From Field and Study: Red-necked Phaloropes regularly appearing on Rottnest

2 Pages·2003·0.52 MB·English

by  Peter Coyle

180km SSW from Lake REFERENCES
Goongarrie, and found it to be
BURBIDGE, A.A. and FULLER P.J.
brimming full with water.
1982. Banded Stilt Breeding at
Lake Barlee, Western Australia.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Emu 82:212-216.
HAYMAN, P, MARCHANT, J. and
We would like to thank Kevin
PRATER. T. 1986. SHOREBIRDS -
Smith and Brad Santos of the
An identification guide to the waders
Severe Weather Section, Bureau of
Meteorology, for researching of the world.
weather patterns over Lake JENKINS. C.F.J. 1975. Nesting of
Goongarrie during March and Banded Stilts at Lake Ballard.
April 1999; and Yvonne Coate Western Australian Naturalist 13:
who assisted with the preparation 94-95.
of this paper. K.H. Coate would
JOHNSTONE, R.E., STORR, G.M.
also like to thank Yvonne Coate
1998. Handbook of Western
for her efforts in alerting
Australian Birds. Vol.1-non¬
members of the Western
passerines Emu to Dollarbird.
Australian Naturalists’ Club
Western Australian Museum,
camped 20 kms away at
Goongarrie station homestead, to Perth.
the possibility of a search when he KOLICHIS, N. 1976. New breeding
failed to return from the lake records of the Banded Stilt in
after 6 hours. We also thank Phil Western Australia. Western
Stone for providing data on Australian Naturalist 13:114-119.
Banded Stilt at Lake Kondinin.
MINTON, C., PEARSON, G. and
LANE, J. 1995. Banded Stilts do it
again. Wingspan 5 (2): 13-15.
86
FROM FIELD AND STUDY Union (now Birds Australia)
telephone hotline.
Red-necked Phalaropes regularly The Readers’ Digest, 1986, Complete
appearing on Rottnest - Over the Book of Australian Birds reports
last few years Red-necked that only a few trickle on to
Phalaropes (Phalaropus lobatus) Australia each year, arriving ... in
have been regularly seen on September and leaving by April.
Rottnest Island. Red-necked The first was not recorded until
Phalaropes are an unusual 1962, near Melbourne. Saunders
migratory wader to the south¬ and de Rebeira, 1993, Birds of
west of Western Australia. They Rottnest also report that “Another
were first recorded on Rottnest in rare visitor that is being recorded
August 1979 by Roy Wheeler more frequently in south-western
(Western Australian Bird Notes, No Australia is the Red-necked
13, 1980) which was probably the Phalarope. The latest sighting to
first record for the south-west of date on Rottnest Island was in late
WA (Ron Johnstone, pers. comm., August 1992, when a single bird
1994). was present on Government
House Lake.”
The first Red-necked Phalarope I
saw was on 30 July 1994, possibly Hayman, Marchant and Prater,
the earliest winter sighting of the 1987, Shorebirds an Identification to
species in the south-west of WA. the Waders of the World report
It was with eighteen Banded Stilts “Some females leave breeding
at the western end of Pearse Lakes grounds (far north Asia, Europe
(near where the old salt works and North America) in late June.
were located) on Rottnest. The Vagrants have occurred in inland
phalarope kept ducking its head South America, near Cape Town
into the water and at the same (regular in recent years), Sri Lanka,
time its tail popped up. At one Australia and New Zealand.” The
stage it swam close to the shore Readers’ Digest explains that
and stood while splashing itself “Conventional sexual roles are
for about a minute. It flew briefly reversed in Phalaropes. The female
after its washing session and then is larger and more brightly
resumed swimming around and coloured than the male in
feeding busily. It swam more breeding plumage. She conducts
quickly than the stilts. It appeared displays and initiates courtship
to be less than half the size of a and establishes the breeding
stilt and could easily be territory. The male builds the nest
overlooked. The following day - in a tussock of marsh grasses,
the phalarope could not be seen at lined with plant matter - and
that site. Further sightings of a incubates and rears the young on
Red-necked Phalarope were made his own.”
on other Rottnest lakes as well as My next sighting was of three
at Little Parakeet Bay on Rottnest Red-necked Phalaropes, a female
in the spring and summer of 1994/ in breeding plumage and two
95 as reported on the Royal birds in juvenile or eclipse
Australasian Ornithologists plumage, on 9 October 1995 on
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