Blue faced Honeyeaters

 

BLUEFACED HONEYEATERS

The Blue faced Honeyeaters are prevalent around Kilmore at the moment.







I assume they remain in the locality all year around, but are much more obvious, when many of the eucalyptus trees are heavily in blossom.

 I have been sitting under a large manna gum tree in the Kilmore golf course, which is covered in flower.

I watched  that one tree for just a short while and saw the following. Wattlebirds, Bluefaced Honeyeaters, Rainbow Lorikeets, Corellas, Musk Lorikeets, Magpies, Striated Thornbills, Rosellas, and King Parrots. In a neighbouring tree, there was a Southern Boobook Owl with its head tucked under its wing.



  






With the honeyeaters wre several young birds, these do not have the blue face of the adults but a continuation of the beautiful olive yellow colour of their backs. 


Some of the honeyeaters were pulling at loose bark on the tree trunks, using their beaks to pull of chunks. I assume they were eating the grubs and insects  found underneath. Whilst called honeyeaters, they are in fact omnivorous, aggressively feeding on everything from the eggs and young of other birds, insects small reptiles and nectar.

 

Night Heron

RUFOUS( NANKEEN NIGHT HERON) Nycticorax caledonicus)

In the last few months, when walking around the reservoir in Kilmore, I have seen, on several occasions, a flash of  pale brown, through the trees. Always too quick for me to get a proper look; perhaps a falcon hunting along the waterline or a bronze-wing pigeon?






I found a picture on Geoff Park's blog, Natural Newstead, of a large brown bird, a Nankeen Night Heron. That set me wondering whether that might be my 'flash of pale brown'.

My books tell me  that the Night Heron is reasonably common in this area of Victoria, though seldom seen. Ah, that could be what I am seeing.

 

Morcombe's Field Guide describes it as follows.

"Predominantly nocturnal, most likely seen if flushed from dense foliage of its daytime roost trees. It takes off with a croak of alarm; circles overhead with rapid wingbeats, neck hunched back, flight feathers translucent red under sunlight."

 

Today my bird flew a long loop around and settled up high in a pine tree, where it sat, almost hidden by the branches for the whole hour I waited for it to show itself. 

My  pictures are not particularly good but the long narrow tail like feathers growing from the head can be seen between wings as the bird flees my noisy approach. Certainly a Rufous (Nankeen) Night  Heron.

I will keep my eyes open and my feet quiet for my next visits. 

More Corellas

CORELLAS

We all know the sounds of the corellas in flight, wheeling across the sky, as they settle into trees on summer evenings.

Their calls to each other are the sounds of the Australian creeks and riversides.








The Kilmore Hospital Reservoir, once the Kilmore swimming pool, is a favourite gathering place for the corellas. There is water, there are tall trees for roosting and a golf course with long green fairways for digging and scratching.

As big a nuisance as they are, these highly social birds are beautiful. Just like a playground full of children at lunch time, they play, shout and race about, all for sheer pleasure of it.





Even within the large swirling numbers, it is possible to see the pairs. They fly in unison, wing beat for wing beat, before twist and turn to land amongst the topmost branches, spreading blossom like colours to the naked branches.