Common Myna

MYNA

Of all the birds that visit my garden, the mynas are one of the most common.
 
Whilst the various field guides I have call this bird the Common Myna, as children we always called them Indian Mynas. My reading tells me they are native to Asia. I imagine that includes India.

Now I know they are not native to this country. I know they can drive away less aggressive natives. I know they can kill and eat the young of other birds in the nest. They might also eat small indigenous animals. I know they make a mess around my house, scratching leaves and compost all over my just swept paths. They also dig up many of my vegetable seedlings.





 
The "Birds In Backyards" website says this about mynas......

"The Common Myna's success is mostly
a result of its opportunistic behaviour and aggressiveness towards other species, bullying them around food sources and out competing them for nesting sites."

But they are a major part of my garden life so here they are.

Acridotheres tristis have been part of the Melbourne landscape since about 1850. Their name Acridotheres is from the Greek akridothera, loosely meaning locust hunter and tristis is a Latin word meaning "sad" or "foul smelling. What a lovely name! 

The Common Myna was introduced into the cane fields of north-eastern Queensland in 1883, to combat insect pests, particularly plague locusts and cane beetles. There you go!

Did you know?
A pair of Common Mynas (Acridotheres tristis) was first recorded at Ankara, Turkey, on 12.5.1996, and later proved to breed there successfully. This is the first documented record for Turkey.


 

Pardalotes

SPOTTED PARDALOTES Pardalotus punctatus

I have not noticed pardalotes in this part of Kilmore before. There are plenty just a little to the north over Green's Pinch. Over this ridge the winter tempertaures are always a degree or two higher and the summer dry off, begins a week or two before Kilmore. Plenty of pardalotes there, not so common here.



Yesterday I found these little birds behind the golf course. They were very busy amongst the cassinia shrubs and amongst the trunks of some small dead wattle trees. They like to feed on the trunks and amongst the leaves of trees, looking for lerps and other small insects.






They are very beautiful birds with their vivid white spots and brightly coloured tails. They have been called Diamond birds or Diamond Sparrows because of these spots.

Their name is derived of both Greek and Latin words. Pardalotus from the Greek, spotted like a leopard and punctatus, Latin for spotted.


They will often be found nesting in creek banks, making small tunnels into their nesting cavity. Those who like to encourage birds with nest boxes, will place a small tube protruding from the box to make the pardalotes feel at home.

Orange Winged Sitella

SITELLA  Daphoenositta chrysoptera

 

I was pleased to see this group Orange Winged Sitella as they hunted for food yesterday. They were on the edge of  the woodlands in the Mt. Piper Reserve, a few kilometres south of Broadford.

It was bright and sunny winter's day and many small birds were about.








Sitella are very active little birds and seldom stop in one place for more than a few seconds. The birds were busy pulling the dried bark of a dead Black Wattle tree, eating whatever insects they were finding as they went. Unlike other tree creepers, the sitellas, generally start their foraging from the  top of a tree and work their way down. This does make photographing them a little easier than trying to catch a bird before it moves up and away.

 

Australian King Parrot

KING PARROT

I was out in the garden today pruning trees and mulching the remains. There was a lot noise, chainsaws and mulching machines, but above the noise I could hear birds calling, voices I had not heard for quite a while.

As I emptied the drum of mulchings under the liquid amber tree I could hear the calls again. Looking up there was a family of young Australian King Parrots.



I live not very far from a settlement called King Parrot Creek. It is off the Seymour to Yea Road, the turn off is a little past Trawool.  We have become so accustomed  to the name King Parrot Creek, that we sometimes forget why it has been so named. We do not see the see these parrots around here very often.





And there they were. Four King Parrots, the full name is Australian King Parrots, Alisterus scapularis. They are generally found in humid and heavily forested hilly regions of the East coast of Australia. They like to feed on fruits and seeds both from trees and from the ground so I am not sure what it was that attracted them to my liquid amber tree.  They seemed to be picking the bark off dead twigs. I am nit sure whether there was something to eat there or whether they were just sharpening their beaks.

Whatever they were doing they were quite happy for me to be poking a camera at them. I had to go back to my work long before they were inclined to move.

Grey Shrike Thrush

GREY SHRIKE THRUSH Colluricincla harmonica

Even on a dull day when there is not much activity in the bush, the Grey Shrike Thrushes are about.

Today I was walking around the base of Mount Hickey. Mt Hickey, between Kilmore and Broadford, is a sugar-loaf shaped hill, surrounded by 'pretty close to natural' bush. It is a beautiful place to visit,

Despite being overcast and being a little late in the morning, the shrike thrushes were busy foraging in the undergrowth and up and down tree trunks. I generally see them alone although I often hear hear them calling to and answering another through the trees.

My books tell me they are omnivores, eating  small arthropods, insects,berries, small molluscs and at times, young nestlings.

Their name, Colluricincla harmonica is derived from two Greek words, Collurio and kinkhlos, both of which refer to thrushes, although this bird is not related to the European thrush. The second word relates of course to their beautiful song, thought to be thrush like by early Australians.

