ID Feature: Dovetailing

Introducing a uniquely Western Australian birding challenge: the slightly obscure, but not entirely frivolous sport of differentiating Spotted and Laughing Doves solely by their tails!

While these species are usually easily separated by differences in size, colour, and neck markings, it is not uncommon to flush a dove and see only its rear end before it disappears. Furthermore, immature Spotted Doves are smaller, paler, and lack the black neck patch, so are less easily differentiated from Laughing on brief views.


A local Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) with plumage characteristics of the Indo-Malayan subspecies tigrina, including dark streaking on the wing feathers, light grey lesser coverts on the carpus, and off-white undertail coverts. Most Perth birds lack the latter two features. A CSIRO study [1] found that most Perth birds have dark streaking but browner wing and undertail coverts and are thus an ambiguous mixture of introduced subspecies tigrina and chinensis



Compared to the generally browner Spotted Dove, Laughing Doves (Streptopelia senegalensis) show rich coppery-pinks tones on the body, and more blueish slate-grey wings and rump

 

Common Terns at Herdsman Lake

The BAWA Sightings page received a report of 12 Common Tern at Maurice Hamer Park, Herdsman Lake on the morning of the 7th February. A subsequent search that afternoon revealed one bird still remaining at Maurice Hamer Park. Other areas of the lake, particularly the northern end, were not extensively searched, so the others may still be present. The single bird was initially seen hawking over the water, then perched on a piece of wood near the lake shore about 200m around to the left (north) of the carpark off Lakeside Drive near Heron Place.

Common Tern (& Pacific Black Duck) at Herdsman Lake

The Living Ghosts of Twitches Past

A pre-Christmas visit to Rottnest Island appeared to confirm the rumours were true – the Indian Peafowl control program may well have removed the last peahen from the island [1]. Long-time island residents confirmed that, to the best of their knowledge, the two adult male peacocks currently hanging around the Thompson Bay settlement are the last remnants of this historic population.

Peacock memories, Rottnest 1994.......OK, laugh at the hair if you must!

ID Feature - Pectoral Sandpipers

Pectoral Sandpipers at Lake McLarty.

For our first 'real' post, we thought we'd start with an ID feature from one of the easier bird groups - the waders! Pectoral Sandpipers are being reported more frequently than ever before in the south-west and this summer in particular has seen 'Pecs' turning up at an almost unprecedented number of wetlands.

The primary ID pitfall for Pectoral Sandpiper is Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, which is very similar in appearance. Moreover, in the south-west, Pectoral Sandpipers are typically found in small numbers within Sharp-tailed Sandpiper flocks, which often means some searching is required to locate the Pectorals. However, this also means that it is usually possible to compare the two species side-by-side if you do find a Pec, which can be useful.

Introduction

Welcome to Leeuwin Current Birding. The idea for this blog was hatched by a group of West Aussie birders as a way of sharing information on birds and birding in Western Australia. We say Western Australia, and the blog will contain information and trip reports from around Western Australia, but even the less sharp-eyed amongst you will probably pick up a bias towards the greater Perth region and for this we apologise! The simple fact is that most of us are based in Perth so we’re naturally biased because (unfortunately) there’s only so much time we can spend travelling (and birding) farther afield!

We envisage the blog will cover a range of topics on birds and birding falling under the following categories;

·         ID Features – various short articles (with accompanying photos) discussing various challenges in bird identification

·         Birding Sites – useful gen on various birding areas around WA

·         Twitching – information and photos of various rare and unusual sightings, updates on conditions (e.g. lake levels) and what’s around

·         Trip Reports – reports and bird lists from various birding quests throughout the state

·         Reviews – short reviews on various bird books, equipment and other stuff birders use

·         Conservation – profiles of some of WA’s rarest birds and the conservation efforts being directed towards them

·         Other Stuff – other relevant (usually) stuff we come up with!

Whilst we like to think we have a vague idea of what we’re on about and will endeavour to make sure all our information is accurate, we’ll almost certainly make stuff-ups, typos, slip-ups, errors, blunders, and gaffes at some stage. If you see something you think is wrong, please let us know at wabirdingblog@gmail.com. We also welcome general comments, queries, and suggestions about the blog.

Lastly for some boring legal(ish) stuff – as we’ve said, the aim of this blog is to share relevant information on WA birds and birding with others and as such, you are most welcome to save, copy, and/or print information from this blog for your private use. However, you may not reproduce any content on this site publicly or commercially without permission from the relevant authors/photographers.

We hope you enjoy the blog,

The Authors – Leeuwin Current Birding