AUS1RALIAN 132 MARTIN &ROYAL BIRD WATCHER

Easterly Records of the Grey Falcon in

The Grey Falcon Falco hypoleucos is one of 's least understood birds of prey, the little information on it summarised by Marchant & Higgins (1993) and Debus (1998). Primarily a bird of the arid zone, outside this in New South Wales it is considered rare and sporadic (Debus & Rose 2000). Marchant & Higgins (1993) gave its distribution in New South Wales as 'sparse Murray­ Darling Basin and north-west; vagrant east of the '. More specifically, Morris et al. (1981) stated 'Western, Slopes, Central and , east to about Moree, , Mudgee, Blayney and Lake George; nesting regularly near Cowra'. Cooper & McAllan (1995) felt that its stronghold is now west of the . This note records a group of Grey Falcons at the locality of Clear Ridge, between West Wyalong and Lake Cowal (33°55'S, 147°19'E) on the Central-west Slopes of New South Wales, in the semi-arid zone. We also review other easterly records for New South Wales, excluding vagrants east of the Great Dividing Range. At about 0930 h on 27 June 1999 we observed three Grey Falcons perched in a roadside eucalypt, in an area of open Poplar Box Eucalyptus populnea and Belah Casuarina cristata woodland close to a dry watercourse, and surrounded by extensive areas of cleared croplands. As we approached the birds, they did not fly but remained perched approximately 12 m above the ground in a large Poplar Box. They were only a few metres apart and appeared to be a family group. The pale grey, finely streaked underparts and yellow cere, eye-rings and legs of the two adults were clearly visible, and their size difference indicated a male and female. The juvenile was darker grey, more boldly streaked, and with greyish cere and eye-rings. The birds then flew to a nearby tree and remained perched for several more minutes, before moving to another tree and eventually flying off. Marchant & Higgins (1993) noted that Grey Falcons breed during late winter­ spring and are recorded in family groups well into winter. As our observation was made during June, it is assumed that the juvenile was from a successful nesting in the spring of 1998. Grey Falcons bred in the Forbes area in the spring of 1993 (Debus & Rose 2000), about 75 km north-east of Clear Ridge, although whether they nested there in subsequent years is not known. Given that the juvenile we saw was likely to be several months old, it is uncertain whether it originated from a breeding attempt in the Central-west of New South Wales or from a family group dispersing from farther inland. Baker-Gabb & Steele (1999) noted that Grey Falcons were present in the Murray-Darling Basin during winter, the time of our sighting. Olsen & Olsen (1986) noted that some Falcons were resident all year in the southern arid zone to the west of the Murray-Darling Basin, and that dispersal of birds towards refuge areas, including the Murray-Darling Basin, occurs during drought years. Our sighting was made during a period that showed no rainfall deficiency throughout the entire arid zone (Bureau of Meteorology 2001 ), suggesting that the occurrence of the Falcons near West Wyalong was not the result of dispersal towards drought refugia. Olsen & Olsen (1986) considered that the Grey Falcon's breeding range has apparently shrunk since the 1950s, when they were recorded breeding in central­ western New South Wales. Recent records for eastern New South Wales (Table 1) show that the Falcon has been recorded widely, if sparsely, on the Western VOL.19 (4) Easterly Records of DECEMBER2001 Grey Falcon in N.S.W 133

Table 1 Records of the Grey Falcon in eastern New South Wales 1980-1999, excluding vagrants east of the Great Dividing Range. FOC =annual bird reports of the N.S.W. Field Ornithologists Club, published in Australian Birds. B =breeding record (nest), F = family group of adults + juvenile(s). No. birds Locality Region Month/year Source 1? s-w of Bingara N-wSlopes 1981+ Cooper & McAllan (1995)" 1 Gilgandra N-wSlopes 4/81 FOC 1 Bathurst Central Tublelands mid 1990s Fisher & Goldney (1997) 1 Dubbo C-wSlopes 2/80 Morris(1984) 1 Parkes C-wSlopes 3/82 FOC 5B 9-11/93 FQCh 2 7/94 FOC 1 10/99 FOC 5B Forbes C-wSlopes 9-11/93 Debus & Rose (2000)h 1 9/94 FOC SF Condobolin C-w Slopes 11/93 FOC 1 Narrandera Ra. C-w Slopes 5/97 FOC 2 Cowra C-wSlopes 12/97 FOC 3F West Wyalong C-w Slopes 6/99 this taper 2 Albwy S-wSlopes 11/83 FO 1 Lockhart S-wSlopes 9/94 FOC 1 Gundagai S-wSlopes 12/99 FOC •N.S.W. Bird Atlas database period hsame record?

