Australasian Darter

 AUSTRALASIAN DARTER Anhinga novachollandiae

I watched this male Australasian Darter sitting on a branch over the Kilmore Hospital reservoir, with a number of other birds, Little Black and Little Pied cormorants. 

They were all sitting in the sun, drying  their wings and enjoying a good look around.

The Darter then began to prance and dance about. I imagined he was showing the smaller birds who was the boss. They turned their heads and watched, without too much  interest, what he was doing.

Nor did he appear to be too interested in them. His  performance seemed to be directed towards a tree a little way over the water.

There she was. A female Darter. She watched him with just a little more interest than the cormorants.

 

What a show-off!

 

 

 

Dusky Wood-swallow

 DUSKY WOODSWALLOW Artamus cyanopterus

 

 

There were numbers of Woodswallows about  in the area of the sewerage  ponds yesterday. Some were feeding young birds,  not too long out of the nest.

These Dusky Woodswallows are not to be confused with those others, the Welcome, and White-backed Swallows and the Martins we often see in and out of old sheds, under verandahs and bridges. 

Whilst both are of the order Passeriformes, they are each of a different Family. Woodswallows, Artamus, Swallows Hirundinidae. So, not related.  

The Woodswallows are very social animals and can often be seen sitting together along a branch, up to a dozen birds squeezed up together tightly. 

 

 

 

Unlike the swallows and fairy martin family who build nests from mud, the Woodswallow builds a rough looking nest from twigs and small branches

Cuckoo-shrike Black-faced

 BLACK-FACED CUCKOO-SHRIKE Coracina novaehollandiae

 

 

 

There is a nicely wooded paddock at Willowmavin, a few kilometres to west of Kilmore. It is seldom grazed so at the moment it is heavily grassed with kangaroo grass, wallaby grass and other pasture grasses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This young bird was busy hunting and feeding, returning to the same branch to consume what had been caught. Caterpillars by the look of it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Growing Up

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A FEW WEEKS MAKES!

 

Black Swans & Chicks

 BLACK SWANS 

A number of we locals, have been watching a pair of swans on the Hospital Reservoir for several months. Like a group of older aunts we have been waiting and watching for signs of new arrivals.

Well here they are at last. 

 

The cygnets have been out and about for about three weeks now. They and the adults are very at ease with the world, not concerned by the presence of golfers, course workers and walkers and dogs.

 

 

This morning as I passed the group at a distance, I noticed a woman throwing cut up lettuce to them. She must have been around at other times, the swans and young moved eagerly toward the her and the picnic she offered.

 

 

I spoke to the lady later and she told me there had been three young birds. One had looked 'sickly' from the start. She said it spent a lot of time on the back of one of the adults as they floated across the water. She hasn't seen this chick for a while and presumes it has died or been taken by a fox.

Sparrow House

HOUSE SPARROW Passer domesticus

 

Such common little birds. We see them so often it is easy to not to pay them any attention.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduced to Australia in the 1860s, they are now abundant pest through most parts of the country. Unfortunately they displace our native birds from  nest sites. As well, they use our houses, sheds and farm building for their nests often leaving a mess of twigs and leaves which harbour mice and insects  

 

Many of us have been woken by the incessant scratching and chirrupping of sparrows nesting under the roofs above our bedrooms. 

 

Whilst knowing that they are ubiquitous pests, they are bright and cheerful little birds, well worth watching  and contemplating. Common maybe, but they are certainly a big part of our avian birdscape. 

 

As I see them fluttering around the old railway station building at Kilmore East, I am always reminded of the verse from Matthew's Gospel Bible, 'Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care'. 

 

 

Oriole Olive-backed

 OLIVE-BACKED ORIOLE Oriolus sagittatus

 

  I spent over half an hour watching this bird as it moved between trees around the lake in the Dr. Colin Officer Reserve. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was first attracted by what I thought were Indian Myna birds calling to each other, but found instead this solitary, male Oriole. He called constantly, his own call alternating with the calls of several other birds. I could identify the mimicked voices of mynahs and Crimson Rosellas

 

This is a very young bird. It was still being fed by adult birds and was loudly calling for its dinner.

 

Grey Teal

GREY TEAL  Anas gracilis

 

  

 

A pair of grey ducks on the Hospital reservoir this morning. 

 

 

I assume they were a pair but I was not able to see any difference between them.  

 

They are Grey Teal. I am told they are quite common, but I have never oticed them around Kilmore before. 

There have been plenty of Wood Ducks, Black Ducks, Chestnut Teal, Shelducks,even Musk Ducks, but  no GreyTeal. 

How exciting!

Another Cuckoo

 FAN-TAILED CUCKOO Cacomantis flabelliformis

Spring is the time to catch sight of cuckoos and this one is a Fan-tailed Cuckoo.

 

 

It is quite similar to a Brush Cuckoo but the difference can be seen in the broader white barring on the underside of the tail with white spots on the upper parts of the tail.

The Fan-tail also has a vivid yellow eyering.

This bird is a female. The male is more highly coloured on from the chin to the belly. The female's belly is more rufous in clouring.

Cuckoos

 PALLID CUCKOO

 

Spring has finally arrived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several days ago, I could hear cuckoos calling from the tops of trees along the Dry Creek, just south of Broadford. The call is very distinctive, notes rising semitone by semitone.Hence the common name 'semitone bird'. Its call is repetitive and monotonous, going on and on and on. It is sometimes called the 'brain fever' bird after this constant calling. 

 

 

All Australian cuckoos, except the Pheasant Coucal, which is not found in Victoria, are brood parasites. They lay their eggs in the nests others, leaving these smaller step parents to brood and raise the usually much larger young.

 

I have watched a Yellow Robin, feeding a young, but much larger than itself, cuckoo hatchling. How hard must it be to keep up with an ever hungry youngster of a huge size?

The semitone bird is a Pallid Cuckoo Cacomantis pallidus. Whist it is  reasonably common, it is much more visible in the Spring, during mating time, when its call,from the top of trees or posts,lets us all know to another perch and continue with its song.

 

Great Cormorant

GREAT CORMORANT

This young cormorant had just finished fishing the other morning and was busy drying off, energetically flapping its wings and turning and twisting to catch the sun.

This is a young bird. This can be seen by just the small amount of white colour around the chin, rather than the stronger white colouring of the adult birds

Notice particularly, the strongly hooked bill, the yellow beak and facial skin, and the brilliant green eye colour.

White-throated Treecreeper

WHITE-THROATED TREECREEPER Cormobates leucophaeus

 One of the common bird calls of the Monument Hill, is that of the Treecreepers.

The female treecreeper has an orange spot under her eye

They can be heard over a wide area, the voices carrying a long way. At times they will call from a perch for ten and twenty minutes at a time Like a single high pitched, and very resonant bell, the 'whit, whit, whit, whit', quickly repeated, is easy to recognize. Not being particularly timid, it is possible to follow the sound back to tree from which they are calling.
 




Graeme Chapman has a wonderful collection of bird calls if you are unsure of what is which. This link should take you to the call of our Treecreeper.Graeme Chapman White-throated Treecreeper.

When not perching in one place, they are busy birds, working their way up the trunks of trees, digging under loose hanging bark for insects. In this area it is possible, by sitting quietly and patiently under a likely group of trees, to see a the treecreeper settle on a nearby trunk before making its way up and around the trunk, busily searching for insects as it goes.










 

The male bird has a clear white face and chest