January 2013 – Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER

A very interesting part of a jigsaw puzzle:New Eastern Yellow Robin

January 28, 2013Posted in UncategorizedLeave a comment

Since last November we’ve been following and monitoring a number of Eastern Yellow Robin pairs.

All four pairs have made nest attempts and two have been successful. A third pair has eluded our best efforts. The fourth pair. Jack and Jill, have had a least 3 nesting attempts and for various reasons all have been failures. The last one being blown down in a storm just as the young were hatching. We’ve had little success tracking them since, and only occasionally do we get more than a glimpse. However over the past week, they have looked like another nest might be possible. Still as of today, she is far from building, and not even prospecting.

After we located them today, we also had what can only be described as a magic moment as a third bird appeared. This one is a very young bird just having begun to moult into its first adult plumage. It still carries a lot of the brown feathers with the light chevrons. As to where or from whom it came that mystery is beyond us.

However Jack didn’t seem to perturbed by its presence, and even offered it a big fat grub, which it politely accepted. I’ve no way of knowing if it is one of their previous hatchlings or if it might have come from the families further along the roadway. It might even be on its way from some other location entirely.

Hard to find hard data on how the second moult takes place, but HANZAB seems to give the impression it is about 3 months (but I’m not sure when that timing starts, hatching, fledging or juvenile.). It its three months from hatching this young gun would be a late Oct or early November bird. One of the pair up the road match that time frame.
Will it stay around? Be interesting to see if we see it again.

Jill on the other hand was further down the field and working up a sweat over a Grey Shrike Thrush that was hunting along the downed leaves and twigs in the scrub. She seemed to take particular offence when it reached a certain location and Jack joined in the battle cry. The call is a bit like a Willie Wagtail chatter, but only two or three notes. So the question still remains. Does she indeed have young ones down on the ground? Only time will tell, as I can’t bring myself to go into the area and look really closely. She seems stressed enough.

All in all a good day, and certainly a lot cooler. And not as far to drive as Goschen.

New Bird in town. All dressed up with a few brown baby feathers still showing

Jill in full cry against a Grey Shrike Thrush that seemed to take an interest in the area she was guarding.

And all the Wagtail females are back on the job with new nests and new families on the way. This is one of 4 nests we located today. About a week to fly for these three fat chicks.

Goschen. A little bird oasis in a very dry part of the country.

January 27, 2013January 29, 2013Posted in Goschen, Sacred Kingfisher, Tresco Bushland Reserve, Whistling Kite, White-browed Babbler6 Comments

The little map dot name “Goschen” has quite a reputation among birdos who are in the know.

This little area of scrub only a couple of football grounds around has at various times of the year an opportunity to spot a large number of species without much trouble. See some of the many blogs that tell tales. See Ian Smissen’s recent post.

It is not far from Lake Boga, and only 15 minutes drive from Swan Hill. We were bound there for a family weekend event. (Some would use the term Holiday, but I cannot understand why!)

Mr An Onymous and his lens were there as well, so we plotted a day at Goschen. Only trouble was the weather. The day we travelled up it was 40C. About 120 in the water bag as my old Dad used to say. So we went to Goschen early early in the morning.

And inspite of the heat, and the overcast sky the birds did play a bit of a treat for us. A Hooded Robin pair were probably the single highlight. But that is not forgetting the Honeyeaters, and Treecreepers and an Australian Hobby. A small flock of Budgerigars were a nice addition to the day. We also did a bit of a diversion down to the Tresco Nature Reserve (Its about 10 mins from Goschen) and scored some Blue-faced Honeyeater as Blueb-bonnet Parrots for our efforts.
Being an ex local lad, I figured we’d follow some back roads to Kerang, pick up a pie at Gray’s Bakery and have lunch there. One of the back roads is called just that. Back Quarry Road. Its really only a link for the farm machinery between paddocks, but has a good stand of mallee on one side.
The new lens played a great note and he got a super series of a Pied Butcher Bird being fee. Also a few Mallee Ringnecks and Blue Bonnets.

