LOOK WHO'S SWIMMING IN MY BIRD BATH

 My birdbath and its visitors, hot day January

 

 

 

There are always visitors to the birdbath hidden away under the lemon tree at home.

Usually it is one bird at a time, sometimes a pair of birds together.

 

 

 

 

 

Early morning seems to be a good time. With the bigger birds, it is not the bathing which attracts them. It is the water. Crows, magpies, currawongs and choughs will bring hard scraps of food to the water and dunk it in to soften. Sometimes they have bread, sometimes a caterpillar, a snail a blackberry. I am not sure where the hard round seeds left in the bottom come from. All this of course leaves lots of gunk in the water, which begins to smell very quickly. Daily clean out is required

 

 

 

Other times, the birds come in for a drink. They are usually very wary and nervous. I suppose they need to be careful.  Heads down in the water might be a good time for a cat or a larger bird to swoop in,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On this hot morning, it seemed to be just bath time. Usually alone, but this day there were several birds in pairs of the same family and several  birds of different varieties together.. A little bit of argy-bargy at if one bird was taking too much time. Just like the banging on bathroom in our house when we were kids.

 

One bird, the Eastern Spine-Bill, is the most common visitor to the bath. He or she is often in the garden feeding from the fuchsia bushes. This little immature bird lets one know it is about by the noisy way it uses the bath. First the flap. flap of it's wings as it approaches, followed by a loud plop as it enters the water. Splash, splash, splash, water all over the place and then the quick flapping of its wings as it flies into the lemon tree to preen a little. Then back again, four, five and six times, before it is all finished. So lovely to watch and listen to whilst sitting outside, reading the morning paper.

EASTERN SPINEBILL

 Eastern Spinebill

 

There has been much activity this week around my fuchsia bushes. A young spinebill has learned the value of these flowers and spends hours feeding  from them.

 

 

 

 

 

This little bird has no fear. I can sit or stand within just metres, and take photographs from all angles.

It pays me no attention, it keeps on with feeding, flitting from bush to bush, happily unaware of my presence/

 

COMMON KOEL

EASTERN or COMMON KOEL 

I wrote about this bird a little over twelve months ago. A very noisy vagrant from the more northern parts of Australia.

 It is only in the last three years that we have noticed it's call in the early months of summer. It calls at all hours of the day and night. The male bird, with its deep blue / black plumage, perched high up in the tops of trees, is very difficult to see. For many people in Kilmore, it is simply referred to as "That bird"

 

"That bird is back again" says Greg. " It started at midnight and is still calling at midday.

It is possible that "that bird", is a single "that bird",  because we never hear a returning call and have never sighted a partner. 

How do we know it is the same bird?

Here is a photograph taken last week, the koel sitting in amongst the branches of a spotted gum by the roadside. Note what looks like magpie-like white colouring on the wings, is merely the refection of his deep blue / black feathers.

 

  This is this year's koel with his twisted beak.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is last year's koel also with a twisted beak.

Same bird!

So this poor lonely fellow has made trips to Kilmore for at least the last two years, probably more often than that. Where does he spend his winters? 

He certainly looks healthy and well fed, so the crossed beak must not be too much of an encumbrance for him. Does the mis-shapen beak affect his chances of finding a mate? His ability to call for hour after hour does not seem to have been affected in any way. But he certainly must expend a huge amount of energy calling as he uses his whole body to make the calls.

He seems to be gone now, (January 4th). We haven't heard his voice for a week or so.

  

 

 

 

 

BLACK-SHOULDERED KITE

 Black-shouldered Kite  Elanus axillaris

 

 

This bird sat for several hours on a  television aerial, just sitting and watching.

 

 

Its brilliant white plumage fluttered all around its body, making it look twice as big as it really was. 

 

 

 

 

I had watched several of these birds hunting along the road, hovering and then dropping quickly into the long grass. Perhaps they had had a successful morning and were now just watching, and digesting what the morning's meal.