I have included this older photograph,taken in March this year, to show the markings on the immature bird. The marked striations, beautiful dark on cream are very different to the adult birds' plumage.

Pied Cormorant

LITTLE PIED CORMORANT.

These little cormorants, Phalacrocorax melanoleucos,  have been around the Kilmore Golf Club reservoir over the last few weeks.

I saw this one this morning  sitting on the model railway bridge across the Kilmore Creek. This bridge is outside the Kilmore Leisure Centre. It is a very busy place with cars and  foot traffic accessing the Centre. There is also a kindergarten opposite.

This little fellow seemed quite happy to sit and amidst all the hustle and bustle and watch the world go past.  He was quite happy for me to get quite close before he finally flew to the second bridge along rhe creek

There were a number of other water birds about this morning, all enjoying the brief sunshine. Perhaps the numbers lead to a sense of security for them all.

It is good to see the birds about and to hear the frogs singing they are all good indications that our water-way is healthy.

It  is just a pity however to see the large carp swimming about in the water.

Silvereyes

SILVEREYE Zosterops lateralis

 

On these sunny late autumn days there are plenty of silvereyes about. They are generally in groups of ten or more and always seem to be very busy feeding. I can pick them out from a distance, by their bouncy flight as they move, talking to each other as they go from one place to the next.

 They are beautiful little  birds with strong yellow colouring.But of course the most obvious distinguishing features are their bright eyes; black pupils, white surrounds with a further black ring, before the yellow feathers covering the heads.We call them silvereyes but they are also known as white eyes. 

My books tell me that they are migratory bird, traveling in flocks, up and down the eastern coastline of Australia. Michael Morcombe's book Field Guide To Australian Birds, says that the birds move northward up the coast looking for  warmer climates. Large numbers, he says move across Bass Straight from Tasmania as the winter approaches, before moving back to raise their young in the late winter and spring. 

 

 They are such tiny birds. It is hard to imagine them flying across the windy stretches of Bass Straight.  

 

These were sighted along the railway line at Kilmore East. 

Eastern Yellow Robins

YELLOW ROBINS Eopsaltria australis

I set out for my walk this in the mist and fog morning. The fog often sits along the railway line at Kilmore East 'til late in the morning. The line runs between the hills and so provides a perfect corridor for low lying fog.

It was very quiet this morning as it usually is on these foggy days, the moisture holds the sound in.

As I walked, very quickly the mist began to lift. As it did so the birds awoke. Suddenly there was movement and there was the sound of birds calling. Within twenty metres of where I was standing, I could now see,  silver eyes, fairy wrens, red-browed finches, a scarlet robin and yellow robins. A little further out, there were magpies, corellas, cockatoos, crimson rosellas, tree creepers, shrike thrushes and others moving too quickly for me to note.

The yellow robins were particularly active. They are such beautiful birds. Their name, Eopsaltria  is derived from the ancient Greek and in translation means something like singer at dawn. How appropriate that was on this beautiful autumn morning. The name yellow robin was apparently given to these little birds by the early settlers of Australia. They are certainly similar to the British robins.

They are inquisitive birds and today they sat quite confidently, watching what I was doing. Such beautiful animals.

 What a beautiful morning it was!

Litytle Pied Cormorant

LITTLE LIED CORMORANT 

( Phalacrocorax melanoleucos)

It is a wonderful name, from the Greek phalakros bald + korak-, korax raven — plus from the Ancient Greek words melano- "black", and leukos "white". There you go!




It was a dull day today. A morning walk around the Kilmore Reservoir,  met with very little bird activity. The reservoir, now in the middle of the Kilmore Golf course, was once the water supply and the swimming pool for Kilmore people. It is still a beautiful place, very close to the town centre. It is pleasing to see it used by residents as a place to walk, summer and winter. There is a nice coexistence between golfers and others.



The bird life is plentiful. It changes from season to season to season. In summer the corellas live in the trees and cause plenty of damage to the golf fairways as they dig up the roots of the grass. In autumn and spring the area is visited by the migratory ibis. The reservoir provides a welcome rest place on the journey.Kingfishers, missing over the summer, will soon be back





Today, a grey day, was very quiet. At about 3 o'clock, the sun came out and a few heads appeared.

A group of pied cormorants were quietly warming themselves, drying their wings on a log in the shallows.



Usually they are very wary but today I was able to get a little closer than other times. They seemed quite content to preen themselves as I crept a little closer.

 

Grey Fantail

GREY FANTAIL Rhipidura fuliginosa
 





On those grey days when many birds seem to be sitting quietly, not showing themselves, I can always find a fantail or two to watch.  Perhaps I should rephrase that statement a little. On grey days when many birds seem to be sitting quietly, the grey fantails will always be about looking to find an audience for their aerial antics.

They will flitter around before alighting on a branch to have a good look at what is going on. They will then  'show off' their aerobic skills,  twisting  and turning after insects around the tops of shrubs and trees. Returning to a twig they will chatter away, telling the watcher just how well they have performed. It is almost as though they are happy to have an audience to watch what they do.







They may be common little birds but are certainly one of the best known of the birds of the bush and in our gardens.