We made a futile attempt at Lookout Lake, and ended up at the pie shop. Sure enough still great pies after all those year. Sign said 200metres to Bakery. It took us about 3 goes round the block to figure it out. Sort of missed the big building labelled “Bakery”. No wonder we can’t find birds.

A stop at the Kerang Ibis rookery seemed sensible, and as soon as we got of out the car the call of a Whistling Kite pair echoed across the carpark. We located them well down the ‘nature’ track by the lake. Too many trees for great shots, but lovely to hear them exchanging calls.

Last stop for the day was the Little Murray Wier, and again the big lens was working hard. And a Nankeen Night Heron and then a patient Sacred Kingfisher rounded out a nice day.

Ont the way back past the Swan Hill Aerodrome (I was thinking Kestrels) we came across Steve (who drives harvesters at Quambatook-, but that’s another story) and his front yard. In the air above said driveway was a couple of Whistling Kites. Nice. We went back out in the late evening sunshine on spec. and. There were Ten Kites up over the recently cut wheat/hay/lucern. Spect– tack-ular.

Goschen even in the middle of a heat wave still had enough to keep us busy.

White-browed Babbler showing off its very long beak

Brown Treecreepers in deep discussion about people with long lenses interrupting a perfectly good days outing.

A very patient Sacred Kingfisher, as we manoeuvred into the best spot for a shot.

Whistling Kite in the evening sunshine near Swan Hill.

A river full of Corellas. Or Australia Day in Swan Hill

January 26, 2013January 28, 2013Posted in Australian Wood Duck, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Little Corella, Swan Hill2 Comments

These days when we stay in Swan Hill, we’ve taken to using the Caravan Park onsite Cabins. All the mod cons with none of the towing. Australia Day weekend in the country is a grand event, and Swan Hill put on a Breakfast morning to celebrate, with bands and speeches and dignitaries and all the fun of the fair.

Not to be outdone, the local Little Corella population has taken to roosting along the trees around the confluence of the Murray and Little Murray (Moorabool) Rivers. Now One Corella is noisy, ten are a bit loud, 100 are shrill, but Ten Thousand, (I didn’t count, but thousands is such an easy term to bandy about when the sky is filled with White, Calling Corellas), is a veritable crescendo. What a lovely way to be woken up. Well that’s what I thought. Others thought a little less kindly. But, that didn’t stop, hinder, slow down, or in anyway impede these masters of the air in their morning recital.

Down the river they flew, then up the river, then down the river, then across the island, and back up the river. Yep, they’re awake. Awesome.

Inflight photography doesn’t get much easier than this. Turn on camera. Point somewhere, press shutter, delete all the bad ones. Easy ah?

In the middle of all the noise, a lone Nankeen Night Heron made is silent trek up the river at evening, and then down again in the morning. Saw it but. Missed it with the camera each time. We (An Onymous and I,) snuck out the backgate to follow it to its roost. Cool as the gate has a security code, and we didn’t think to remember it. After all its numbers and stuff, and well, not very photographically inclined. So after several attempts at all the combinations we could think of (5), we simply walked around the long way in the evening sun and found a pair of Galahs at work in a tree.

Meanwhile the Corellas, (did I mention them?) were making their 39th trip up or down the river depending on which way they had previously flown.

Dorothy in the meantime had spotted a Whistling Kite that had gotten itself down below the tree line and was making its way lazily up the river (ought to be a song about that), until the next round of Corellas met it half way. Now with a white screeching avalanche headed at you, there is not much room or time to manouver and the poor old Whistling Kite got a right going over by the flock(s). Score Kite 0, Corellas, 18,497, and that was just the first round.

So with another chop sizzling on the bbq in the evening light we watched and listened to the Corellas make their 123rd trip up the river. Or down, depending on which way they hadn’t previously flown.

