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

Striated Pardalote

STRIATED PARDALOTE Pardolutus striatus ssp ornatus

 

Nanny's Creek crosses under the Nanny's Creek Road,  the road between Kilmore East and Sugarloaf Creek Road. 

This creek carries just a little water for most of the year, a little more in the wet months, although there is always some water there to attract a population of birds.

 

 

 

At any time of the year, one can be assured of finding pardalotes around and under the bridge. 

During the late Winter and Spring, these birds make use of the abandoned mud nests of fairy martins to raise their own young.

 

Approaching the bridge, the calling of the pardalotes, announces their presence, They call constantly to each other, particularly during their courting times. The  highly pitched 'witta, witta, wittas', sometimes with an upward inflection on the final 'witta' fill the air.

 

 

 

 

The females signal their readiness for mating by calling from a branch, whilst crouching with their heads down and wings extended. 

 

 

 

Whilst pardalotes are known for their nesting in little tunnels scratched into the banks of creeks and cuttings, this community seems to nest exclusively in the mud nests made by fairy martins.  

Do the fairy martins leave their old nests or could it be that the pardalotes push the martins out of their homes and take over?

 

 

Brown-headed Honeyeaters

BROWN-HEADED HENEYEATER Melithreptus brevirostris 

 

 

I was watching a group of these small honeyeaters at Lake Eppalock last week. There, they were very busy feeding amongst a small forest of young red gum saplings. I could not see clearly, but they appeared to be feeding off inswcts on the leaves of the young trees.

 

 

 

They are small birds with beautiful olive backs, a distinctive white band spreads around from the back of the neck, contrasting with the deep brown head. 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst I was watching them feeding on insects, they also feed on nectar and pollen from the flowers on trees.


 

Blue-faced Honyeaters

BLUE-FACED HONEYEATERS Entomyzon cyanotis

There were a number of honeyeaters about this morning.












My neighbour has a beautiful garden and at this time there is a glorious protea in heavy flower.

The big honeyeaters are attracted to feast on these large flowers.

Among this group was a young bird with plenty of cheek. This adolescent bird had a beautiful green-yellow eye ring, unlike the adult birds which have vivid blue patches on the bare skin around the eye.








Despite the name honeyeater, these birds are omnivorous and can be quite aggressive in their hunt for food. They will feed on nectar, fruits, insects, the eggs and young of other birds as well as small reptiles. They can often be seen foraging along bark of trees, tearing off shreds in the search for whatever might be living underneath.