Splish, splash too
Following up on the recent post Splish, splash …, it is not just the birds that appreciate bird-baths in this hot weather – mammals and reptiles will readily take to them as well.
Chris Cobern, a coordinator with the Upper Goulburn Landcare Network, has recently recorded a Short-beaked Echidna and a Red-bellied Black Snake on remote camera at Kinglake West.
We currently have a Sugar Glider that frequents one of our bird-baths, and phascogales, possums and antechinuses have previously been shown at baths on this blog.
Also, Lesley commented on the Splish, splash … post that, as well as a wide array of birds visiting her baths, she has a Blue-tongue Lizard that likes to lie in a bird-bath on the ground in her garden near Seymour.
What’s the buzz?
Summer brings with it the familiar drone of insects. Earlier this week an unfamiliar humming sound brought my attention to a group of insects hovering low to the ground over a patch of sand. They looked like a cross between bees and large blowflies and turned out to be Sand Wasps, pictured left (click to enlarge).
Sand Wasps (Bembix sp.) are a genus of solitary hunting wasps found throughout Australia. They are characterised by large mandibles which the female uses to dig tunnels and catch prey. The adult insects are nectar feeders. The female wasp can deliver a painful sting but these wasps are not aggressive when disturbed.
During breeding season the female wasp will dig short tunnels in the sand using its large mandibles and legs (picture right). In this burrow it will lay an egg and subsequently will hunt for flies, catching them on the wing and paralysing them. The flies are deposited in the burrows and the hatched larvae feed on them. The burrow is sealed to prevent intruders eating either the flies or the larvae. A group of sand wasps may build a series of burrows close together but there is no cooperation between them.
I noticed several things while watching the activity. The sand obviously has to be the right consistency to build a tunnel. In many cases the sand collapsed into the tunnel as quickly as it was being excavated and a new tunnel had to be started again where the sand was more solid. Secondly, the wasps seemed to fly around in pairs and while one wasp landed to commence digging the other maintained a hovering vigil above. The photo to the left shows one wasp digging with a second wasp hovering above.
I know which job I would ‘bags’.
Splish, splash …
Male Superb Fairy-wren
For a better look, click on any of the photos below and then scroll through using the side arrows.
What birds tweet each other #1
Gang-gang Cockatoo (Callocephalon fimbriatum), male (left), female (right)
Mister
Missus
Young plumage
At this time of year, there are plenty of juvenile and immature birds around, some of which have plumage that differs quite markedly from that of their parents. An example is seen at left, which could qualify for a “name the mystery bird” competition because of its unfamiliar colouring. Its identity is only revealed in profile (see photo below) when its unmistakable fine-curved bill is seen.
It is an immature Eastern Spinebill, which lacks the white throat and chestnut “bib”, flanked by a black crescent, of the adult birds. The photo below is of an adult male – the female has a grey crown instead of black. Click on any of the photos for a close-up look.
The Eastern Spinebill is one of the commonest and most colourful honeyeaters of this district.
In surveys conducted as part of the Strath Creek Biodiversity Project, its frequency of occurrence was only exceeded by Red Wattlebird and Yellow-faced Honeyeater.
It seems to be constantly active, darting around, hovering and probing flowers with its long bill and tongue.
It is also noisy, not only vocally (click on audio below) but with its clip-clop sounding wing-beats as well.
The Singing Stump
Lepidoptera lunch!
It’s Odonata time. The dragonflies and damselflies are doing their zoomy patrols around the dams. My aim this year is to get the perfect photo of one in flight. In ten years I have had no luck. I can’t see that changing. As I was sitting by the water’s edge (waiting for that dragonfly shot) I heard a high-pitched manic chirping every ten to fifteen minutes. A search of the surrounding trees revealed no nest. I finally tracked down the ‘singing’ to a nearby stump.
On a regular basis both a male and female White-throated Treecreeper (Cormobates leucophaea) arrived at the stump bearing beaks full of food. Their disappearance into the stump was greeted by a cacophony of chirping from inside. A quick look in the stump with a fibre-optic camera after the parents had departed revealed three chicks deep in the bowels of the stump. You can just make out the white flashes of the beaks (pictured below).
White-throated Treecreepers are insectivores and are often seen hopping up the trunks of trees. In fact the binomial name is derived from the Greek words kormos meaning trunk of a tree and bates meaning to travel. Local lore has it that treecreepers hop up the trunks of trees and Varied Sittellas (Daphoenositta chrysoptera) hop down, thus finding different food sources. The female treecreeper has an orange marking on its cheek.
It’s a shit job but someone has to do it
When the parents left the stump they carried in their beaks a fecal sac (pictured left). Because the nest is enclosed, the waste products from the chicks needs to be removed regularly. As was previously posted about Striated Thornbill chicks, treecreeper chicks excrete a translucent gelatinous membrane containing all the excrement, which the parent then picks up and removes from the nest.
