Ol’ Blue-eyes
During my latest excursions with the Murrindindi Birdwatchers I have learned a new word – ‘Lifer’. A lifer is a bird that you have observed for the first time ever, and of course everyone is keen to do that. Last weekend whilst wandering in the bush I saw a lifer. Strangely enough it was not really the bird that I was interested in but one of its constructs – a bower. Ever since I was a kid I had heard of the bower that a Satin Bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) makes and how the male decorates it with blue articles to attract and impress the female Bowerbird.
And there it was in the middle of the bush, a collection of blue articles (pictured above) – packing twine, packing straps, plastic lids, even the top of a BIC ballpoint pen. It took four visits to the bower over several days to eventually see the constructor of the bower (pictured right). The male is solid black in colour (the female is green/brown) but when the light is at the correct angle it diffracts off the feathers to give the male bird a distinctly metallic blue appearance. Most striking however are the violet-blue eyes.
This particular male was quite mature. Younger males are coloured like the female and decorate their bowers with both blue and yellow objects. As a bird matures the feathers become darker and the decorations become more blue.
Which got me thinking…all the items in this bower were man made. Blue is not a common colour in nature and I wonder what was used to decorate bowers before man appeared. Berries maybe, even flowers.
If I was a Crimson Rosella I’d watch out for my tail feathers.
A fishy story
Since 2006 scientists from the Arthur Rylah Institute have been surveying Goulburn River tributaries, including the King Parrot Creek, to assess the status of Macquarie Perch, Macquaria australasica, populations. During that time they have accumulated a great deal of data and obtained insights into the habits, requirements and biology of this fascinating native fish. Now Focus on Fauna is fortunate that two of the ARI researchers, Jo Kearns and Renae Ayres, have agreed to come to Strath Creek on Sunday 8th October to tell us all about their findings. Click on the flyer at right for full details of their presentation. All are welcome to attend, but RSVP would be appreciated.
The Macquarie Perch is endemic to the south-eastern reaches of the Murray-Darling Basin and was once widespread and common in parts of the Goulburn-Broken catchment. However, particularly over the past 50 years or so, numbers have declined dramatically to the point where only a small number of fragmented populations exist in Victoria, and the perch is considered endangered here as well as nationally. Why not come along to this talk and find out why, and what is being done to ensure the fish’s survival – a pleasant way to spend a spring Sunday afternoon and be informed!
Is it a bird …?
It’s relatively easy to record frog calls, but sometimes much more difficult to find and photograph the frog itself. One in particular is the Whistling (or Verreaux’s) Tree Frog, Litoria verreauxii, which has been calling around our wetland and dams recently, but which we have never managed to find, let alone photograph. To the rescue came Jo Wood, from the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, who sent us the wonderful image below taken by Damien Cook.
The call is a repeated whistle – click on the audio bar below to hear it recorded near Strath Creek (with the Common Froglet, Crinia signifera, in the background). When we first heard it many years ago we assumed the perpetrator was a bird, especially as the sound was coming from a tree about 3m above ground. We never did discover the mystery bird and it was some time later that, with embarassment, we learnt the caller was a frog.
The male Whistling Tree Frog may call all year round, but at our place it seems to be mainly over winter/spring. It is predominantly a ground-dweller, although, as we discovered, it can climb with the aid of the pads on its digits, but perhaps not as well as some other Tree Frogs (family Hylidae) which have broader pads.
There are actually two sub-species – ours is Litoria verreauxii verreauxii and the other, Litoria verreauxii alpina, is found in alpine areas, and is considered Critically Endangered in Victoria and Vulnerable nationally. The Alpine Tree Frog’s call is slower and less whistle-like – probably not likely to be confused with a bird!
[Incidentally, if you want to identify a frog you’ve found or heard in this area, the iSpy Frogs free app developed by the GBCMA is a great place to start – and you can record your sighting on their database. A more recent addition is the iSpy Catchment Creatures app that includes birds, fish and reptiles, as well as frogs.]
It’s dead, but that’s OK
Recently a neighbour (distance-wise, a relative term in the country) told me about a dead bird they had found on their property. It was described as having a definite ‘finch-like’ beak and a red face. The only common finches I knew of in the area were the Red-browed Finches (Neochmia temporalis), pictured left, a highly sociable bird I often see in large flocks on my lawn eating grass seeds. It has a red eyebrow but hardly a red face.