Nice way to spend Oz day. Good on ya.

Corellas in synchronised Flying. You've only got to look at 700 more. — Corellas in synchronised Flying.
You’ve only got to look at 700 more.

Fancy that, another Little Corella in flight.

Australian Wood Duck flying low under the radar

Pacific Black Duck on a pool of Rodger ripples

Galah either drinking or feeding from the opening in the tree. Here it is defending its eating rights for another bird.

Hunting lerp on the gum leaves, a Blue-faced Honeyeater in the evening light. Not hard photography, its over the rail in our cabin.

All the blank space down here represents Little Corellas in flight. Add your own sound.

A day out with the Birds, at Newstead and Moolort

January 22, 2013January 22, 2013Posted in UncategorizedLeave a comment

On the blog here, sometime back I added a link to “Natural Newstead” a blog run by a great birdo, and naturalist, Geoff Park.

He reports the doings of the creatures he finds in the local area, and because it is such a diverse habitat his posts are always interesting and informative. Check it out.
Given that its about an hour and half from home, we’ve been trying to find a day to go up for a look. He located a nesting Kestrel sometime back, so really what more excuse did I need?
However some family events, the heat and other non birding things have narrowed down the window of opportunity so to speak.
With another family gig on the way at the end of this week it was now. Or much to late for the Kestrels.

Braving the heat is one thing, getting up really early is quite another, so we arrived up there about nine-ish.

Met the guys, at the Loddon River and spent some time with a Sacred Kingfisher at nest. (see their blog)

We made the run out to the Kestrels using a map and a photo of a tree. Now in the end we didn’t really need much help at all, we found two of the young sitting in the shade on the road as we drove down. Having good road sense, (thanks Mum), they quickly took to the wing. We stopped and walked back to sit in the grass and see what was happening. To begin with they very active in the early morning but as time went on it grew hotter and they grew tired, and so in the end Mum hunted, they sat in the trees in the shade. Clever Kestrels.

Lovely to see them and to hear their raucous calls for food.

For lunch we’d (I’d) planned for a pie at the local Newstead Bakery, but Geoff suggested instead a drive to Guildford for great pies.

And. He was right. Now at Guildford there are not to many shops or stores, or houses so it didn’t take us long to figure out the General Store was the action attraction.
Lentil and Vegetable and Red-beef Curry. We took one of each and shared halves, No telling how we’d have handled the division of food had Mr An Onymous been with us. Now its true that I’ve been known to drive a fair distance for a pie on occasions. See some of the other rambles on this site. But I have to say these were well worth the drive.
If you are in the area and pies are a must have staple food (and I cannot imagine why they wouldn’t be!!!!) Then Guildford does them elegantly. I’d even pick up a couple to take home and pop in the fridge for another day.

Now all that I’ve read on the Newstead Blog is just how it is. Plenty of birds, plenty of places to look and great people to help.

That may be part of what birding does for us.

Juvenile Nankeen Kestrel, sheltering from the wind. Waiting for Mum to supply a meal.

Waiting in the shade, not flying about in the hot sunshine. Clever bird

Wedge-tailed Eagle. Low down, in a moderate tail wind. Cruising at about walking speed.

Mornings with Jack and Jill: Eastern Yellow Robins

January 21, 2013Posted in Eastern Yellow RobinLeave a comment

Ever since the disaster that befell poor Jill’s last nesting attempt, it has been hard for us to find either of the pair. This lovely pair of birds that had allowed us into their little lives and given us the opportunity to share their nesting, has become almost non existent. Inspite of sitting in the territory and checking all the likely spots, they have pretty much eluded us. We were beginning to think they were moving on, or had opted for not trying for another hatching this season.

So to our surprise when we turned up with a bit of water to fill their water feature, that they both quickly popped by, and took advantage of the water. Both to drink and bathe.
More importantly she constantly called to him, and he responded with food. So it looks like she is readying herself for another attempt. No nest at this stage, but maybe in the next week or so if the weather doesn’t go too hot.

