline for the next edition - 30 January 2013 Website: www.hboc.org.au President’s Column I’d like to start my final President’s Column for this of the Membership Form to the Secretary so that your year by thanking all of the people who make this such contact details are kept up to date. a great club. It is such a dynamic group of people that combine to simply “make it happen” and as President I From next year we will receive very attractive club am indebted to all of those people that make my job a lot membership cards, being about the size of a credit card easier by contributing so much. so it can be carried around and each with its own distinct member identification number. Furthermore, members I would also like to take the opportunity to acknowledge will receive discounts at various local businesses (just the efforts of our Membership Secretary, Rob Kyte. Apart present your card!) and discounts will also be granted from spending a considerable amount of time creating for entry to venues such as the Hunter Wetlands Centre. our new professional-looking logo and letterhead, Rob There may even be scope for members who run local has recently introduced some exciting initiatives to add businesses to be a part of this initiative as well. Watch even more to one’s membership - as if it wasn’t great this space in the New Year. enough already! From the committee I would like to wish everyone a safe Check out the 2013 Membership Form with its details of and enjoyable summer break (when it finally comes!) benefits for members on our website - www.hboc.org.au with plenty of enjoyable birding and all the best for the The website’s Membership page also has bank details New Year. so you can pay your membership by internet transfer. Please also email your answers to the questions on the Mick Roderick Membership Form to [email protected] or mail a copy

Membership Fees for 2013

Owing to rising costs for public liability insurance and other items, membership fees for 2013 will increase from the current fee structure as follows:

Single membership currently $30 in 2012 will increase to $35 in 2013; Family membership currently $30 in 2012 will increase to $40 in 2013; Junior membership currently $5 in 2012 will remain at $5 in 2013.

However, if fees are paid by 28 February 2013, an Earlybird Discount applies: Single Membership will be $30 and Family Membership will be $30.

So get your membership for 2013 paid promptly and benefit from the Earlybird Discount!

New Members The Club extends a warm welcome to: Gavin Ayre of Charlestown Peter Hirst & Jung Ah Lee of Wallsend Stephen Bence of Kahibah Daniel O’Bri