I’ll huff and I’ll puff
Three Little Pigs is a cautionary fairy tale on a number of levels. It comments on the peril of strangers, the benefits of planning for the future and on a most practical level, which building materials make the best houses.
Dad
I have been watching a female Rufous Whistler (Pachycephala rufiventris), pictured below, single-mindedly build a nest on the limb of a Long-leaved Box (Eucalyptus goniocalyx). The cup-shaped construction was made of sticks, not straw (as in one Little Pig’s house), but even still it did not look too stable. The process took about a week, after which time both the male and the female birds took turns to sit on the nest (pictured below left).
Mum
Rufous Whistlers are one of a number of whistlers known for their musical calls. Both they and the Grey Shrike-Thrush are our early morning alarm clocks in spring and early summer. The geographical range of this whistler covers most of Australia and they are breeding migrants, arriving in south-eastern Australia to breed in early spring before heading to inland or northern Australia in autumn.
Dad on nest
And flimsy the nest was. All it took was a brief summer storm (not even a wolf’s huffing and puffing) and it was no more. All that was left was pile of twigs on the ground. Next time, I’d copy the wisest pig and build in brick (or at least in mud like the choughs do).
What’s in a name?
Despite their name Australian honeyeaters don’t actually eat honey (although they probably wouldn’t reject it if offered!). This large and diverse group of birds has developed a range of feeding strategies, but the feature they have in common is a brush-tipped tongue, ideal for collecting nectar from blossoms and sugary insect secretions called honeydew.
However, for some honeyeaters, insects – an essential source of protein – and fruit form a significant part of their diet. One of these is the Yellow-faced Honeyeater (seen in the photo above), a common bird of this district – and the succulent blue/purple berries of native flax-lilies (Dianella spp.) provide a ready food source at this time of year.
Flax-lilies can still be found on undisturbed local roadsides, but we won’t attempt to name the species shown in the picture because classification of the genus Dianella is under revision at present.
The Yellow-faced Honeyeater clings onto the flax-lily’s stem as it droops under the bird’s weight, and picks off the berries one by one. But we have seen a different technique used by a magpie – it kept leaping from the ground in an attempt to seize the berries – sometimes successfully and often not!
Male bonding in the bush
Whereas human males may resort to sweat lodges, fishing trips or men’s sheds to find gender-biased comfort and support, for one of our native bees the blokes simply find a branch and huddle. 
Nomia bees (Nomia sp), which featured in a previous post, belong to the halictid family of burrowing bees. They do sting but are not easily provoked. The female bees nest in the ground or in rotten wood, either by themselves or in a communal nest with other females, where they look after their own young and help guard the nest. The nests can be reusable. The females are much hairier than the males as they need to carry pollen to feed the young. The males do not nest. At the end of each day they will group together on a grass stem or branch. Pictured is a group of male Green and Gold Nomia Bees (Lipotriches australica) found on a Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata) branch. During the day the bees leave this resting place only to return at dusk. Sort of like a plein air YMCA.
Singing above its weight
At just 8 to 9cm long, the Weebill is Australia’s smallest bird. We have been hearing them regularly and occasionally seeing them for the past few weeks, but photographing one is another matter. They are constantly on the move, usually high in a tree canopy, often hovering while gleaning insects from the foliage. We got lots of blurred images or ones with leaves or twigs partly obscuring the bird – and the unflattering shot above, which at least shows how acrobatic they are !
It was only when a couple ventured down to a bird-bath that we got a half-way decent snapshot taken through a window – click on the image at right for a better view.
The Weebill is a common bird of dry open eucalypt forest and woodland, often encountered in association with other small insect-eaters such as thornbills and pardalotes – it can easily be confused with the Yellow Thornbill, although the Weebill has a much stubbier bill, as its name suggests.
For such a tiny bird, it has a surprisingly loud and distinctive call, which means it is often heard before being seen. Click on the bar below to hear a sample of its call, recorded locally.
My Oz Day photo
What could make the wattles under your chin quiver more than the proud pose of a Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus)? Unfortunately the most common time we get to see a wombat, particularly in our area, is when it is lying dead on the side of the road with all four legs in the air. And if you do get to see one during the day it is usually suffering from the tick-borne disease, wombat mange, and very often is so ill it needs to be put down.
It was therefore a rare treat to see this large healthy specimen out and about during daylight. There was a strong southerly wind blowing towards me, which probably explains how I managed to get so close to both the wombat and the Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropodus giganteus) before they could smell or hear that I was there.
Common Wombats have very powerful front legs and large claws for digging burrows, an amazing feat given the rocky nature of where I live. The burrow opening of this particular individual is just shy of half a metre high. In the next bushfire it is going to be my place of refuge.
This was not taken on Australia Day (note the green grass!) but just looking at it makes me want to yell, “Oi, oi, oi”.
A Grey Fan-tale
A previous post in November showed a Grey Fantail nest with a single egg. This nest was subsequently abandoned, we suspect due to either storm damage or the constant presence of a Grey Currawong. Not to be deterred, a week later the same pair of Grey Fantails started to build a nest in the corner of our large farm shed, on an old wool-pack frame. Interestingly, the nest did not have the usual ‘tail’ of a Grey Fantail’s nest, probably because it was built to span two parallel bars, rather than being built on and around a single thin branch. The normal nest is described as being like ‘a wine-glass without a base’.