Dorothy got accepted into the family, by a fly past at about head height and just a hand’s breadth from her ear. Jack zoomed across the paddock and headed straight for her. It was something he planned as he didn’t deviate one bit. Even a Yellow Robin aiming for your head is a bit daunting.

Down the road a bit, a second pair are still in residence, and after abandoning her previous attempt, she is back at work collecting cobweb, so another nest might well be in the making.

First time we'd been met on the track for many a long week."G,day". — First time we’d been met on the track for many a long week.”G,day”.

A nice tub on a hot day does wonders to the spirits.

MInd the feathers do take awhile to dry out. But perhaps that's part of the enjoyment — MInd the feathers do take awhile to dry out. But perhaps that’s part of the enjoyment

Female begging for food. The wing waggles seem to get his attention.

After a nice grub, a wing stretch is always relieving.

After so much work, Jack takes a nap. Given he flew to about 3 metres from the camera position, an then just settled down, I'm pretty happy he's accepted us. — After so much work, Jack takes a nap. Given he flew to about 3 metres from the camera position, an then just settled down, I’m pretty happy he’s accepted us.

Big stretch. TIme to get up and get going another mouth to feed.Jack preparing for the next shift. — Big stretch. TIme to get up and get going another mouth to feed.
Jack preparing for the next shift.

Tripping along to The Treatment Plant

January 16, 2013January 21, 2013Posted in Black-shouldered Kite, Golden-headed Cisticola, GoschenLeave a comment

It had been awhile since we’d made a pilgramige to the WTP, and Mr An Onymous had wanted an opportunity to try out the new lens. All 300mm of it.

So it seemed in view of the really hot days, an early morning and then somewhere nice for lunch and a coffee, preferably inside and with air-conditioning made a lot of sense.

We went down along the area east across Little River from the Bird Hide. The track takes a bit of a run along the narrow edge between land and sea, and usually has a 50metre section that is, well, rough. Its just a collection of rocks that the waves pound remorselessly. As such, ok with the Landcruiser and the high clearance, but nigh on impossible in the little car. However on this trip we discovered that the water rates had been making good use of themselves and the kind people at WTP had managed to get a surface over the short section and it is among the best parts of the roads down there. Excellent. Thanks to all as it save me heaps of time not having to double back to get around the former rough area.
We parked and waited. No Sea-eagles, but a pretty obliging Golden-headed Cisticola with its nesting activities kept us busy for quite awhile. We even parked on the new tarmac, and photographed waders as they worked among the rocks and sand. Nice one.

Down near the area called The Borrow Pits, we came across a couple of recently flown Black-shouldered Kites. Guess they’ve only been out a week or so, still have the beautiful cinnamon and ginger chest and head feathers. Mum and Dad are still providing food and it was interesting to watch a couple of food passes.

And on the way back some Whiskered Terns entertained us with their antics as they swept along the bunds catching the tiniest of insects.

And the big lens proved its worth with the shot of the day an Australian Hobby in brake, dive and turn mode with all the feathers out, and the tail spread at different angles as it made an amazing change of direction. My lens missed it completely. But. More power to him.

We’re off again to Goschen at the end of the month.

Brown Falcon at hunt in the early morning light.

Golden-headed Cisticola with nesting materials

Two juvenile Black-shouldered Kites waiting for Mum to arrive with a mouse. They had just spotted her coming and began such a racket.

Red-necked Stint and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers at the 'new' water crossing at WTP — Red-necked Stint and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers at the ‘new’ water crossing at WTP

Dealing with the heat

January 7, 2013Posted in UncategorizedLeave a comment

Jack and Jill continue to elude our attempts to locate them regularly. For what ever reasons they might show for a few minutes but then are gone. Do they have a new nest? Are they still in the same territory? Are they now simply out of season?