Slopes in the last two decades, with clusters of records on the Central-west Slopes. Some of these are pairs, breeding records or family parties; the group of five at Condobolin need not have been the same group as at Parkes in the same month 100 km away. In addition to records in Thble 1, there is also a cluster of records in the Griffith-Leeton-Narrandera area off the western edge of the Slopes (six records 1985-98, including one of two birds), suggesting a pair in the area (same sources as in Thble 1 ). Titis pattern of sightings is probably a function of observer density, as reflected in the high density of towns and roads on the Central-west and South-west Slopes compared with the more sparsely settled North-west Slopes. The distribution , pattern in Cooper & McAllan (1995) also probably reflects the distribution of observers, as suggested by their Figures 2 and 4: moderate coverage in the Far West, where the Falcons are most frequent; poor coverage on the Plains; and good coverage on the Slopes and where the Falcons, though rare, are likely to be detected. The number of Grey Falcon sightings in 1999 (eight birds) was the highest reported annually for New South Wales (A. Morris pers. comm.). Coupled with recent records of breeding or probable breeding on the Slopes, this pattern may suggest some population recovery in the post-DDT era (i.e. since 1987). The Grey Falcon suffered eggshell thinning at levels likely to cause local breeding failure in falcons; levels of DDT use, and shell thinning, were moderate to high in the New South Wales wheat belt and associated irrigation areas (Olsen et al. 1993). Among historical breeding records for the Grey Falcon in New South Wales, mostly in the Far West, were clutches from Forbes in 1909 and Narrandera in 1938 (P. Olsen pers. comm.). It appears that the Grey Falcon may have regained AUSTRALIAN 134 MARTIN & ROYAL BIRD WATCHER some of its former breeding distribution in central-western New South Wales since 1990. We thank Alan Morris for commenting on a draft and for providing recent records of the Grey Falcon, Penny Olsen for details of historical breeding records, and Julia Hurley for editmg. We also thank Stephen Debus for further information and for improving a draft of this paper.

References Baker-Gabb, D. & Steele, W.K. (1999), The Relative Abundance, Distribution and Seasonal Movements of Australian Falconiformes, 1986-90, Birds Australia Report 6, Birds Australia, Melbourne. Bureau of Meteorology (2001 ), Rainfall deficiency data, Bureau of Meteorology web site, www.bom.gov.au Cooper, R.M. & McAllan, I.AW. (1995), The Birds of Western New South Wales: A Preliminary Atlas, N.S.W. Bird Atlassers, Albury. Debus, S. (1998), The Birds of Prey of Australia, A Field Guide, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Debus, S.J.S. & Rose, AB. (2000), 'Diet of Grey Falcons Falco hypoleucos breeding extralimitally in New South Wales', Australian Bird Watcher 18, 280--281. Fisher, AM. & Goldney, D.C. (1997), 'Use by birds of riparian vegetation in an extensively fragmented landscape', Pacific Conservation Biology 3, 275-288. Marchant, S. & Higgins, P.J. (Eds) (1993), Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, vol. 2, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Morris, AK. (1984), 'Birds', in Korn, T. (Ed.), The Dubbo Region, A Natural History, Dubbo Field Naturalists and Conservation Society, Dubbo. Morris, AK., McGill, AR. & Holmes, G. (1981), Handlist of Birds in New South Wales, N.S.W. Field Ornithologists Club, . Olsen, P.D. & Olsen, J. (1986), 'Distribution, status, movements and breeding of the Grey Falcon Falco hypoleucos', Emu 86, 47-51. Olsen, P.D., Fuller, P. & Marples, T.G. (1993), 'Pesticide-related eggshell thinning in Australian raptors', Emu 93, 1-11.

WK. MARTIN and M.J. ROYAL, P.O. Box W34, West Armidale, NS. W 2350 Received 3 July 2001 •