LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!
Well, that at least would be the
standard opener for a real estate salesperson.
No doubt the average bird out there in Nature World would also be
interested in the location of its home.
This brief survey however deals with more humble matters – the number of
locations Fay and I monitored throughout the South Burnett during 2013.
In a nutshell, with 44 different
locations visited, 2013 romped in, achieving a new annual total, out-doing the
previous high of 41 in 2012 which in itself toppled the earlier 38 jointly held
by 2009 and 2010. Further, with a tally
of 200 species, 2013 easily overtook the former record of 183 species recorded
in 2009.
|
Annual Location/Species Tally
| ||
|
YEAR
|
No of Sites
|
Species
|
|
Pre residency
| ||
|
1990
|
2
|
36
|
|
1991
|
2
|
89
|
|
1992
|
x
|
x
|
|
1993
|
1
|
40
|
|
1994
|
1
|
42
|
|
1995
|
2
|
47
|
|
1996
|
2
|
431
|
|
1997
|
x
|
x
|
|
1998
|
1
|
46
|
|
Post residency
| ||
|
2001
|
12
|
94
|
|
2002
|
3
|
109
|
|
2003
|
5
|
114
|
|
2004
|
12
|
95
|
|
2005
|
2
|
88
|
|
20063
|
11
|
110
|
|
2007
|
17
|
162
|
|
2008
|
12
|
127
|
|
2009
|
38
|
183
|
|
2010
|
38
|
175
|
|
2011
|
34
|
172
|
|
2012
|
41
|
179
|
|
2013
|
44
|
200
|
1
Included the Black-breasted Button-quail
2
Allen Road only
3
The year we moved to the region permanently
In monthly terms, August and November
took out the record with 126 species recorded in each of those two months;
December [124 species] was snapping at their heels while February [120 species]
was the only other month in which Fay and I recorded 120 or more species in the
South Burnett region. Conversely, June
[89 species] was the only month in which we recorded fewer than one hundred
species.
|
2013
Monthly Records
| ||
|
Month
|
Sites
|
Tally
|
|
January
|
14
|
116
|
|
February
|
13
|
120
|
|
March
|
18
|
115
|
|
April
|
16
|
115
|
|
May
|
21
|
114
|
|
June
|
12
|
89
|
|
July
|
17
|
119
|
|
August
|
18
|
126
|
|
September
|
14
|
110
|
|
October
|
16
|
111
|
|
November
|
17
|
126
|
|
December
|
14
|
124
|
2013 was also a year of locations
in other aspects. We “discovered” and/or
created seven new locations: Oil Seed Road in January; the Booie Road Circuit
and Runnymede Road in May; the Smith Hodsleigh Circuit in June; David Road and
the Mudlo National Park [stretching geographical boundaries to the limits] in
August and Din Din Road in November.
Obviously each and every one of
the 44 locations contributed towards the final 2013 Year List, whether we
visited only once [e.g. East Grindstone Circuit, Mondure Creek Curcuit, Pioneer
Park, etc.], a couple of times [e.g. Brooklands Water Reserve, Bunya Mountains
National Park, Gordonbrook Dam, etc.] a little more frequently [e.g. Lake
Barambah on six occasions, Meandu Creek on nine occasions, Nanango Fauna
Sanctuary on 15 occasions, etc.] or in excess of twenty times [e.g. the Tarong
Power Station complex on 38 occasions, Berlin Road on 32 occasions or Blackbutt
on 23 occasions]. No location received
more attention than the 196 visits to Blackbutt State School.
A number of the one-offs during
the year produced some spectacular birds.
The Broadwater Camping Reserve gave us a pair of Cotton Pygmy-Geese Nettapus coromandelianus swimming
along Barkers Creek seemingly oblivious to our presence.
.jpg)
East Grindstone [only our second
circuit since creating it in January 2009] gave us magic views of the Brown
Goshawk Accipiter fasciatus:
my notes at the time read “Appeared from side of road, flew along ahead of us
and perched in tree a few metres away before disappearing again”. East Nanango and Gibson State Forest [the
first visit in almost a year] offered us our first and second South Burnett
records of Australian Raven Corvu
coronoides for 2013. The Horsfield’s Bushlark Mirafra javanica along
the Kooralgin-Gilla Road in February almost cost us dearly as the Forester
started to slide and slither along a patch of soft mod; it took all of my
meagre 4-wheel driving skills to pull us out of that predicament.
Gordonbrook Dam may have only
featured twice in our 2013 outings but it clearly punched above its weight on
both occasions. In January we came away with a tally of 38 species, including
Magpie Goose Anseranas semipalmata, Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus and Caspian Tern Hydroprogne caspia [an unusual sighting
for so far inland]. On our return in August we scored 55 species including
Freckled Duck Stictonetta naevosa;
White-breasted Woodswallow Artamus leucorynchus;
and Whistling Kite Haliastur
sphenurus, which we initially noted as two
adults perched together in a tree on far side of Dam [from car park…later
observed a pair of juveniles perched in tree alongside walking track. Assumed to be offspring of original adults.
Tarong National Park excelled
itself on the last day of the year. Back
in May it had produced a respectable tally of 37 species, including three of
the thornbills – Yellow Acanthiza
nana, Yellow-rumped A.
chrysorrhoa and Brown Thornbill A. pusilla. In December it came up with a tally of 59
species, including both Green Catbird Ailuroedus
crassirostris and Regent Bowerbird Sericulus
chrysocephalus and a Satin Flycatcher Myiagra cyanoleuca.
Five visits to the Rocky Creek
Circuit produced 52 species; six visits to Lake Barambah, particularly the arm
accessible from the Bunya Highway, provided 56 species; a similar number of
calls on the Cooling Water Dam [Tarong Power Station complex] provided us with
a tally of 62 species.
More visits did not necessarily
equate to larger tallies. Fifteen
surveys of Nanango Fauna Sanctuary brought us only 60 species; 22 surveys of
Blackbutt brought an even humbler tally of 22 species! However, the location with the most
pronounced anomaly between number of visits and Year List contribution must
rest with my former school [although at the time of writing I remain
technically employed by Education Queensland] which with 196 surveys throughout
2013 ended the year with a meagre tally of 48 species – an average of 4.08
species per visit.
But birding is above and beyond
humble numbers; at least of the 2013 Year 4 cohort may take away with them a
love for bird watching, it was after all what “Mr B” did when on playground
duty.
2013 was a harsh year
academically but with weekends to use up we managed a reasonable show.
Hopefully 2014 will bring
brighter times.
