A bit more on Drongos on the corner

 There seems to be enough interesting material about Spangled Drongos (hereafter 'Drongo') in the SE Corner (essentially East Gippsland (VIC) and Bega Valley (NSW) to merit a small research post. 

The most recent qualitative snippets are Facebook comments: 

1. from a reliable (visiting) birder saying that he "may" have heard and seen a Drongo near the Mallacoota Log Cabins in March this year.  This makes it seem as though they may be close to year round residents or possibly even breeding in the area.  (The birds seen at Karbeethong in 2023 were assessed as young birds and their presence at that time explained as post fledging dispersal.)
2. from a local resident including a photo from May, clearly showing a Drongo.  This is the most common month for Drongo reports in Mallacoota, 

Bega Valley Shire

I have eBird data from Bega Valley up to August 2023: that contains only 4 records of Drongos.  I believe all off those records have been copied to the Birdata data set and are covered in the attached snip from the  Birdata website, using a custom polygon. 

Note that the dots on the map are the points for a 10 minute grid cell not the precise point coordinates - zooming in shows for example that dot near Wyndham at the Southern end is actually quite a bit lower, and North East of that village.  The gap between Central Tilba and Broulee is "interesting".

Looking at the bar chart shows that there have been 21 sightings of Drongos in that area (which includes - by accident- a little of Eurobodalla Shire) since 2001.  

East Gippsland Shire

There are 41 eBird records for East Gippsland Shire of which 19 are in the Mallacoota District.  The patterns by year are rather different for Mallacoota and the rest of East Gippsland.

The pattern reminds me of Striated Heron which was commonly reported in about 2014 then not seen again until 2021, was common for 2 years but now become hard to find again.  Perhaps an occasional bird or two ends up in the area but fails to establish a viable population?

The monthly pattern in the Shire for Drongos still suggests post breeding dispersion.  (The November and December sightings were in the Gippsland Lakes sub-region in 2008 and 2020.)

SE Corner Maps

Two maps of records from eBird.  The first covers the SE corner as a whole. an shows large gaps either side of the Mallacoota District.  Although the birds are far from common I would have thought there was enough birding activity in the country from Eden to Moruya to have spotted at least one bird as they moved through !

The small scale obscures the detail for the Mallacoota District which shows the birds restricted to an area from the Coast along the shores of the Inlet to the Narrows.