KOOKABURRA

Laughing  Kookaburra Dacelo novaeguineae

 

 It has one of the most iconic of all bird calls in Australia.

 

As a child I would watch the Movietone News if I was ever lucky enough to go to 'The Pictures' on a Saturday afternoon. I remember fondly the introduction to each episode featuring the images and voices of the kookaburras. Those of you who are old enough might also remember seeing and hearing them.

 

 

They are beautiful birds, despite their rather dumpy bodies and their large heads. Large and dumpy they may seem but wonderfully balanced as they sit quietly and patiently on a tree branch, ever watchful to see what is moving around on the ground below. 

 Despite their loveliness they are great hunters, swooping to the ground to take small, sometimes large snakes, lizards, mice, small birds, small mammals and insects. 

 

 

Lucky are the households who have regular visits from a local family of Kookaburras.

 

RED WATTLEBIRD

 

Red Wattlebird  Anthochaera

 The wattlebirds are such a common bird in the Kilmore area, it is sometimes easy to forget how interesting and beautiful they are. 

 They are large, noisy, aggressive and like to 'push around' the more placid birds in the area, demanding the best access to the flowering trees.

 

 

This time of the year they are very visible as they move from one flowering tree to the next. This group of birds was very busy in a row of Grevillea Robusta, Silky Oak trees, adjacent to the Kilmore Golf course. There were young amongst the group, identifiable by the lack of the red cheek wattles. 

 

 

 Hence their name 'Wattlebird' as opposed to be named after the common wattle trees in our area.

The wattlebirds used to be the first birds we would hear each morning. Quite early, whilst still dark we would hear the 'Quock, quock' sounds of the early risers which became more harsh grating or barking 'hrarrrkkk-a-krak' as they begin the busy time of feeding. Now it is the vagrant Koel who wakes us ant any time of the day or night with its ubiquitous calling

 

They Wattlebirds beautiful and interesting birds, often maligned for  their harsh voices and cheeky aggressiveness, very similar to many of our enthusiastic and cheeky young people with their sometimes harsh voices who can also delight us every day.

EASTERN KOEL

 Eastern Koel Eudynamis orientalis

 

For several years now, we have been visited in early Summer, by this very noisy black bird. He sits atop tall trees, calling incessantly, hour after hour, midday and midnight. He, and it is a male bird whose call we hear, Cooo-eeeee, Cooo-eeeee, Cooo-eeees , for hour after hour.

 

 

 

 

I feel very sorry for those who might live under the tree he has chosen to roost in. The calling goes on and on, 2.00am, 6.00am, 10.00, 6.00pm and 11.pm. Many a person has had their sleep disrupted by their all night calling, If you are unsure of what the call sounds like, then try this link.

https://xeno-canto.org/295239

 

 

 

 

 

 

It had been only for the last four or five years that this bird has been visiting. Never in  over forty years of living in Kilmore, have I heard it. Not until several years ago, and now every year in this early Summer period, he visits. Perching high in trees amongst the foliage, heis often difficult to see. This is a male, a black bird with a red eye, about the size of a small crow. The female is a gentle brown colouring with fine dark barring. Despite the constant calling I have not seen nor heard a response from a female bird.

 

The bird I have been following over several days is quite easy to identify. His upper and lower beaks are slightly out of alignment, never quite meeting together, I do wonder if this affects his ability to feed himself.

The Koel is a parasitic cuckoo and like all cuckoos will lay its eggs in the nest of other birds. I pity the small bird who will spend the next months raising the chick.

NEW HOLLAND HONEYEATER

 

 New Holland HoneyeatersPhylidony nigra

 

 

 

beautiful little birds are very visible during the Spring as they feed on the native flowers in gardens and roadsides.

 

 

They are a fast and aggressive they fly between trees and shrubs, quick to chase bigger and more powerful birds from what they see as their territory.

 

They seem to have become much more common in the Kilmore area over the last few years. I can scarcely remember seeing them much until the last ten years. 

