The Nature Conservancy
Australia

I have added a link to The Nature Conservancy, Australia to the list of associated websites on the right of this column. Please click on  http://www.natureaustralia.org.au/ and have a read though to see just what they are doing and needs to be done to secure a future for wildlife and wildplaces in Australia.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos

The fruit in the garden has now all passed, the last of the apricots were eaten by the Red Wattlebirds, Crimson and Eastern Rosellas. But all is not over yet. The Suphur-crested Cockatoos have moved in to eat the apricot kernels which the other smaller birds could not open and eat. They only ate the soft flesh like we do. A carpet of split shells now lies below the apricot trees.

Great flying at the cricket 

The Foxcopter hovers over Manuka Oval

As part of their TV coverage of the Prime Minister's XI v West Indies cricket match at the Manuka Oval, Canberra yesterday, Fox Sports were flying their new Foxcopter. This is an eight-rotor helicopter drone which carries an HD camera, and the whole is controlled to line up overhead pictures of the game. What a wonderful machine it is, it was very competently and safely controlled - and it produced great pictures.

When the machine first took off for a tour around the ground airspace during the afternoon session, an Australian Hobby Falco longipennis gave it a fly-past, probably to investigate this strange new flyer in its territory. There was never any danger of conflict or collision however as the bird was never closer than about 70-100m. 

Later, when the sky darkened, the new stadium lights were switched on and moths soon fluttered around them as it became darker. Then just as it became truly dark, a Hobby, probably the same bird, began hawking moths from in front of the lights. It disappeared into the shadows behind to eat its prey, and this was repeated several times, with the vast majority of the crowd unaware of the wildlife flying display above them.

Tawny Frogmouth breeding success

An average brood size of two Tawny Frogmouth chicks

I have been monitoring the breeding success of Tawny Frogmouths Podargus strigoides in Canberra, Australia, for several years and have found that the pattern is fairly constant. About half the breeding pairs rear two young to fledging; a few rear three in any year and about a quarter rear one chick. The proportion of pairs which fail to rear any chicks is about 24% on average over the years, ranging from 17 – 34% (Figure 1). I do not disturb the birds to record clutch size, but it is known to range from 1-3.

Figure 1: The number of young reared per breeding pair of Tawny Frogmouths in 2006 - 2012.

In recent years I had thought that more birds were failing to rear young, but this is just the impression gained as I have added more pairs to the study in the past few years. Although I have been recording more failures, this has been in proportion with larger sample sizes, there is no statistical difference (χ² = 3.8, df = 6, P = 0.43). The main causes of failure, which are usually the loss of whole clutches or broods, are predation by unknown species, but likely Brush-tailed Possum or Brown Goshawk. One male was taken off the nest by a feral cat. A few nests have been blown out of their trees by strong winds.

Figure 2: The number of Tawny Frogmouth pairs which failed to rear any young in any year is proportional  c24%, to the number studied (r = 0.899, P = 0.003).

Further study will aim to determine whether there are any differences between the breeding success of frogmouths in grassy woodland, dry sclerophyll forest or suburban remnant woodland; or if there is any difference between years of drought and high rainfall. Fortunately the study has already covered these criteria.

A male Tawny Frogmouth protects his chick

Another cover shot

I received a copy of this book through the post a few days ago and it features another of my images on the front cover. The book has been written mostly by Adam Watson who has used his old notes on birds in his native north-east of Scotland from as far back as the 1940's for comparison with bird numbers in the same area today.

One of the largest differences has been the deep and widespread decline of the Capercailie, featured here on the cover: a magnificent bird, the largest grouse, one of those species which exudes character, and is indeed part of the character of the pinewoods.

The book is full of details on species, which give an insight to how different species have reacted to changes in the landscape, mostly man-made. Not all have declined, some have increased, and possible reasons are dicsussed in the book. Above all, these notes come from a time when there were very few ornithologists recording such data. There is no substitute for original notes made at the time