A photo (right) of the demised bird and some ‘googling’ revealed the mystery bird to be a European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis). European Goldfinches are native to Europe, north Africa and central Asia and were introduced into Australia in the 1860’s, probably as a cage bird. It has subsequently become established in south-eastern Australia. Furthermore this bird is from the family of birds called True Finches. It and another import, the Common Greenfinch (Chloris chloris), are the only true finches Australia has. All of the native ‘finches’ in Australia, of which there are over a dozen, are technically classed as Grassfinches and are generally smaller in size than True Finches.
So, mystery solved. I am not too disturbed that the bird was found deceased. A good feral is a dead feral. Is that too harsh???
I know that you’re there…
and I know what you’ve eaten.
During winter many birds and animals are rarely seen because they are sheltering from the cold and wet. Regular readers will notice a decrease in the frequency of these blogs for this reason, and because the authors are also hiding away from the elements. But you don’t need to see the fauna to know that they are there.
The wildlife still have to eat and drink. So for the nerds amongst us with a motion-sensing camera, positioning it in the right spot will reveal the unseen action that happens during the breaks in the weather (see picture left of a Brush-tailed Phascogale).
Examination of washouts of sand or clay after the rain will reveal footprints that characterise the birds and animals that have passed by. Pictured right are the front paw prints of a Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia bicolor) and, slightly to the left of those, the characteristic long toe print and toenail impression of the back leg.
Diggings in the ground indicate where hungry animals have foraged for roots, insects and their larvae. The photo left shows (sort of) the conical hole and nose print of a bandicoot digging. Similar nose prints but a different shaped hole would indicate an echidna had been there.
And finally let’s talk about poo – scats to be more precise if you are talking about fauna. The shape and size of scats are indicative of the animals that produced them. A walk through the bush with eyes fixed on the ground will reveal wombat, kangaroo and possum scats everywhere. And if you break the scat up it will reveal information about what the animal has eaten.
The photo right is of a fox or dog scat typified by the cylindrical shape with a pinched end. I have no idea what has been eaten but foxes regularly eat berries to supplement their diet.
To work out the ingredients a person would need to employ the chew and taste test…but that person is not me.
In black and white
Black-and-white “stilt-walker”
There is a distinct gender difference in the Magpie-lark’s plumage, with the male having a black face and throat, and white eyebrow, and the female having a white forehead and throat. Their nest, seen in the middle picture above, is a sturdy mud affair like a smaller version of the White-winged Chough’s nest.
The scientific name, Grallina cyanoleuca, means “blue and white stilt-walker”. The stiltwalker part is understandable, as they do forage on the ground on fairly long legs, but “blue and white”? – definitely black and white to us!
Here’s the scoop
If you want your fix of monsters you do not have to spend twenty bucks at the movies. All you have to do is spend an afternoon with Kirsten from Waterwatch to get alien looking lifeforms that you never thought possible. And they are all living under the surface of your nearest stream or pond.
I love terrestrial insects. Their outlandish forms and bizarre lives provide endless hours of fascination. But the mere scoop of a net through the reeds and mud of the King Parrot Creek will reveal, arguably, even stranger creatures – very often the young of the insects that so enthrall me.
From a recent primary school outing I reported an activity to search for terrestrial invertebrates (Rock and Rolling) that turned up a large number of scorpions. At the same event Kirsten, having scooped our local waterway was showing off some of the aquatic invertebrates.
The stick-insect-looking creature (pictured above) is a Needle Bug. Needle Bugs are found in a wide range of waterbodies and breathe through a long ‘snorkel’ that extends from the abdomen to above the water surface (see photo). They are ‘sit and wait’ predators that are well camouflaged in underwater vegetation. When prey swims by they grab it with their two front legs, stab it with their proboscis, injecting dissolving enzymes and then suck out the resultant ‘soup’. Who needs to watch Alien.
Despite its ferocious appearance the mayfly nymph (family Coloburiscidae) pictured right is a more benign critter. These genera of mayfly nymph live in cool, fast flowing water. They are herbivores, using the fine hairs on their forelegs and jaws to trap organic particles. Mayflies spend the majority (6 months to 2 years) of their lives in the nymphal stage. The adult insect (featured earlier this year) has a lifespan measured in hours.
