|
Author: David Jenkins
Natural History Photographic Essayist
Morning around Woodlands
Just as the weather goes back into climate overload, and the weather man predicts high temps, we decided on a stroll to the former Bandicoot Hilton to see how the redcaps were faring.
On the way we lucked out and had a chat with Travis the Bandicoot Hilton concierge. He was doing the usual fence and gate inspection, and informed us of the pending likelihood of another lock out due to fox renovations. At this time of the year its not a concern as there is plenty of other things happening in the park. But as the release day for the Bandicoots is rapidly,as they say, drawing closer it’s likely to be about the same time as the Flame Robin return, and another season’s opportunities with the flocks will go down the gurgler.
A big problem for us with the redcaps out there is the lack of info this year on territories. As they are quite furtive little birds when nesting, it is really difficult to know where to look with any assurance. Knowing the area each pair is moving about in narrows where to look. But we lost that opportunity for this year, as we couldn’t get in.
Travis made the point, and I agree, that the best piece of environmental information comes from being in a spot for an hour or so and logging what is happening. Even a butterfly going past is helpful info.
He did warm my old heart, by explaining that the old, now somewhat redundant fence-line, across Gellibrand Hill was in stages being removed. So it will be easier to gain access down to the area south of Gellibrand without a hike around and down. And then a hike. Back up again. That’s the part that keeps me out of there at the moment. Must go see if the Wedge-tailed Eagles know about all this.
After an hour or so around the area inside the fence, it was obvious today was not to be a red cap red letter day. Major find for the day was a Brown Goshawk that propped in a tree for a bit of a rest. Then a Brown Falcon cackling as it sped by, and high overhead a Little Eagle doing its U shaped dive and dips So we sauntered on down to the old dam area. It, as I suspected is rapidly running out of water, and won’t be much fun for wintering over waterbirds.
And quickly we came across a very co-operative Shining Bronze Cuckoo, and then a small family party of Red-capped Robins, a female, two juveniles, and a pair of older juveniles moulting into adult plumage. One of which is no doubt a male. He was very attentive to the female, feeding her several times in the 30 minutes or so I was watching. But trying to get near for a photo was not going to work. I’ve said before, when you chase them at 5m, they will fly 10m. Then when you’ve halved the distance, they fly another 10. Now the base is 15m and they are tiny little blobs in the viewfinder. But. I was in a hurry and gave it my best shot anyway. He is quite skittish and I must go back and settle down and see what happens.
Lovely to think there is a replacement or two for the pairs that don’t seem to have survived this summer.
I’ve taken to mailing the pics out of iPhoto to get them in here. Size differences, but over in Flickr the majority of the images are available a bit larger in size.
This way you get a spread rather than just the isolated ‘best’ of the day.
|
Sky full of Kites
|
With Nevis and Jill
|
Following the young Eastern Yellow Robin
With few cooler days and a little less family activities now the granddies are back at school, we’ve been spending a couple hours out with one of more pairs of the Eastern Yellow Robins. As there are about four Wagtail nests on the go at the same time, its been an added interest to see the Willies hard at work. Two nests have produced three each of young on the wing, and the others look like matching that next week.
No marathon five chicks at a time for these clever wagtails.
With Jack and Jill its become obvious that the young bird (Named Nevis), is indeed from one of their broods. They both look after it and provide food and advice. My heart is set on there being a second young one further out in the low gum regrowth, but I’ve not been able to convincingly find evidence. But. Both adults spend a good deal of time out there. And Nevis visits from time to time.
Nevis also has taken over one small strand of blackwattle re-growth, and can usually be found in the area.
It is now accepting of our movements and will come within a few metres to feed or sleep.
Today was a bit of a highlight as Dorothy was working with Nevis, when Jill came by to see how things were going. Two robins in the same branch. Me. Well I was down the paddock photographing trees. Or something.
Its enough to make you hang up your camera in shame. But she did get some lovely shots of them together and a friendly Willie Wagtail, who thought it must be a family photo opportunity!
Nevis later came down the track and propped in the shade of a small bush, tucked its head under its wing and went to sleep. That’s trusting.
Some times persistence has its own rewards.
