COWRA COMMENTS an Occasional Newsletter of the Cowra Woodland Birds Program
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COWRA COMMENTS An occasional newsletter of the Cowra Woodland Birds Program ISSUE Thirteen – December 2012 NSW and ACT Twitchathon The Cowra Woodland Birds Program is a series of projects PRIZEWINNERS aimed at reversing the decline of woodland birds in the region. The 2012 was again the biggest NSW/ACT twitch ever with 173 projects are focused on scientific research and the management of participants in 48 teams. Most of the prize winners for the birds in their woodland habitats. Twitchathon 2012 have now been decided. The big news is that They involve the local already $13975 of the expected $26,000 has already been landholders and managers, the received at the Sydney Birdlife Office for this year’s project Cowra Shire Council as well as "The Cowra Woodland Bird Project ”. The winners of the local birdwatchers and members of BirdLife Southern NSW Main Race were the Menacing Monarchs (Robert McDonald, (previously known as Birds Michael Kearns & Robert Struik) who with 225 species, were Australia Southern NSW & ACT) 4th time winners! Runners up were the Hunter Home Brewers and other birding clubs. (Mick & Steve Roderick & Lucas Grenadier) who saw 224 species, while another Hunter Team, the Dodgy Drongos 2012 CWBP committee (Grant Brosie, Nick Livanos, Robert Kilkenny and Max John Rankin - Chair rd Sue Proust - Vice-chair Breckenridge) saw 223 species thus capturing 3 prize in the Neale Coutanche Main Race. The Prize for the team with the lowest ratio of kms Garry Germon travelled per bird seen (minimum 180 species, excluding 1 st & Nick Nicholls 2nd place-getters), went to the Complete and Utter Bustards Joy Pegler team (Peter Higgins, Julian Wall, Phil Gilmour & Peter Madeleine Rankin Julian Reid Richards) who saw 184 species in 292 kms travelled. Across the Rosemary Stapleton board, the number of species seen by all teams was well down Maret Vesk on recent years, do doubt due to the dry spring right along the Coast. Malcolm Fyfe – survey Winners of the Champagne Race were the Night Poirots (Peter co-ordinator West, Sue Proust, Clive Meadows and Louise Earnshaw) with Contact: John Rankin 150 species, while second prize went to the Raven Lunatics Phone: (02) 6342 9282 (Bill Moller, Nella Smith & Ada Stoll) with 148 species. The [email protected] prize for the team with the lowest ratio of kms travelled per bird seen in the Champagne Race was the Which Is It? team or (Margaret & Kay Pointer, Michael Breheny) with 144 species BirdLife Southern NSW Phone: (02) 9647 1033 seen in 140 kms. [email protected] In the Children’s Section, Dollarbirds Division, the Malcom’s Falcons Team (Jack and Kate Malcolm) won with 70 species Postal Address: while Megan, Paige & Bridie Tilse of the Galloping Grebes CWBP, team, took out the prize for the most funds raised with $231. In BirdLife Discovery Centre, Newington Armory the Little Curlew Division, the Noisy Minors team (Eleena & 1 Jamieson St Alex Cheers-Flavell and Pixie & Reuban Hayman) won by Sydney Olympic Park 2127 seeing 59 species, while Kate Richards of the Young Young- ones, raised $100. Independent expert Dion Hobcroft chose the 12 Pied Honeyeaters, seen at the Woggoon NR west of Condobolin as the “Rarest Bird” for the Rare Bird prize, by Neale Coutanche of the Cowra Woodland Birdbrainers Team; The Biggest Dip Prize went to Darren Lyons of the Dry-throated Buzzards , Newsletter editor: whose team failed to find a Leaden Flycatcher. The Lucky Maret Vesk Twitchers Prize was won by Robert Kilkenny of the Dodgy [email protected] Drongos Team. The latter two prizes were drawn from the hat at the Christmas meeting of Birding NSW Central Coast by Allan Richards, a former president of BNSW. EVENTS Summer survey weekend Dion Hobcroft, Judge for the Rarest Bird prize wrote “The 19 & 20 January 2013 NSW Twitchathon certainly racked up an amazing number of great sightings. Some of these included previously reported Saturday 19 th January rarities like the Stockton Banded Stilt, the long staying evening barbeque at the Bulahdelah Radjah Shelducks and the fabulous female Painted Pridham Centre – BYO Snipe at Sydney Olympic Park. In my final analysis I went for everything! sighting of the Condobolin Pied Honeyeaters as the Rarest Bird. We had planned to have a These are scarce irruptive nomads and particularly scarce this talk on habitat restoration in far east. Next was the Port Macquarie Beach Stone-Curlew at January but couldn’t resist Pelican Island as this species has a tiny population in NSW and the opportunity to hear this location is not a regular haunt for this bird. Third place was about West Papua from for the Australasian Bittern at Campbells Swamp, Griffith, Chaddy, John (French) and always a major rarity, Congratulations to all the birders who Fiona. Don’t be worried participated and discovered so many great birds”. It was Neale about coming along as John Coutanche (Cowra Woodland Birdbrainers) who saw the Pied assured me later they won’t Honeyeaters first; David Whitfield (Bassett’s Allsorts) who be wearing the traditional saw the Beach Stone-curlew, and Max O’Sullivan (Silly dress of the villagers they Galahs) who spotted the Australasian Bittern. visited. As the sponsorship funds don’t have to be acquitted until 30 Survey dates for 2013 January 2013, it is not possible to say for certain who has won 20 & 21 April the prizes for the most money raised, however Warren Chad 20 & 21 July ($3895), Tiffany Mason ($1678) & Margaret Harmon 12 & 13 October ($1399) are the leaders so far in respect for money received. Other people who have raised over $1000 include Alan Morris Contact Malcolm Fyfe on ($1108) & Neil Coutanche ($1050). So far the Cowra (02) 6253 0772 or Woodland Birdbrainers have remitted $5895, an exceptional [email protected] effort, while the Wooden Spoonbills have forwarded $1719! From the Editor - A big thank A big thankyou to our major sponsors, Swarovski Binoculars, you to all the contributors to Alison Green T-Shirts, Andrew Isles (Booksellers), Fred Van this issue – what bliss to Gessel Professional Wildlife Sounds, Chorleywood B & B receive so many articles! Moss Vale, Cockatoo Ridge Wines (Barossa), & Follow That Elisabeth Karplus reports on Bird Tours and a special thanks to all the team members and the Grenfell survey - page 3. their sponsors too for making this, a most successful twitch! In the last issue, Julian Reid In 2013 it will be the members of Birdlife Southern NSW asked “Are there Inland Branch who will be putting their thinking caps on to give Thornbills in the Cowra consideration to proposing the bird conservation project for Survey Region?” Read what which the Sponsorship Funds can be directed. he found when he ventured forth in October – page 4. Alan Morris . Why is it important to report NSW & ACT Twitchathon Co-ordinator your bird sightings ? Tiffany 10 December 2012 Mason explains on page 5. Read all about the Twitch from our ‘local’ team - on page 9. 2 Important Bird Area survey around Grenfell in November 2012 Elisabeth Karplus On the weekend of November 3 and 4, 2012, 14 surveyors in Grenfell for the third IBA survey. New surveyors included Joanne Lenehan and Dan Florance from Cowra. As well as doing the surveys, we took part in the Weddin Bird Forum organised by Mikla Lewis of the Lachlan Catchment Management Authority (CMA). The Forum was sponsored by the Lachlan CMA and by Weddin Landcare. The Forum was attended by 65 people including the Deputy Mayor, John Niven, and three councillors. We heard talks on the Biodiversity Corridors Project linking isolated remnant woodlands in the Lachlan area (Gus Arnott), the Important Bird Areas project (Elisabeth Karplus), long-term bird monitoring in Warraderry State Forest (Graham Fry) and Noisy Miner Management for the conservation of woodlands and woodland birds (Damon Oliver). Afterwards we all enjoyed a barbecue. On Sunday, Allan Richards and I led an outing to Weddin State Forest and 10 members of the local community, including Mikla, Mark Shortis, Graeme and Ros Schneider and Jenny Hetherington, joined us. We were able to show people Red-capped Robins, Rufous Whistlers and Red-rumped Parrots as well as a Black-eared Cuckoo. Graham Fry had invited people to join him at a bird banding session in Warraderry State Forest – seven people took up the offer. Tim Wood, on whose property we had surveyed, brought his children, Hugo and Arabella - both got to hold and then release two Rufous Whistlers. We surveyed for birds at 24 sites including five new sites on private land. My thanks go to Allan Richards, Graham Fry, Jill Molan and Ted Nixon, who led groups. Eleven sites are in Weddin, Warraderry and Bimbi State Forests, eight sites are on private land and the remaining sites are along roads where Superb Parrots have been seen. Many of the sites are in areas listed on the Bird Trails of Weddin Shire. In addition to the 20 minute surveys, we recorded incidental sightings of birds listed as vulnerable in NSW. In total we recorded 76 species including 10 species not seen in previous surveys. The number of species seen per site varied between three and 25. Of the four target species, Superb Parrots were seen at five sites with the largest numbers of 17 and 18 seen at Dodd’s Lane and Abbot’s Lane respectively. Superb Parrots were seen in two non-survey areas. We did not see Diamond Firetails, Swift Parrots or Painted Honeyeaters during the survey though a Diamond Firetail was seen at Warraderry State Forest on November 2. We have now seen 94 different species during three surveys at the designated survey sites.