Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club members have been involved in the Annual Challenge Bird Count for more than 20 years, and 2023 was no exception.
This event is overseen by BirdLife Australia, but relies on local coordination. In essence, this fun event – and supposedly non-competitive – involves people from across Australia attempting to detect as many birds as possible during a single day from within their local area, in or around the first weekend in December. For the Castlemaine area, the sightings must be made within a 25km radius of the central township. And for a bird to be a legitimate record, it must be either seen by 2 or more people, or heard by 3 or more people.
There were three groups representing Castlemaine in 2023. Kerrie Jennings and I covered areas around Baringhup and to the west of Tarrengower. Geraldine Harris led a team of three through a range of locations around Barkers Creek, Harcourt and eastern Muckleford. Sue Boekel – a member of BirdLife Castlemaine – led a team of three across a range of sites from Malmsbury to Maldon.
In summary, 1575 individual birds were recorded from 108 different species. Some of the highlights included a single Sharp-tailed Sandpiper on a farm dam in Baringhup, a Black-tailed Native-hen in Muckleford, two Intermediate Egrets in the Harcourt area, 43 White-browed Woodswallows around Barkers Ck and Muckleford, and a Square-tailed Kite in Muckleford area.
By comparison, the numbers detected in recent years are shown in the first table below while the second table shows what was seen this year.
| Year | No. of individual birds | No. of species |
| 2016 | 1212 | 84 |
| 2017 | 1723 | 107 |
| 2018 | 1840 | 107 |
| 2019 | 2377 | 113 |
| 2020, 2021 | Cancelled due to COVID | |
| 2022 | 287 | 61 |
| 2023 | 1575 | 108 |
| Common Name | 2023 Number detected | 2024 Number detected |
|---|---|---|
| Australasian Darter | 1 | 2 |
| Australasian Grebe | 11 | 5 |
| Australasian Pipit | 2 | 6 |
| Australian Magpie | 63 | 62 |
| Australian Pelican | 2 | |
| Australian Raven | 1 | 9 |
| Australian Reed-Warbler | 4 | 7 |
| Australian Shelduck | 3 | |
| Australian White Ibis | 3 | 2 |
| Australian Wood Duck | 107 | 107 |
| Black Kite | 1 | 3 |
| Black Swan | 5 | |
| Black-chinned Honeyeater | 1 | |
| Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike | 7 | 16 |
| Black-fronted Dotterel | 4 | 3 |
| Black-shouldered Kite | 2 | 1 |
| Black-tailed Native-hen | 1 | 1 |
| Brown Falcon | 2 | 4 |
| Brown Goshawk | 1 | |
| Brown Songlark | 2 | |
| Brown Thornbill | 8 | 14 |
| Brown Treecreeper | 9 | 9 |
| Brown-headed Honeyeater | 3 | 7 |
| Buff-rumped Thornbill | 5 | |
| Chestnut Teal | 5 | 11 |
| Collared Sparrowhawk | 1 | |
| Common Blackbird | 7 | 18 |
| Common Bronzewing | 6 | 10 |
| Common Myna | 11 | 9 |
| Common Starling | 51 | 6 |
| Crested Pigeon | 7 | 7 |
| Crested Shrike-tit | 1 | 1 |
| Crimson Rosella | 20 | 23 |
| Domestic Duck | 3 | |
| Dusky Moorhen | 19 | 15 |
