All that’s left of … ?
The Powerful Owls resident at the Junction Hill end of Flowerdale (see previous post HERE ) seem to have voracious appetites, judging from the whitewash and regurgitated pellets found by the landholders on the ground below the owls’ roost sites. The pellet pictured here shows that some prey are consumed whole, including the head!
Can anyone comment on what the skull and bones might belong to ? The scale shown is in centimetres.
Echidna mating season
This photo, taken in early August at a property on Spring Valley Road, Flowerdale, appears to show a female Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) surrounded by three males. During oestrus she may be followed for several days by the males. It is unclear whether she mates with more than one male, but after copulation she has no further contact with the males. She will lay only a single leathery-shelled egg.
Click HERE to see a previous post on echidnas at Flowerdale.
Wallaby life near Junction Ridge
The Black Wallaby – also known as Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia bicolor) was the predominant species recorded recently by remote camera on a property on the northern slopes of the Yea Spur. The site is just beyond the northern extent of the Black Saturday fires, and has extensive areas of Red Box (Eucalyptus polyanthemos) woodland.
Several video clips of the wallabies are shown below – they may take a few moments to load.
Kangaroo activity at Flowerdale
Over the course of a week, one of our remote cameras recorded around 1700 images showing the daily activities of a mob of Eastern Grey Kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) on a Flowerdale property off Moores Road. The site was obviously a regular haunt of the kangaroos, and the fallen tree where our plastic scent-lure was attached was right across their well-used trail.
The background shows the face of the hills that were burnt in the 2009 fires.
The videos may take a short time to load.
Nesting time
As well as allowing us to record a range of rarely-seen nocturnal animals, our remote cameras are also providing an insight into the ordinary day-to-day activities of some creatures – such as this Australian Magpie collecting nesting material.
From the camera’s time-stamp, it seems the magpie has a regular morning collection at around 9.30am from the same spot, and sometimes works an afternoon shift at this site as well.
It is always fascinating to watch and record nesting behaviour – any observations or comments would be welcome.
The video below may take a few moments to load.
Echidnas out and about
As shown below, our remote camera recorded one Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) on 12th August, then a pair two days later, on a revegetated section of Fryers Creek, a tributary of King Parrot Creek. For echidnas, mating occurs between June and September, and they are normally solitary outside this period. Are these two just passing acquaintances, sharing a shelter site for warmth, which they sometimes do during winter, or can we expect an increase in local echidna numbers shortly ?
The video clip may take a short while to load.
More Owlet-nightjars
Reports keep coming in of Australian Owlet-nightjars in the Flowerdale/Strath Creek area. These engaging little birds have readily taken to roosting in nestboxes installed since the 2009 fires. Many natural tree hollows were destroyed in the fires, so artificial nesting sites would be much in demand by the many creatures that had previously relied on hollows for shelter. It will be interesting to see if the birds actually use the boxes for nesting in the upcoming breeding season.
These photos were taken at properties in Spring Valley Road, Flowerdale and Upper King Parrot Creek Road, Strath Creek.
Click HERE to see a previous post on an owlet-nightjar at Flowerdale.
For detailed information about the Australian Owlet-nightjar, and to hear its call, click the following link to the Birds Australia Birds in Backyards website.
Focus on fungi !
Here is a sample of the myriad colourful fungi that can be found around Flowerdale and Strath Creek.
Focus on Fauna is holding another evening information session, this time on fungi, with Paul George from the Fungi Group of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria. So why not join us at the recently renovated Strath Creek Hall on 9th September?
Click on the flier below for further details.
Mountain Brushtail Possum at Flowerdale
Remote cameras deployed at a Flowerdale property on Whittlesea-Yea Road for a second time, again recorded what looks like a Mountain Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus caninus), otherwise known as Bobuck or Short-eared Brushtail Possum, as seen in the video below, which may take a few moments to load.
Lyrebird at Junction Hill
Our cameras, set up on a steep north-facing slope off Upper Ti-tree Road on Junction Hill north-east of Flowerdale, captured images of a Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae), as well as a wombat, echidna, wallaby, fox and rabbit. The lyrebird was somewhat of a surprise as the dense vegetation on the slope is dominated by Burgan (Kunzea ericoides), with some Long-leaf Box, Lightwood, Blackwood and Silver Wattle – perhaps not the usual wet forest habitat associated with lyrebirds. However, the ground has a good layer of leaf-litter and the slope leads to a densely vegetated creekline.
The landholder has previously found a display mound, but had never observed the bird itself. There have been several other reports of lyrebirds on Junction Hill in recent times, but it’s unclear if they were there prior to the 2009 fires.
The images may take a few moments to load. See also the previous post Lyrebirds at Kinglake West.
