Wood Ducks & Porphyry Swamp Hens

SPRING GROWTH

Wood Duck Parents and Children

There are lots of young birds about at this time.

It is difficult to see those that are tucked away in tree hollows, those hidden in thick clumps of gorse, those in mud nests under the eaves of sheds or those perched in stick nests at the top of a telephone tower.

The water bird babies are a lot more obvious. Within a short time of hatching they are out on the water or scrambling about the reed beds.

I spent a pleasant half hour watching three (three?) purple moorhens (Porphyrio porphyrio) feeding chicks in their nest of reeds. There are many of these beautiful swamp hens on the Kilmore Hospital reservoir. I have always called the porphyry moor hens but I think I might have my terminology mixed up a little. Swamphen seems to be the name in my books. The moorhen name seems to belong to the dusky moorhen, a similar but not quite so brightly coloured bird.

The porphyry name, of course, comes from the beautiful purple coloured igneous rock that has been used for centuries in building and sculpture. There is a beautiful sculpture outside St Mark's Basilica in Venice of the Four Tetrarchs carved from porphory.  The term Greek word porphyry means purple, the color of royalty. The 'royalty' of the Catholic Church, the cardinals, of course wear purple or porphyry.

And here we have such a beautiful bird, all clothed in royal purple. I was a little surprised to see at least three birds busy around the nest and all were feeding the young. Upon doing some reading, I found the following comment about the dusky moorhen.  " During breeding season, the Dusky Moorhen forms breeding groups of two to seven birds, with all members defending territory, building nests and looking after young."  (http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Gallinula-tenebrosa). 

Little Black Cormorants

A WET WEEK IN SEPTEMBER

KIlmore sits just to the north of the remnants of the Great Dividing Range. Pretty Sally, a hill supposedly named after the proprietor of an early inn, and about eight kilometres from the town, is just 529 metres tall. Monument Hill, adjacent to the town, is a little over 460 metres tall. The Kilmore Creek, running through the centre of the town is 380 metres above sea level at the southern end of the town and about 330 metres at the northern end.

Because we are very close to the top of the Dividing Range, this is a relatively small area for the collection of water after heavy a downfall. Some of the water runs into Dry Creek to the East of KIlmore and some ends up in the Kilmore Creek. These waterways join the Goulburn River and eventually join the Murray River.  So with a small collection area and a good slope, we rarely have a problem with too much water. Just sometimes,

But it has been wet. Our creeks have, for a short time, looked like creeks. It was great to see the water flowing, flushing the accumulated rubbish away. Very often Kilmore Creek resembles a  drain running behind the main street.  In 1884, the journalist naming himself 'The Vagabond', writing in the Argus  talked of the Cloaca Maxima of Kilmore. The Cloaca Maxima was of course the 6th century BCE sewer system of ancient Rome.

But this week our creek was a real creek.





I found some new visitors to our area. Perhaps they like the wet countryside.

 Three Little Black Cormorants ( Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) were sitting in the little sun that was shining through the cloud. I haven't seen them here before. As children we  called them 'shags'  and 'cormorants' .I do remember my Leaving Certificate (Year 11) teacher growling that at my friend. Damian was sitting next to a sunny classroom window and couldn't give the  mathematical formulae for exponential growth. You are  'like a shag on a rock', said Brother Michael.  I assume the reverend brother was referring to the bird's habit of sitting asleep in the sunshine. Poor Damien, he was called 'Shag' for a long time afterwards.

The name sulcirostrisis is from the Latin words sulcus "groove", and rostrum "bill". Phalacrocorax  is thought to come from the Greek word for bald, referring to a whitish face patch on some species. 

Buff-rumped Thornbills

  Buff-rumped Thornbill (Acanthiza reguloides)

These tiny little birds are very hard to catch sitting still. They are constantly on the move, from the ground to small shrubs and trees. It is obvious they are around because they call constantly as they move from place to place abd branch to branch. They continue to call as they search for food,  'sipp, sipp, sipp'.

People in some regions know these  as Little Thornbills. Not surprising they are such tiny birds, no bigger than a mouse in the body, yet their highly pitched voices can be heard over quite a distance.




They are very pretty, when you can actually get a good glimpse of them. They seem to be a brighter yellow at the moment, more so than when I followed them earlier in the year. They look quite distinguished with their white ringed dark eyes, speckled faces over yellow breasts and underparts and black feet and beaks.

Usually I see them groups of four or five, but sometimes they forage in pairs. Whilst they do not seem timid or overly cautious, they usually manage to keep just out of camera range. If I move toward,  trying to focus on them amongst the twigs and branches of shrubs, they move off a little way. I move forward again, and they move on some more. We do this dance three or four times, until they get sick of the game and flitter off into the distance.




This little fellow, or lass, sat for quite a while on a branch, singing away; in a voice not the usual 'chip, chip,' or 'sipp, sipp, sipp'.