Cormorants

CORMORANTS; LITTLE BLACK AND PIED

Such a wintry day!!


Very cold today, hail and rain one moment, then brilliant winter sun, followed by fierce winds off the Antarctic. There was snow about on the nearby hills.

I snuck out during a brief moment of sunshine to see what was happening on the Hospital Reservoir. Funny that, it is called the Hospital Res, although it lies in the middle of the golf course.









The water birds were out and about, they don't mind the wet weather.



On a log with the late sun shining on them were a group of cormorants, both Pied and Little Black cormorants. What beautiful green eyes the Little Black Cormorants have .

 

Straw-necked Ibis

STRAW-NECKED IBIS Threskiornis spinnicolis

It has been a wet week in Kilmore and the ground in the flatter areas in quite waterlogged.










At the twin bridges, to the west of town, there was a large number of straw-necked ibis, browsing amongst the grass and puddles. They do stand out when the sun shines on them, brilliant purple sheen from their wings, contrast beautifully against the white breasts.




 With so many birds, it was a little hard to get close enough for clear pictures. There were always some of their number watching out for what was going on.

Males and females are similar, the females in these picture stand out a little with some black banding across their chests.

 

The beaks have a downward curve, well shaped for finding food in shallow waters and grassland. They feed on a variety of insects, water creatures, frogs and small shell fish.  Their love of crickets and grasshoppers have given them the title of 'farmers' friends'






 Large numbers of straw-necked ibis can often be found on rubbish sites across Australia. They look dirty in these situations, covered from grime in their search for edible scraps amongst the rubbish. They do not have the pristine and bright look of birds of the wetlands.

Black Shouldered Kite

BLACK SHOULDERED KITE

Another wet and windy winter's day in Kilmore. Actually it was bright sunshine when I set out but turned to rain by the time I reached the twin bridges, a few kilometres to the West of town












Once again the Black Shouldered Kite was out and about. Perhaps it was the same one I looked at the day before.









 It was raining quite heavily when I stopped the car, but the kite continued his or her hunting, unconcerned that I was close by.

It remained over the same place for a few moments, its eyes very fixed on a spot on the ground.






It was only after a number of trucks passed with lots of noise and splashing of water, that the kite flew off a little distance to hunt over a neighbouring paddock.

It was too far off in the rain for me to see whether or not the hunting was successful.

Black Shouldered Kite

BLACK SHOULDERED KITE

The Forbes Moranding Road runs between Forbes, on the Kilmore Lancefield Road and Moranding, which is on the Northern Highway. In the early years of 1850s, this was an alternative route from Melbourne to the Heathcote/Bendigo road, a little more direct overland route.





 
There was some gold found in this area, Diggings Road runs into the Goldie hills, to the west off this road.



















It is a beautiful area. There are still  a few larger farms in the area, although most of the and is settled now into 20 to 100 acre lots.








Driving the other day, I saw this majestic looking kite, sitting on a dead tree. He sat so patiently as I stopped and photographed him (or her)

Eastern Spinebills

EASTERN SPINEBILLS

The winter flowers are beginning to show around our and our neighbours' houses at this time. There are native correas, wattles, a large number of euclaypyts as well as a variety of garden plants.

We have a number of spinebill families around us. Last year they were nesting in the thicker shrubs and crannies up and down the gardens of the street.






 
I had a one nest in the wood pile, another in  a banksia rose which climbed up a bedroom wall, My neighbour had several also, one in her garden shed and another in a camellia hedge. There were plenty of young families about.

 And on the sunny winter days, they are all busy feeding along with the wattle birds and other honey-eaters






Yesterday the spinebills were particularly busy in amongst the shrubs and plants. For such timy birds they are quite vocal, calling and chattering to each other. I was interested to see them so busy amongst the English flowers. I thought they would be more interested in the native plants, but one group spent a long, long time feeding on the emerging wall flowers.  There must be plenty of nectar to keep them interested. Several birds had almost yellow faces from the pollen they dusted themselves with as they fed.