Here’s the scoop – if you want to find these creatures yourself just take the kitchen strainer and drag it through the creek. Just don’t tell Mum.
Fox on the run
Anyone missing a hen?
Following the national release of the RHDV1 K5 virus in March, rabbit numbers are expected to be greatly reduced, perhaps by as much as 40% or more. As rabbits form a significant part of the diet of the Red Fox, hungry foxes are going to be searching for alternative prey and guess what will be in their sights? – native wildlife! – many species of which are already under threat from habitat loss and fragmentation as well as other pressures. Of particular concern are threatened and locally significant species such as Long-nosed Bandicoot, Superb Lyrebird, Brush-tailed Phascogale, Striped Legless Lizard and Spotted Quail-thrush. This was part of the motivation for establishing the King Parrot Catchment Fox Control Project (KPCFCP).
To assess the extent of the fox problem, a remote camera monitoring program was run in March/April. Cameras were deployed at about 40 sites over a 3-week period and almost all recorded foxes, often with multiple sightings. Some of the recorded images are shown here. To see the the prevalence of fox sightings in the King Parrot Creek area go to the FeralScan website and then zoom in to the Kinglake to Strath Creek region.
One aim of this project is to coordinate fox eradication action by all parties interested in maintaining the natural environment and protecting both native species and livestock. Action will take various forms as appropriate or acceptable to participants, including monitoring, baiting, soft-jaw trapping, shooting and den fumigation.
If you’re interested in joining, or learning more about, this project, please contact Chris Cobern on 0413 855 490 or by email at ugln.projects@ugln.net
Honeyeater HQ
None of the local plants on the hill are flowering at the moment. Some of the feral invaders though are putting on a mighty show, in particular the Flinders Range Wattle (Acacia iteaphylla) and the Pincushion Hakea (Hakea laurina). It is the latter plant, with its branches laden with nectar-rich spherical flowers that is attracting all the honeyeaters in town (& country).
You don’t need to know where the trees are located to get an idea of where the birds are. The raucous territorial cries of the Red Wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata), left, can be heard from a long way away. They are of course warning other wattlebirds that this is their feeding spot. And whilst the wattlebirds beat each other up, smaller honeyeaters like the New Holland Honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae), right, and the Eastern Spinebill duck in and out of the trees to have their fill of nectar.
Pretty soon the hakea show will be over, the local acacias will take over and the honeyeaters will disperse across the landscape.
I’ll sit here at Honeyeater HQ whilst the show lasts.
When rock and roll turns dangerous
I recently had the opportunity to escort some primary school students through the bush on an exercise to (carefully!) roll over logs and see what invertebrates we could find underneath. Naturally changing the name of the activity to Rock and Rolling was far more exciting.
The wish when doing these activities is to find things which will keep the kids engaged for the duration of the exercise. The first log turned revealed a large female Wolf Spider and its diminutive male partner. This discovery was accompanied by much screaming and yelling and a general rush in the backward direction although a hardy few got down on their hands and knees to take pictures with their i-Phones of the less than happy couple.
Subsequent logs revealed millipedes and Darkling Beetles (boring!) – their words not mine. The discovery of a 5cm long centipede revved up the interest again. It was not until the last 5 minutes that we ventured up a rocky slope with very little fallen timber. The first rock rolled revealed a decent sized scorpion, pictured below. I was reliably informed by Eamon, who has previously featured in this blog, that it was a Black Rock Scorpion (Urodacus manicatus).
These creatures excavate tunnels under rocks and come to the surface to feed on all the boring insects we had previously seen – beetles, spiders, millipedes, etc. Their sting although not deadly to humans causes considerable pain and swelling.
My job was done. We found a creature that would be the subject of conversations for a least the bus ride home. Each rock we rolled revealed a scorpion hidden underneath, quite extraordinary. And as the excitement ramped up, every kid wanted to find their own scorpion. My job now changed from keeping the students engaged to curbing their natural and macabre interest in all things poisonous.
At days end I had seen more scorpions than I had collectively seen in my whole life…and a new found respect for teachers.
No animals were hurt in obtaining this story.
Focus On Fauna 