Nothing like a little Hobby to pass the time
We decided on an early trip to the Western Treatment Plant. I don’t like the early morning light as you’re driving into it and so all pics are backlit. But, the weather man promised doom and gloom for the pm,(and for once he was right), so we took our chances.
Mr An Onymous and I had spotted an Australian Hobby up on the road to Ryan’s swamp, so I was all prepared to give it another looksee when we noticed Two Hobbys (Is the plural Hobbies?) on the trees near the pump house. So we stuck around, but the light was against us, and also the distance to the trees. But we thought it a good start to the day.
As we went past the tree line near 65W Road, a Hobby was sitting surveying the ponds. From this tree, I suspect it can see most of the Treatment plant as its amongst the tallest trees in the area. So another quick photo session we moved on.
Just where the road doglegs around Ponds 35E, Dorothy spotted a young Black-shouldered Kite, and she set out to make some pictures.
We’ve worked out its not much good two people harassing a single perched bird, so I stayed with the car, and as there was bush full of active Fairy Wrens I thought I’d was a bit of time following their activities. After about 5 minutes, they went quiet. Really quiet and disappeared. So did every other small bird. Before I had a chance to work it out, out of the corner of my eye, a grey arrow of wings and a “Thud” on my left. Turning about, I found a Hobby sitting on a branch about 2 metres up and about 2 metres from me. In one talon a hapless sparrow, that only a few seconds before had been amusing me with its antics with its friends.
It had obviously planned the attack to end in that tree, but hadn’t been able to calculate my presence. Startled it glared (can bird glare?) pondered its opportunities and took off. Of course all this happened against the light, so any hope of those prizewinning shots was dissolved. But I got a few action pics to make up for it.
More info: from Flickr
The Hobby had landed in a tree about 2 metres from me. Because the trees around and above were a canopy, there was no way out for it. The trees on the left and above meant it couldn’t fly out and up. and the 3metre bushes on the right (where it had snagged the sparrow), were another barrier. So. Its only way was out past me. It choose to leap and go low to get speed. Hence this shot. Once past me, it circled around and gained height over the trees. Then flew of to feed its young one.
Mind it was all over before I had a chance to think about it.
I think this was an adult bird as it flew 50 metres and met a younger bird with much screeching and it took the sparrow for another trip up and down the roadway before landing in a suitable tree to consume its breakfast. I ambled around to get the best light, and as I did the Hobby was accosted by a Willie Wagtail. Now most times Willies throw themselves into the act of removing unwanted visitors with abandon. Falcons, Kites, Ravens and Harriers are all the same to this little agitated bird. But not this Willie, and not this Hobby. It was very careful about its every attack. Staying quite a few metres out of range and running quick scolding attacks, but not getting anywhere near the Hobby. Very smart Willie. Given the young bird was holding a sparrow, it wouldn’t have taken much to add a wagtail to the morning’s feast. In the end discretion did not become the better part of valour and the Wagtail sprang on to the Hobby’s back, to be repulsed by a wing wag. In the end, the Wagtail went off to find something else to do.(Most unusual as they most often win).The Hobby settled down to removing the feathers from the meal.
They flew in all directions in the breeze, but a lot of them ended up in a spider’s web in the same branch. Sort of formed a curtain for its activities.
By now I was settling in for some good shots, when a car came along the road. All to much for the Hobby and it was airborne. Too far to follow in the long grass. WTP being renowned for its slithery creatures.
I went over to the car driver and explained that she had scared off my subject. She replied, “Well the Black-shouldered Kite was gone, and I came to see what you were doing!”
Then to top it off on the way back a White-bellied Sea-eagle on a fence post on the 85W lagoon road made for a good conclusion.
A very interesting part of a jigsaw puzzle:New Eastern Yellow Robin
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.
Goschen. A little bird oasis in a very dry part of the country.
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.
A river full of Corellas. Or Australia Day in Swan Hill
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.
You’ve only got to look at 700 more.
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
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.
Mornings with Jack and Jill: Eastern Yellow Robins
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.
Jack preparing for the next shift.
Tripping along to The Treatment Plant
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.
Dealing with the heat
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.
In spite of the heat things go on
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.
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.
Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST 