For anyone who's interested, our tally for the 8hr Twitchathon was 141 species. This was one less than we managed last year. Best bird was Brolga and worst dip was Spotted Turtle Dove. Four species that we had seen a on a recce a week before only showed themselves 15 seconds after our allotted time had expired !
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Cheers,
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George
Good work, though, I must disagree your worst dip as the Turtle Spotted Dove, they have got to be the funniest birds ever! We have one that regularily visits our backyard (Limpy, named because he limps...) and he does the stupidest things sometimes. We have a shrub, and he must see the sparrows go in there or something because then he tries to imitate it but his expanded wings end up stuck on the outside! It looks so funny! Plus I swear he always loses the girl doves, as he always bows to them and then they fly off, he seems confused for about 10 seconds as he walks around the area, and then flies off. The turtle spotted dove is by far the most comical bird I have ever seen, I love them!
Still, I guess they're pretty unimpressive...
Unfortunately Amateur the Spotted Turtle Dove is an introduced species in Australia and has replaced other doves by out competing them for food and nest sites. As birds go they are quite pretty up close but from an environmental view point they simply should not be in Australia. Hope you understand.
See Yez
Trev