House Sparrows

SPARROWS Passer domesticus

I acme across an old piece of music, hidden away amongst some early jazz. It was written in 1905, as a gospel hymn and although the words are a little sweet for today's tastes, it is a lovely piano piece. The words are quite pretty also. "His Eye Is On The Sparrow  and I know He is watching me". 







I can't help looking at sparrows now without that tune coming into my head.






 It is very to dismiss this, the most common of our neighborhood birds. It is particularity so when some of those birds are 'introduced' species. Birds, animals and plants were introduced to Australia in the 1860s by well meaning colonialists who hoped to enrich the country's flora and fauna with the loved species from home. Wikipedia has the following to say about Acclimatisation societies.

Acclimatization societies were voluntary organizations in the 19th and 20th centuries that encouraged the introduction of non-native species in various places around the world with the hope of their acclimatisation and adaption. The motivation at the time was a sense that introducing these species of plants and animals would enrich the flora and fauna of a region. These societies were born during a period of colonialisation when Europeans began to settle in unfamiliar environments, and the movement sought to establish familiar plants and animals (mainly from Europe) in new areas while also bringing exotic and useful foreign plants and animals into the European centres.

 







The common house sparrow is probably our most common garden visitor. They are familiar to most Australians although they have not yet become established in Western Australia because of the prevention measures carried out by the Department of Agriculture and Food.

      

Striated Thornbills

STRIATED THORNBILL Arcanthiza-lineata

Once again a cold winters morning after a good frost.

These thornbills were very active amongst small eucalypts, picking away at whatever they could find on the leaves. There are plenty of lerps on the trees about here, perhaps that is what was attracting them.










These birds were on the slopes of Mt Piper, about ten kilometres to the north of Kilmore. Mt Piper is a nature reserve, in most parts, heavily timmbered. But around the edges where the reserve meets the farmland, it  is more open and a good haven for little brown birds. Here grows a mixture of small black wattles, cassinia scrub, blackberry bushes and small euclaypts and there is always plenty of early morning sunshine here between the trees.





 


Being a little more open it is difficult to get very close to these mouse sized birds. They move in groups of up to a dozen, so there is always one of them acting as the lookout, ready to raise the alarm.










They move very quickly, rarely remaining in one place for more than a few seconds. In and out of the leaves they fly, perching for a just a few  moments to see that all is safe, before darting back in amongst the foliage. This makes it quite quite difficult to get a clean picture of them.

Superb Fairy-Wrens

SUPERB FAIRY-WRENS  Malurus cyaneus

There were plenty of wrens about today around Kelly's Bridge at Kilmore East.

It was a cold but clear winter's morning, very cold.









The wrens were very busy. A group of fifteen or twenty birds were in and about the wattle tree. They would chatter amongst the trees before moving down to  the ground to continue their foraging.







 One bird had a worm in its beak which was about twice as large as the bird itself. The worm was flipped around and softened a little before being hit against the branches on the perch.

I think these are young males, not yet into their full breeding colours.

Brown Tree Creeper

BROWN TREE CREEPER Climacteris picumnus

Out near the Sewerage Treatment, to the west  of Kilmore, is a paddock owned by the Trust For Nature Foundation.





The only access to this paddock is via a track alongside the ponds.







The ponds are always busy with a number of water birds, so it is a good place for a walk with a camera.




The Trust for Nature paddock is about ten or fifteen acres in size, lightly wooded and free of grazing animals. Here too there are always plenty of birds to see.

Today I watched a number of tree creepers, busy up and down the trees. No! They were busy going up the trees. They fly in low to a tree and make their way upwards, picking at the bark as they go. There  must be plenty  of food about at the moment because each bird takes quite a time to move from low down the trunk to the very tips of the trees.

These, I think are Brown Tree Creepers. They have  beautifully striated flecks running down their chests and sides, tan on whit and hence the name brown tree creepers.

The male has short flecks on his upper chest, about where he might tie his bow tie.