The birds were completely unconcerned by humans and vehicles coming and going, which allowed us to set up a tripod and camera just a few metres from the nest, and record over several weeks various stages of breeding, from nest-building, incubating, hatching, feeding, right through to fledging.
A selection of photos is shown in the slideshow below.
After the fledgelings left the shed we lost track of them for a couple of days and feared for their survival, with strong winds and high temperatures and the everpresent threat of predation by butcherbirds, currawongs, kookaburras and ravens. But late yesterday we were delighted to locate them together in the branches of a nearby eucalypt and watched as they were being regularly fed by the adults. A happy ending to the tale!?
Young Plumage II
A recent post described the marked difference in the plumage of immature or juvenile birds compared to the adults. For the past few weeks I have been spending some time in the ‘play-pen’ – a tumbled-down thicket of wattles and hakeas that seems to be the favoured hang-out of young birds of a variety of species awaiting the return of their parent bearing food. For some birds such as the Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis), pictured left, the immature bird looks just like the grown up, only more ‘manky’. The loss of a few more of those grey chest feathers and the bird pictured will almost look like a grown up. 
What was harder to pick (for me at least) was the identity of the chick pictured right. As ever, our local birdos Dave and Geoff came to the rescue with the answer (the same one in fact) – a juvenile Golden Whistler (Pachycephala pectoralis). The terms juvenile and immature are important in Golden Whistlers because the juvenile bird sheds its brown feathers for grey as it transitions to immature. 
As the picture to the left shows I should have waited for the parent to show up to identify the chick.
Furry huddles
As a contrast to Ronlit’s recent fascinating posts on wasps and spiders, we thought we’d show a few cute and furry nocturnal mammals, and a check of local nest-boxes during the daylight hours is usually a sure way of finding some. The pair of Common Ringtail Possums (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) pictured at left was a nice example.
With a bit of care and caution it is usually possible to lift the lid, inspect the box and take a digital camera photo with minimal disturbance to the occupant(s), as was the case with this cluster of Sugar Gliders (Pretaurus breviceps) at right, all of whom remained fast asleep! It is interesting that these animals still huddle together despite the summer heat. It must get pretty hot in the boxes so we generally try to mount them facing east to be in shade most of the day.
A specialised nest-box camera mounted on a pole can be inserted in the entrance hole and eliminate the need for a ladder. This is generally less intrusive than physically inspecting the nest-box, but the image quality is poorer – see the photo at left of another group of Sugar Gliders.
Come on. Give us a hug.
Spiders have not featured regularly in this blog. If they have, the post has been accompanied by dire warnings of the images to follow (click HERE). The truth is though, that most spiders in Australia are not poisonous to humans and are beneficial because they remove (eat) pests such as flies and mosquitoes. Some spiders are even really pretty.
A case in point is the Triangular Spider (Arkys lancearius) pictured above. Named because of its triangular-shaped abdomen, many spiders of this genus are brightly coloured with patterns of red, white and yellow dots.
These spiders do not make webs. They are ambush hunters, preying on small insects and flies, which they catch by sitting
Gottcha!
motionless on a leaf with their front two pairs of legs extended and grabbing their victims when they fly past.
How could you not love a creature with such a welcoming embrace?
A Potter Wasp’s Guide to Child-rearing
During the last Total Fire Ban day I was looking out of the bedroom window at the distant heat haze when an Orange Potter Wasp (Eumenes latreilli) commenced building its nest on the ledge outside. As it was 40+ degrees Celsius outside, watching the wasp’s efforts from the relatively cooler space inside my house seemed a cruisey way for me to spend the afternoon. It struck me that Potter Wasps have whittled child-rearing down to four simple steps, and have it all done and dusted within an afternoon.
Step 1. Build the nursery.
Over a two and a half hour period the wasp flew several times to the nearest mud source (probably our dam) and came back each time with a ball of mud clutched between the front pair of legs (pictured left). On nearing the nest it gripped the rim of the nest with its middle pair of legs to settle and using its jaws proceeded to mould the mud into shape, extending the size of the nursery.
Step 2. Lay eggs in nursery
After the eleventh delivery of mud the nest was complete apart from a small opening at the front. The wasp then took about two minutes to lay egg/s in the structure (pictured right).
Step 3. Stock nursery with food.
Potter Wasps use paralysed butterfly or moth caterpillars as the food of choice for the larvae when they hatch. During the next hour, three caterpillars were placed in the nest (pictured below).
Step 4. Seal nursery with mud and start again.
Unfortunately this step never happened. After three caterpillars had been placed into the nest the wasp left and never returned. I suspected the hunter had become the hunted. Then three days later the nest was sealed. I don’t know whether the same wasp came back to finish the job or whether another Potter Wasp opportunistically did. Maybe it was a Cuckoo Wasp. I’ll have to watch what emerges.
Another reason to sit inside this summer looking out the window!
Focus On Fauna 