Is this an outstanding year for crakes and rails for some reason?

[John Graff <>]

Hi David, Around Perth for the last two summers we've had higher than normal 
numbers of Australian Spotted Crake, though there doesn't seem to have been 
much of a spike in the other species. I assumed this was a result of good 
conditions inland over the last 2-3 years. We have also had a bit of 
Black-tailed Native-hen irruption (eased off now), a number of Painted Snipe 
records (very rare in SW WA usually), and higher than usual numbers of other 
inland-breeding waterbirds including White-necked Heron, Red-kneed Dotterel and 
Gull-billed Tern. In addition, irruptions of several arid zone bushbirds, most 
notably Black & Pied Honeyeaters, and currently Budgerigars, but also small 
numbers of Little Button-quail and Diamond Dove Cheers,John
 > From: 
> Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2013 10:22:55 +1100
> To: 
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Is this an outstanding year for crakes and rails for   
> some reason?
> 
> I'm located on the far south coast of NSW near Bermagui where I've been
> seeing Spotless Crake (1)  and Spotted Crake (up to 3 at a time) in a
> location where I've not seen them before. There's also Buff-banded Rail
> there, which is not a surprise  Further south in the shire, the crakes are
> showing up as well. The Canberra bird list has been alive with crake and
> rail sightings (Spotted, Spotless, Baillon's, Buff-banded and Lewin's.)
> There have also been a few reports of crakes from various places along the
> east coast from people on this list.
> 
> Is this just an excellent year for crakes and rails generally? I've been
> figuring that after so many years of drought followed by a few good, wet
> seasons that there's been a lot of breeding inland. Does anyone know about
> the breeding activity of these groups of birds? Are we seeing dispersals
> from breeding events inland or locally?
> 
> Any thoughts or information welcome.
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