Signs of the season: Avian aspects

 Today (31 August) is the last day of Winter.  Birds seem to be getting ready for Spring!

Not quite the first cuckoo of the year but it is notable that today's "Rare Bird Alert" from eBird includes 5 reports of Channel-billed Cuckoo from Sydney.  So they are on the move South!  Keep eyes and ears open, especially near fig trees!

It is hardly news to mention breeding by Masked Lapwings.  However there has been an interesting - and welcome - development with "our" Masked Lapwings.  Although the chicks are only 5 days old the whole family disappeared from the fenced garden next door.  To our surprise we couldn't see them in the horse paddock down hill.  I then spotted them on the far side of Angophora Drive: both adults and all three chicks had made the trek.

That is at least  metres from the nest site, which seems like a long walk for such tiny birds,

If wondering why I describe this as a welcome you have obviously never been swooped by a pair of upset Lapwings.  They had what the Couldabeens would call a Red Hot Go at me yesterday and we were thinking we might have to abandon our back yard for the next few weeks.  Fake News!!

The second sign is that I have had reports of Azure Kingfisher behaviour suggestive of breeding (mud on bill perhaps indicating excavating nest burrow at the mouth of Mullet Creek, and a pair in close contact at the part of Coulls Inlet close to Shady Gully).  In addition I have seen this species around the Broome St Lagoon a few times in the past 2 weeks.  

I have in the past guestimated (based on where I have seen birds at very close times) that the species might hold a territory of 1 kilometre which would be equivalent to a circle of 1 kilometre diameter.  The following image shows circles of 500m radius around the three sites listed above.

My take on this is that there are at least three pairs of Kingfishers currently along the Inlet from Mullet Creek to Shady Gully.