 

Perhaps it is the native plants that people are placing in their gardens  that provide a more palatable and attractive food 

A much better taste for them than roses and camellias source. 

Despite the name Honeyeater, these birds are also often seen feeding on insects which they take from the air with acrobatic skill.

 

PALLID CUCKOO

 

Palli Cuckoo Cuculus pallidus

 

 

 

 

Cuckoos have been very vocal in these

early days of Spring . 

Along the timbered tracks under Mount William, the cuckoos let the world know they are about, with their loud and constant calling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a female Pallid Cuckoo,  seen scurrying around under the roadside trees as it searched for food, in this case a caterpillar.

The colouring of the female with her white chest and beautifully mottled tail and wings makes her very easy to distinguish from the male with her more sombre grey colours. He too has the brightly black and white flecked tail and the brilliant yellow eye ring of the female.  

 

 

 

The birds are quite easy to locate in the breeding times. They will call repeatedly, often perched in the open, on a tree branch, a fence wire, a post  or in the case of the Fan Tailed Cuckoo in the last entry, on a clothes line wire.

  

 Like all cuckoos, the females will lay their eggs into the nests of other birds, after first ejecting the eggs or the young of the now to be host-parents. Often the host parents are smaller species than the cuckoos, robins, swallows and various honeyeaters. I have seen a poor Fairy Wren struggling to feed a young cuckoo, already twice the size of the step parent.

 

Fan-tailed Cuckoo

Fan-tailed Cuckoo Cacomantis flabelliformis

 

 

A bright and sunny morning at Willowmavin. I was walking through thick  young trees which have grown up after the fierce fires of 2014. The wattles are beginning to die off and eucalypt saplings are now beginning to look like mature trees. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cuckoo's very loud call, immediately tells the world he or she is about. The descending whistle is quite easy to  identify and with a bit of quite creeping around, they can be soon found, perching on branches, fence posts or in this case, an old clothes line, where they watch and wait to feed upon insects moving about on the ground beneath them. 

 Of course cuckoos are well known for their habit laying their eggs in the nests of other birds, usually much smaller birds. They will push the eggs of the resident birds  from the nest and then lay their own egg to replace those they have ousted.  Generally cuckoos lay a single egg in a nest, but can lay multiple eggs across multiple nests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is a sad sight to see small birds, working frantically to provide food for their much larger foster brood. 

Brood parasites is the expression used to describe their behavior.

NEW HOLLAND HONEYEATER

 New Holland Honeyeater Phylidonyris novaechollandiae

Whilst waiting  for the train at Kilmore East railway station, there are many birds to be seen, flitting in and out of the numerous native plants between the station platform and the car-park.

 

 

 

There are numerous sparrows. They seem to centred around the old railway buildings where they have nests in the roof spaces. Magpies, rosellas, pardalotes, cockatoos, blackbirds, wattle-birds, currawongs, and wrens. The birds which attracts me most are the New Holland Honeyeaters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are a common bird in the Kilmore area. However they seem to maintain a small area of occupation. Kilmore is still a reasonably small town but there are places where these honeyeaters are rarely seen. Where I live I never see them. If I cross to some of the newer estates, just a kilometre away, where native gardens are more the  fashion, New Holland Eaters are common. Perhaps there are too many roses, camellias, daffodils and  other old world plants. Not too attractive to the honeyeaters.

 

 

 

We old garden dwellers of Kilmore need to put in more and more native plants to feed these beautiful and lively visitors. Beautiful and lively they may be, but they can be very aggressive towards other birds. They can be often seen chasing the wrens and parrots away from their patch. 

This morning I could see a number of birds  chasing each other between the bushes, as they all seem to do at this time of the year. But amongst them were adult birds with young ones. The young ones have a darker eye than the adults, a pale brown colour, Adults have a startling white eye. A vivid white surrounding a very black pupil. They always seem to be looking at you.