Given the extreme heat of the past few, and the coming days, we decided to provide them with a little water feature. There is no permanent water close to their territory, and although they probably get enough moisture from the little bugs they hunt, we thought a little extra help can’t be all that bad.
So we set up two small water feeders. Not deep enough to bathe, but plenty for drink and a quick splash. Because of the risk of foxes, and ‘roos and echidnas and other birds, its going to be a bit of a drama. And because we are ‘meddling’ with nature, we’ll probably get kicked out of the “Nature and nature only” club, but at least the little guys will have a bit of relief over the next few days.

The Willie Wagtails were the first to find the new addition, but I suspect the sound of ‘splashing’ is enough to alert other birds. The Superb Wrens passed by but didn’t stop.

Both Jack and Jill made visits during the early part of the morning and it already was hot. At least we now know they are still in residence.

Because of the heat, the female has her wings right away from her body.

The female pops by for a quick sip of water. The base is hidden under the stone and branch, so its still pretty much "bush". — The female pops by for a quick sip of water. The base is hidden under the stone and branch, so its still pretty much “bush”.

The male in the sunshine. Like many birds, he seems to be in somewhat of a trance in the sunshine, and he is leaning further and further over, like he's mesmerised. They all seem to do it, so it must be good fun. — The male in the sunshine. Like many birds, he seems to be in somewhat of a trance in the sunshine, and he is leaning further and further over, like he’s mesmerised. They all seem to do it, so it must be good fun.

In spite of the heat things go on

January 6, 2013February 7, 2013Posted in Eastern Yellow Robin, Redcapped RobinLeave a comment

The Australian bush has once again shown its full fury, hot weather, wild winds and fire storms. Sometimes it is so easy to forget, just for a moment, the power that can be unleashed.

We wander about in the bush, little realising that in a short time fun can be turned to disaster.

Bravo to the all the firey’s chopper and plane pilots and organisers both on the line and in support roles who have placed their lives and risked so much to try to save people’s homes and livelyhoods from the devastation. Thank you to all those who have put themselves aside and sought to help with evacuation, support and a shoulder to lean on.

Meanwhile out in our little bit of the bush, the birds are hard at work regardless of the heat.

Two delightful little red-caps are now hunting on their own, they are travelling companions at the moment. Each a little prefect reproduction of Mum’s hard work.

A tiny reproduction of Mum. A young Red-capped Robin now looking after itself.

I've got my own housekeeping to do now. — I’ve got my own housekeeping to do now.

Two Juvenile Red-capped Robins now fending for themselves.

We relocated to where the Eastern Yellow Robins had been nesting to find both the male and the female out and about, hunting and much calling. The scratchy harsh call is one I’ve heard before when they’ve been working with young out of the nest, so was surprised to hear it from these birds as they had lost the nest about two weeks back. We are now, perhaps a bit overly, hopeful that somehow the young had hatched and she managed to rear them out of the nest. She has made no attempt to build a new nest, and has been very inconspicuous and he has been very furtive since then. So maybe, just maybe, out in the leaf litter, she has managed to bring them on. Be nice to think, but I suppose the pragmatist in me says, “no hope”.

If it wasn’t so hot I’d take a cuppa out and have a bit of a sit.

Edit 6 Feb 2013. As it has turned out. She did. At least one, (we’ve called it Nevis see posts above.) To date, it looks like only one survived, but every so often I see three flying, and can’t help but conclude she may have managed to get two. If I do see them together it will be a red letter day.

Female Eastern Yellow Robin being very vocal. Perhaps she does have a survivor from her nest disaster hidden in the undergrowth.

Penny leaves behind a project and starts a new one

January 4, 2013January 4, 2013Posted in Redcapped RobinLeave a comment

What a miserable hot day. Now I know why I like skiing.