| Dusky Woodswallow | 17 | 13 |
| Eastern Rosella | 24 | 21 |
| Eastern Spinebill | 2 | 6 |
| Eastern Yellow Robin | 1 | 4 |
| Eurasian Coot | 37 | 36 |
| European Goldfinch | 1 | 3 |
| Fairy Martin | 13 | 11 |
| Fan-tailed Cuckoo | 1 | |
| Fuscous Honeyeater | 27 | 40 |
| Galah | 72 | 30 |
| Golden Whistler | 1 | |
| Great Cormorant | 19 | |
| Great Egret | 1 | |
| Grey Butcherbird | 1 | |
| Grey Currawong | 2 | 5 |
| Grey Fantail | 3 | 24 |
| Grey Shrike-thrush | 19 | 15 |
| Grey Teal | 12 | 12 |
| Hardhead | 4 | 6 |
| Hoary-headed Grebe | 30 | 35 |
| Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo | 2 | |
| House Sparrow | 7 | 64 |
| Intermediate Egret | 2 | |
| Jacky Winter | 2 | 2 |
| Laughing Kookaburra | 5 | 6 |
| Leaden Flycatcher | 2 | |
| Little Black Cormorant | 6 | 5 |
| Little Corella | 8 | 16 |
| Little Eagle | 1 | |
| Little Lorikeet | 2 | |
| Little Pied Cormorant | 6 | |
| Little Raven | 51 | 69 |
| Long-billed Corella | 178 | 92 |
| Magpie-lark | 28 | 14 |
| Masked Lapwing | 22 | 4 |
| Mistletoebird | 2 | 1 |
| Musk Duck | 1 | |
| Musk Lorikeet | 44 | 34 |
| New Holland Honeyeater | 16 | 19 |
| Noisy Miner | 12 | 23 |
| Olive-backed Oriole | 3 | 7 |
| Pacific Black Duck | 20 | 18 |
| Peaceful Dove | 4 | 1 |
| Pied Cormorant | 9 | |
| Pied Currawong | 1 | 1 |
| Powerful Owl | 2 | |
| Purple Swamphen | 2 | |
| Rainbow Bee-eater | 4 | 10 |
| Rainbow Lorikeet | 1 | 9 |
| Red Wattlebird | 31 | 34 |
| Red-browed Finch | 17 | 8 |
| Red-rumped Parrot | 45 | 8 |
| Rufous Songlark | 2 | 2 |
| Rufous Whistler | 5 | 19 |
| Sacred Kingfisher | 1 | 7 |
| Scarlet Robin | 1 | |
| Sharp-tailed Sandpiper | 1 | |
| Shining Bronze-cuckoo | 3 | |
| Silvereye | 4 | 23 |
| Southern Boobook | 1 | |
| Southern Whiteface | 2 | |
| Spotted Dove | 1 | |
| Spotted Pardalote | 4 | 16 |
| Square-tailed Kite | 1 | 1 |
| Straw-necked Ibis | 6 | 8 |
| Striated Pardalote | 7 | 18 |
| Striated Thornbill | 3 | 2 |
| Sulphur-crested Cockatoo | 21 | 39 |
| Superb Fairy-wren | 38 | 73 |
| Tawny Frogmouth | 4 | |
| Tree Martin | 5 | 4 |
| Varied Sittella | 2 | |
| Wedge-tailed Eagle | 2 | |
| Weebill | 6 | 31 |
| Welcome Swallow | 20 | 33 |
| Whistling Kite | 4 | 3 |
| White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike | 2 | |
| White-browed Babbler | 17 | 5 |
| White-browed Scrubwren | 2 | 10 |
| White-browed Woodswallow | 43 | |
| White-eared Honeyeater | 1 | |
| White-faced Heron | 9 | 12 |
| White-fronted Chat | 4 | |
| White-naped Honeyeater | 26 | 3 |
| White-necked Heron | 4 | |
| White-plumed Honeyeater | 18 | 29 |
| White-throated Treecreeper | 7 | 11 |
| White-winged Chough | 91 | 65 |
| White-winged Triller | 2 | 1 |
| Willie Wagtail | 27 | 27 |
| Yellow Thornbill | 5 | |
| Yellow-faced Honeyeater | 2 | 14 |
| Yellow-rumped Thornbill | 14 | 4 |
| Yellow-tufted Honeyeater | 2 | |
Keep this event in your diary for the weekend of 30 November-1 December 2024. Surely we can beat the high-water mark of 2019.