I'm not sure about the title is the right one, but I wanted to update everyone about the happenings of the bird life here in Tenterfield, NSW. And it's sad news for the birds. Masked Lapwings started breeding last month and I even got swooped but all that egg laying lead to nothing. Not a single chick in sight and the parents have dropped their breeding behaviour and calls. That's 2 years in a row the plovers have failed to breed. Each year it seems to be getting worse for them. In a few years time the remaining plovers will simply up and leave too. Then there will be none in town.
The Australian Magpies: these birds are struggling to raise just one chick per square km. Food is scarce for chicks. Only one actual Magpie chick has been spotted to date this month. Magpies do not appear to be forming breeding pairs now, even though the younger generations are old enough to breed and have been old enough to breed for 3 years now. My resident magpie family appear to have a baby but I haven't seen it yet.
A lot of bird species are leaving town or simply not coming back or not staying long like they used to. Australian King Parrots are nowhere to be seen. Parrots in general are becoming a rare sight.
The resident Eastern Rosella pair had to part ways as one of them got hit by a car a few months back. The surviving bird found a new mate and they started breeding (early) but nothing eventuated from it. Plus the surviving bird seems to be alone again and it's now eating from the grevilleas in my garden.
Smaller birds seem to be going through the mating behaviour but nothing is happening. The Willy Wagtails are not calling out in the middle of the night anymore.
In the passed few weeks I've heard 2 new bird calls that I've never heard before. Owls are also becoming more frequently heard of a night time, about once a week. They're all heading south too. That ain't right for this time of the year!
In a nutshell.....birds are on the move going way outside their normal areas to find food, and are probably all heading south.
Birds sound stressed from the lack of rain, the unsuccessful breeding that's happening, and the lack of food.
It refuses to rain here. We have had only one decent downpour of rain all year long. The grass is no longer green at any time of the year. No green grass means no food for cows or horses either and the rate this is going all what will be left here in town are cats and dogs, reptiles and frogs and humans. Even the Eastern Grey kangaroos will go elsewhere.
Quite good rains here on the s.e. slopes of the Mt Lofty Ranges in SA but little bird breeding. The only birds I'm aware of having bred is a pair of Little Ravens. No New Holland Honeyeaters which have usually built two or three nests by this time of the year. No signs of Australian Magpies or other species breeding.
No rain?
BOM states you have had so far this year 91 days of rain with a total of 440ml ?
Shorty......Canon gear
Canberra
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/
rawshorty, BOM is unfortunately incorrect. If Tenterfield has had 91 days of rain so far this year it must've been in a parallel universe, or a flock of birds passing overhead having a toilet break. If we've had 440ml of rain to date I would not have stated it has been refusing to rain here. The decent downpour of rain I mentioned that has happened here lasted for more than 20 minutes. Normally when it does rain it is not enough to get the ground surface damp or doesn't last long enough to soak more than 5cm into the ground. All we get now is minimal rain and that usually occurs a long time apart (weeks to months apart). The rain we DO get barely keeps the plants alive. All the plants seem to be surviving on the moisture from the frosts and fog we get.
I'm at Tenterfield, NSW. (Formerly known as "Hyperbirds".)
It seems what is happening in Tenterfield fits the climate change model of longer, more intense droughts for eastern Australia. Over time it's quite possible there will be significant changes to Tenterfield vegetation & bird life.
I like your confident statement that BoM is incorrect and suggest that a more accurate statement would be that the Tenterfield weather station is located some distance from your house and did receive the stated rainfall
can you check for the weather station location and get back to us
Peter
Well, here's a direct link to the supposed "Federation Park" (Tenterfield) weather station.
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_nccObsCode=139&p_display_type=dataFile&p_startYear=&p_c=&p_stn_num=056032
It has all the rainfall measurements recorded since 1870. It is at the other end of town where the weather rock is. It's weather would be identical or very close to it to where I live actually. However I have never seen anything that remotely looks like a weather station there, unless it is hiding under a rock or something or I'm blind as a bat. After doing some research it turns out it may actually be right next to the helipad. See link below - it's a googlemap street view of what I think is the weather station.
http://ourairports.com/airports/YXTE/#lat=-29.047182679516222,lon=152.0162032767325,zoom=18,type=Satellite,airport=YXTE
Even the weather station at Federation Park states it has recorded a bit of rain which I suspect may be the collection of dew from frosts rather than rain. It has rained a bit here in Tenterfield since July, from when we got snow onwards, but not vast amounts of rain.
By the way, pacman, I state that the BOM is incorrect because what it predicts usually never happens here. It's accuracy for precipitation is about 50-56%. I read that on the actual website somewhere.
I'm at Tenterfield, NSW. (Formerly known as "Hyperbirds".)
BoM provides rain forecasts and actual rain reports.
Shorty advised that BoM said Tenterfield actual rain reports were 91 days with 440ml - this is the statement that you said was incorrect
Peter
pacman, it is really hard to remember now how often it has rained in Tenterfield. Weeks go by and sometimes a month or two will go by before it rains again. 440ml is a lot of rain and I'm sure we haven't had that much rain here all year, unless the majority of that amount fell over a few rain events earlier in the year, and when it snowed.
I'm at Tenterfield, NSW. (Formerly known as "Hyperbirds".)