We dropped by Henny and Penny today, and confirmed that she was no longer sitting on her clutch. This would have been about day 14, so they were just about, or had just hatched. But we’d noticed she hadn’t been on the nest at all the previous day, so it was likely that something had gone amiss. Pity ’cause she is quite the dedicated little robin producer.

I like to know where the nests are so I can stay away. Sounds weird, but the last thing I want to do is stumble over the area where she is ‘secretly’ at work, as she’s likely to abandon the enterprise. So I waited, and eventually got a glimpse of her working at picking up spiderweb, and then flying across the clearing to a new tree and setting up a new house for another attempt. Can’t knock her enthusiasm.

Hopefully this one will be successful.

Penny preening between web collections. Her little orange chest feather is well shown.

Now to buy some nice curtains, and pick up the widescreen tv. — Now to buy some nice curtains, and pick up the widescreen tv

The abandoned nest. It is about large enough to fit a golfball and that’s would overfill it. Such a tiny nest.

Fledging Pardalotes and a White-fronted Treecreeper

January 2, 2013January 3, 2013Posted in Redcapped RobinTagged Red-capped Robin2 Comments

That slow moving high stayed with us again today, and it seemed that an golden light evening would again be gifted to us.

We decided to go to the red-cap nurseries and see how things were progressing.

Lovely golden light was spilling through the trees, and we soon located a couple of males and their young.
I set up the camera pointed at a Striated Pardalote hole as I expected them still to be feeding. I use a wireless remote and after setting up the camera move back about 50m to give the parents plenty of room.

This time things went a little differently, after providing a few quick meals the parents were not visible for 15-20 mins. And then one returned with a big bug, and a baby Pardalote stuck its head out of the small hole (read very tiny hole), and seemed to be begging, but the parent was having none of that, and the process repeated itself for quite awhile.

It dawned on me, that what they were trying to do was to encourage it to come out and fly. Except. The tiny hole it was pushing out was too tiny even for a tiny pardalote. And it could gets most its body out with a lot of squirming and pushing, but then. It got stuck. The little wings and legs couldn’t get out of the hole and it had to retreat, and try again.
Now I suspect that when you’re a baby pardalote, not a lot of brain power goes into this. So push harder. Nope, still can’t fit. Ok, push more. The concept of big/small/ up/down, in/out and relative size are not big issues in a tiny pardalotes tiny brain and it probably doesn’t get much help from the gene pool.

They are the tiniest of birds. Laying across my open palm they only cover about half way. So there is not a lot of room in there for problem solving. So its likely we’ll not see Pardalote On the Moon, anytime soon. But I suppose the upside of that is they don’t spend a lot of time making things to blow one-another up with either.

Ok, to solve the problem Mum brought in a nice big juicy worm and dangled it at the top of the ‘big”, (a bit bigger than very tiny). Still having decided that pushing harder would get the job done it continued to push out of the tiny tiny hole and get the worm. Mum retreated.

A big fat bug soon appeared in the place of the worm and a lot of Pardalote “plink plink plinking” and a second adult arrived and then an uncle or aunt. Then to everybody’s surprise the little bird pulled its head in, popped out of the ‘big’ hole and was free to fly after Mum with the big bug. The second bird followed in a few seconds and it too was on the wing.

Now I’d love to show you the pics of the flight to freedom, but unfortunately as often happens on very special events, the autofocus on the Nikon went out for a holiday to the Caribbean and all the shots were out of focus. All of them. Every one. The lot.

But when the small birds were gone the “Peril Sensitive” (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams), kicked out, and the last shot of the parent on the tree on its own is ‘sharp’. Serves me right for forgetting to manual focus. My usual step when multi bursting from remote controls.

Then when the night, light, birds just couldn’t get any better, the White-fronted Treecreeper put in an appearance and we got great views, if not great photos of this lovely bird. She was again on her own. But my mate Ray will be happy to know she is just inside the shelter area.

Henny and Penny landed on the same stump, so I montaged them for a bit of fun. Enjoy