Author: Julia

North Brook Island PIP count Nov 2013

Mid November saw Parks and Wildlife personnel and regular count volunteers heading out by boat to conduct the second count of the season at North Brook Island.

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The team counted a total of 20,151 PIPs flying in to the island, a big increase from the previous count in early October.  Many thanks to everyone in the count team, and extra thanks to Liz for reporting and to John for the photos.

You can also read Liz’s delightful blog post the beauty of a Pied Imperial-pigeon count and read her full account here.

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First PIP nest of the season for Townsville Oct 2013

On 18 October two PIPs were spotted building a new nest – thank you Cecily!

A week later incubation was under way, as shown in the photo below – thank you Jenny!

First PIP nest of the season for Townsville

We’ve had very few reported PIP sightings around Townsville so far and this nest is very welcome news.

Also of interest, its in the same tree that hosted a PIP nest last season. Are these the same birds as last season? That does seem likely, although we’ll never know for sure.

Low Isles PIP count Oct 2013

The second count of the season for Low Isles took place on 12 October, with the benefit of fine clear weather.

The count team reported a total of 16,119 PIPs flying in to the island.

Many thanks to Low Isles Caretakers Wayne and Jenni for organising the count, and to this month’s count team: Grant, Noela, Val, Doon, Deb, Steve, Danora, Ian, Leanne and Julie.

Ten new nests in Cairns Oct 2013

The first Cairns nests of the season were reported to PIPwatch during late September – congratulations and a big thank you to Brian, and thanks also to Dick for extra information.

Long-time PIPwatch champion Brian has now (end of first week of Oct) recorded a total of 10 nests around Cairns.

Has anyone else spotted new PIP nests elsewhere?

If you find a nest, please put in a Nest Report as soon as possible!

Low Isles PIP count Sep 2013

The first island count of the season was conducted on 14 September by Low Isles Caretakers and volunteers from Low Isles Preservation Society. Their total count was 2,433. Thanks to Wayne and Jenni, Deb, Julie, Andrew, Sophie and Harrison.

The count was on the low side, leaving us wondering whether many of the usual flock might be a bit late in returning this year?

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For the first time the Low Isles team recorded their data directly onto ipads that Wayne and Jenni had set up for the purpose. Congratulations on a world-first innovation! Of course meaning world-first for PIP counting :)

PIP return (slowly?) late Aug 2013

At Low Isles the first returning PIP was sighted on 14 August by the island’s Caretakers. There were still only small numbers of PIPs to be seen by the end of the month.

On 28 August the first PIPwatch report of the season came from Graham (thanks Graham!) who heard and then spotted a single PIP at the top of a tree in the Cairns suburb of Mooroobool.

North of Cairns there were a few earlier sightings recorded on Eremaea, not posted to PIPwatch. In most cases people saw only single birds. No one reported any large flocks.

The first PIPwatch report south of Cairns was on 30 August when Julia spotted two PIPs feeding high in palm trees on the Strand, Townsville.

Farewell to departing PIPs – April 2013

Small numbers of PIPs were still around in Cairns and Townsville during early April but the majority probably set off northwards during March, heading to PNG for their “winter break”.

By the middle of April very few PIPs were sighted and some observers confirmed they had seen none at all. The last observation reported to PIPwatch came from Jenny in Townsville on 14 April, accompanied by this lovely photo, thanks Jenny! Maybe the PIP was saying goodbye to those two pee-wees?

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