The nest, situated where it is, guarantees that these two chicks are at least safe from the Pied Currawongs hunting in such numbers at the moment.
Any ideas ?
Once in a while when observing the natural world around us, we come across a mystery that we can’t readily solve from reference books – or a search engine for that matter. One such occurrence was the discovery of a hole near our apple tree the other morning. It was about 10cm deep, with sloping sides above a circular excavation with straight sides. It appeared to be a nest, presumably of a reptile, which had been exposed during the night, as it wasn’t visible the previous day and there was a pile of soil on one side, with four or five shattered eggs lying on the ground nearby.
The questions that arose were: who did the hole and eggs belong to, and had the nest been dug up by a predator, and if so, which predator? Presumably if the hatchlings had managed to dig their way out, the egg shells would still be in the hole.
There is an Eastern Brown Snake using a hole below a tree stump a few metres away – we know that because it occasionally surprises us (and itself) as we fill a bird-bath on the stump! But they normally have a clutch-size of 15 – 25 or even more, and use cracks in the ground. There is also a Common Blue-tongue regularly seen nearby, but they are viviparous (bear live young).
Our best guess is a Snake-necked (or Long-necked) Turtle, even though the nearest dam is over 100m away and the only nearby accessible water is a small amount in a leaky garden pond. As for the assumed predator, Red Fox perhaps, which we know is around – three recently killed chooks attest to that.
Any better suggestions would be welcome.
Christmas comes early to Flowerdale
The scene pictured left could have been shot in Scotland – a timid deer standing proudly on the edge of a Scottish glen. BUT IT WASN’T. It is a picture of a feral nuisance (Sambar Deer) ripping the foliage off another feral nuisance – a Plum Tree (Prunus sp.) – in our backyard.
Sambar Deer (Cervus unicolor) were first introduced into Australia from Asia in the 1860s and feral populations have established themselves in areas of SA, Victoria and southern NSW. In previous years we have rarely seen deer around our place. If we did see them, it was usually their rapidly retreating rumps off in the far distance. But this year it is different. They appear to be everywhere. Sambar Deer are largely solitary animals, which means the small herd I saw trotting down our driveway last week was probably of a different species. If I was charitable (or hopeful) I would say it was one of Santa’s helpers doing some reconnaissance before the big day. Obviously not Rudolph.
Also fitting in with the Festive theme is our Silky Oak (Grevillea robusta), pictured right, decorated with what look like Christmas baubles, aka Sulphur-crested Cockatoos (Cacatua galerita). In our household, any tree thus adorned is called a Christmas tree, irrespective of the time of year. But the demolition of the Silky Oak by these birds is a true yuletide occurrence that happens in the last few weeks of every year.
They obviously find destroying the flowers a lot of fun. Ho Ho Ho.
Nestcraft
One of the most exquisitely crafted bird nests would surely be that of the Grey Fantail. The nest shown at left was discovered, still under construction, in a tangle of Swamp Paperbarks (Melaleuca ericifolia). This nest is quite well camouflaged, unlike some Grey Fantail nests we have seen located on a bare branch in full view of any observer (or predator).
Both the male and female birds share nest construction and incubation and were seen nearby collecting material, including carpet underfelt. One of them is shown at right.
After some recent heavy downpours, the nest is looking slightly bedraggled and soggy (see below), but now holds a single egg. The usual clutch is 2 to 3 eggs, so we will keep discreetly monitoring activity at the nest.
Great leaping lizard (observer)
I am not afraid of snakes. In fact I relish the opportunity to observe them up close … as long as they don’t mind. In the Yea Wetlands recently I observed a Tiger Snake (Notechis scutatus) up close and personal. It was curled up on a log sunning itself and didn’t seem to mind the attention it was getting.
Having said that, when I lifted the lid on our composting bin this week and saw a snake-like creature inside I knew the world high-jumping record was going to get a bit of a shake (from a standing start!). The visitor wasn’t a snake but a Blue-tongued Lizard (Tiliqua sp).
Blue-tongued Lizards are the largest member of the skink family. Being diurnal (active during the day) they are often seen but this year I have seen more than I have for many years. Blue-tongues feed on insects, snails, flowers and fruit and obviously whatever it finds in our composting bin. The chap in the compost-bin looked particularly well fed.
Colour and patterning within a species is highly variable. My guess is the creature in our bin is an Eastern (or Common) 
Blue-tongue (Tiliqua scincoides), pictured above. It is characterised by a broad prominent dark stripe from the eye to above the ear. Compare this to the lizard (pictured left) caught cruising around last week when I was riding my bike. It has no eye stripe and the patterning on its back comprises longitudinal blotches, probably a Southern Blue-tongue (Tiliqua nigrolutea).
These lizards are great to have around the place because they eat insects and snails. If you approach too close they will open their mouths wide and bare a dark-blue tongue as an aggression display. Poke your tongue out back at them – see what happens?
Focus On Fauna 