Bird-a-Day: the battle continues
It's been a couple of months since I posted about my participation in the Bird-a-Day challenge. The key point is that I am still going, although it is getting to the point where close observation is needed to tell if I am waving or drowning!
The summary of my progress is given by this chart:
The blue line, linked to the LH vertical axis, shows how I rated the observations according to a set of codes provided by the game coordinators. Its gradually sloping downwards as I am forced to rely on more common birds. The red line (RH axisshows the same phenomenon but using an index of common-ness which I developed for the local birds thus it gradually climbs as I have to use commoner birds.
The rot paused breifely last week when we visited Adelaide and scored birds not seen in the Canberra area (Yellow Rosella, Elegant Parrot, Black-faced Cormorant) or ones very unusual here (White-breasted Woodswallow, Major Mitchell Cockkatoo, Black-tailed Native Hen, Emu, Pied Butcherbird).
Of course on the trip I was occasionally embarrassed for choice so (eg) Sanderling, Red-capped Plover and Black Kite were all seen but rated as less 'exciting' birds than those selected on the day.
Where to from here? Looking at the spreadsheet I maintain there are about 28 birds that I should see around here more or less any day. Thus I should get into June.
However this may need a bit of 'management' to avoid recording the wrong bird on a day. By way of example I am sure that on the day I recorded Golden Whistler I also saw a Yellow-faced Honeyeater. Unfortunately the Honeyeater migration seems to have run out of steam without me recording them, so I might have wasted my whistler.
The summary of my progress is given by this chart:
The rot paused breifely last week when we visited Adelaide and scored birds not seen in the Canberra area (Yellow Rosella, Elegant Parrot, Black-faced Cormorant) or ones very unusual here (White-breasted Woodswallow, Major Mitchell Cockkatoo, Black-tailed Native Hen, Emu, Pied Butcherbird).
Of course on the trip I was occasionally embarrassed for choice so (eg) Sanderling, Red-capped Plover and Black Kite were all seen but rated as less 'exciting' birds than those selected on the day.
Where to from here? Looking at the spreadsheet I maintain there are about 28 birds that I should see around here more or less any day. Thus I should get into June.
However this may need a bit of 'management' to avoid recording the wrong bird on a day. By way of example I am sure that on the day I recorded Golden Whistler I also saw a Yellow-faced Honeyeater. Unfortunately the Honeyeater migration seems to have run out of steam without me recording them, so I might have wasted my whistler.
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