Sacred Kingfisher

SACRED KINGFISHERS Todiramphus sanctus

I have been watching a pair of kingfishers for about a week now.

They have been busy feeding young in a tiny hole in a gum tree growing where the Dry Creek crosses Jeffrey's Lane, a little south of Broadford. I have not seen the young yet, the knot in the tree trunk is about three metres from the ground and it is not possible to see what is happening.






I am also very wary of getting too close at such a critical time.

The adults sit in the branches of nearby trees watching and waiting.  Baby sitting?




 After hunting, one will approach the nest tree but will land on a twig of a nearby tree. With it's mouth full with a small lizard, it will call to the young, 'kik, kik, kik. It is such a loud sound from such a small bird.
I can then here the young cheep in response to the adult's call.













 

 The adult then flies to the mouth of the hole, grasping the edge tightly with claws, it's tail pushed hard against the trunk to hold it tight. There doesn't seem to be room for the adult birds to enter.

The adult then flies off, back to the nearby twig, with the now slightly desiccated lizard still in it's mouth. 







It makes about five trips to the nest, each time returning to a nearby branch, where it rests and calls before returning. After each trip the lizard becomes more and more dismembered until there is just a final small final morsel left.




 

 I visit this site often, waiting for the young to emerge. I am interested to see how they will get out safely from such a tiny hole. Where will they perch whilst gaining strength and balance?

I will wait and see. 

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Rufous Whistler

RUFOUS WHISTLER Pachycephala rufiventris

 


 

Mt Piper, Broasford this morning, the calls of rufous whistlers were everywhere amongst the trees.

It was a warm Spring morning and the birds were very busy, both males and females out in the open areas hunting.

I imagine they are still feeding young as a number of the birds I saw were carrying insects in their beaks.

Olive-backed Oriole

  LIVE-BACKED ORIOLE

 

 

Over the years I have heard the oriole calling from around the Hospital Reservoir but have never been able to catch a good view of one.










Many time I have seen a bright olive flash as, what I assumed to be an oriole, quickly moved amongst the trees. That's all.
















Yesterday I could hear a gentle caroling from the eastern edge  reservoir followed by an answering call from the further bank.


 A flurry of feathers brought my attention to a pair of wattle birds in and out of the branches of a nearby tree. These wattle birds have been very aggressive lately. They will chase any bird; magpies, sparrows and spine- bills, loudly telling whichever bird they meet, that they should not be here.



















This time it was a pair of Olive-backed Orioles. The one I could see clearly was, I think, very young. It had no olive colouring on it's back but was beautifully marked with speckles across it's breast and had a lovely pink to red beak.

What a lovely song they have.

White-faced Heron

WHITE-FACED HERON

 
The Kilmore Cricket Club has a dam which it uses to water its ground. It is a rather deep dam with steep-sides so there is not always a lot of bird life around it.

Today, whilst the dam still has plenty of water in it, it is starting to shrink around the edges. There is a lot of grass, now turning to seed, growing along the damp edges. It is still October,  we are in for a very early summer season.












































A lone heron was amongst the grass at the water's edge. He or she was watching  the water, closely. A quick step and a beak-full of plump young fish.

Eastern Rosella

EASTERN ROSELLAS

There are plenty of red rosellas around Kilmore. Their bell like 'chinking' is everywhere in the bush,  around the town and amongst the town gardens.

The Eastern rosellas are not quite as common here, but their brilliant colours help them to stand out, particularly when they perch on a branch in the morning and afternoon sun.

One only needs to travel fifteen kilometres north to Broadford and the Eastern rosellas are more plentiful, particularly along the red-gum wooded lines of Sugarloaf and Dry Creeks

 

Grey Shrike-thrush

 

GREY SHRIKE-THRUSH

These beautiful grey and tan birds are very common around Kilmore. It is very easy to look past them to those little less common birds. They are very attractive birds about the size of our introduced garden thrush. Their colouring of soft grey with a tan back make them very handsome.




   

These birds are shrikes, they are hunters preying on insects and spiders, frogs and lizards, other small birds, nestlings and eggs. They do also seek out fruit and seeds at times.



 



On a day like to day their calling is beautiful to hear. They have many variations depending on the season and the time of the day. Today it was the sound of Spring. Michael Morcombe's book 'Field Guide To Australian Birds' describes it as 'quorra, quorra, quorra, WHIEET-CHIEW'.









 The Kilmore bush in the springtime, is loud with the calling of these birds.




 

Gang-Gang Cockatoos

GANG-GANG COCKATOOS

This afternoon when most other birds were quiet, there was quite a lot of chattering in a tall gum beside the golf course lake.









This pair of gang-gangs was busy at a hollow in the trunk. I watched as the male disappeared into the hole and the female looked on. After just a moment, the male bird reappeared with a chip of wood in his beak. This he dropped to the ground. He repeated this a few times before calling on his mate to take over.
 






She then disappeared in and out of the hole several times, also dropping chips to the ground. And they continued for all the time I watched. It was wonderful to see them working together to prepare their hollow for nesting, with some time for a bit of a gossip along the way. 

A Mixed Lot

BUTCHER-BIRD, RED ROSELLA AND FOXES

It was very quiet walking this morning in the bush around the Monument Hill.











I was trying to get close enough to some choughs for some pictures, when they took off with cries and whistles. They perched in the lower branches of a peppermint gum, looking attentively into a patch of cassinia scrub and all the while whistling to each other.







I waited a few moments and was then surprised to see this young fox sniffing around an uprooted tree stump. He seemed quite inattentive to his surroundings. At this time of the morning he should have been more watchful. I stood for quite a few minutes photographing, until a waft of breeze blew from behind me, letting him know I was there.



 

Red Rosellas always add a patch of colour to the bush

Scarlet Robin

Grey Butcher-Bird

White-plumed Honeyeater

WHITE-PLUMED HONEYEATER

 
Kilmore sewerage works and adjacent paddocks were very quiet this morning despite the bright Spring sunshine.



There were plenty of magpies but little else.


I did see a group of  honeyeaters but they were very fidgety, settling for just a few moments before flying off. They'd settle again, flirting with each other, then off again chasing each other in and around the small trees and saplings.



Springtime! I think they had things on their minds other than food today.

Pardalotes

STRIATED PARDALOTES

Out past Kilmore East is Nanny's Creek Road. It runs between Kilmore East and Sunday Creek. 

 

Half way, is a bridge across Nanny's Creek. No-one is quite sure who Nanny was but, she has creek and a bridge to carry her name. The bridge is a modern concrete affair and underneath are many mud swallow nests. It is rather cold and dark under the bridge and the nests are empty for most of the year.

 

 

 

There are often swallows about this area, flying about, over and under the roadway. There are usually families of pardalotes here also, busy amongst the grass and the wattle trees. For such small birds they are very vocal and the air is always filled with their chattering and calling. 

 

 

 

I was under the bridge today, hoping to see whether or not the swallows were using their old nests for raising this year's chicks. There was no sign of occupancy, but after sitting for quite a while, there was some movement. Not the swallows but pardolotes. In and out of two of the 'blocks of flats' were pardalotes. Carrying pieces of grass, it was obvious they were preparing themselves a place for their coming families.

 

 

Busy as they were, they seemed to have plenty of time for a little play, hanging upside down outside different doorways, taking time to preen themselves and even a little exploring of the various openings. Great fun!

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder will there be some confrontation when the original owners come looking for their old homes over the coming weeks. maybe, but it is good to see that even in the bird world, there is an ability to share and recycle resources. 

 

 

 

 

 

Pardalotes it seems,  are pretty good at making use of all sorts of nooks and crannies for their nesting,