Winter arrives and the world gets even drier.

All-in-all it was an odd month; very dry with only one very light shower over the whole month and a lot of windy days. I had a bit of a disaster when both of my camera lens gave up the ghost, but it did give me an excuse to upgrade to a 70-300mm lens, which is fantasadobi! (Not that it's made my camera work any better.

I lost a pullet to a Grey Goshawk early on in the month. My fellow chook breeders all started discussing how to kill the raptor when I mentioned this, and were somewhat aghast when I announced that I had no intention of killing such a beautiful bird of prey, however, something had to be done. The Goshawk stayed around for a couple of days and I made sure that he was aware that I was out and about, and despite giving the pullets a few more scares he was unsuccessful. Whilst he was missing, I was watching his tactics and it soon became obvious there was only one direction that he could really attack from and so a simple solution presented itself. I put up a 4m x 3m square white bird net, the sort of thing you protect your vegies with, as a panel blocking his attack vector.  It has worked superbly so far. As a net it hasn't been to affected by the winds, and we've had some strong ones since, and it's visible enough to put most birds off.

Anti-hawk net

A few birds have accidentally flown into it, having been startled by something, but they've just slid down the net and taken off again apparently with nothing more than a few ruffled feathers. Success!

In a fit of enthusiasm I've started erecting nesting boxes. Not as simple as back in the UK, you need to get them a lot further up the tree, and gum trees have less branches to fix them to, but after a while spent precariously balancing on my 5m ladder I eventually achieved the aim. Now we wait until Spring to see if anyone takes any notice of them

With a larger hole I'm hoping a pair of Parrots may take a shine to this one.

Nice view from the box, overlooking the dam.

On the chook front we finally got some Blue Faverolle chicks. We lost our Blue Faverolle cock to the heat earlier in the year and had to wait until the Splash cocks matured enough, but finally we have success.

Louis & Napoleon our Splash Faverolle cocks.

Blue Faverolle chicks making sure I've got the heat right.

And so, on to the birds...

Regulars (Seen at least x5 per week)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove

Bar-Shouldered Dove stepping out on the drive.

Bronzewing

female Common Bronzewing

Double-barred Finch
Dusky Moorhen
Eastern Spinebill

Eastern Spinebill feeding on the Pineapple Sage

Galah
Grey Fantail

Grey Fantail

Mallard

Monty Mallard on the bird table

Pacific Black Duck
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck

Purple Swamphen

Purple Swamphen

Rainbow Lorikeet
Striated Pardalote
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Common (Seen at least x2 per week)


Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Honeyeater
Grey Butcherbird
Grey Shrike Thrush
Laughing Kookaburra

Laughing Kookaburra

Lewin's Honeyeater
Noisy Miner
Rainbow Bee Eater
Welcome Swallow
White-throated Gerygone
Wood Duck
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo


Uncommon (Seen 2-5 times per month)

Golden Whistler
Grey Goshawk
Magpie Lark
Noisy Friarbird
Olive-backed Oriole
Pale-headed Rosella
Peaceful Dove
Rose Robin

Rose Robin

Rufous Whistler
Silvereye

Silvereye in a Wattle

Varied Sitella
Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike
White-eyed Duck

White-eyed Duck (Hardhead) surrounded by a flotilla of Plumed Whistling Duck and a lone Pacific Black Duck

White-throated Treecreeper
Willie Wagtail
Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Rare (Seen only once in the month)

Blue-faced Honeyeater
Brown Goshawk
Figbird
Little Corella
Pale-headed Rosella
Spangled Drongo
Tawny Frogmouth


Which is 53-species, which is 10 below last June.  The number surprised me as there seemed to be a lot of birds around, especially the smaller species, but I'm confident the spread will improve.

The merry month of May comes round again

I was looking back at last May's blog and the monthly numbers are very similar, 56-species in 2013 and 57-species this year. With that in mind one would expect the bird species to be very similar, but whilst there are some regular seasonal trends such as the re-appearance of the Easter Spinebills, there are a few oddities.  The continuing rise of the Plumed Whistling Duck numbers continues, up to 134 at last count, and the Dusky Moorhen and pair of Purple Swamphens have become permanent features although there has still been no sign of the Bush Turkeys since the hailstorm last November. The number of small birds has increased dramatically, with Grey Fantails appearing on almost every other tree, and both Golden and Rufous Whistler numbers are increasing.

The saddest moment of the month was the death of Cheadle, my Border Collie.  Over a period of just a few days he lost his appetite and took to spending his time just sitting in the long grass down by the creek.  We took him to the vet, who told us that it was his time to go and so I made the extremely hard decision to have him put to sleep. I'm still emotional about it now, so I'll move on to other subjects.

Cheadle - sorely missed.

We had a couple of firsts for the Holt with a brace of Tree Martins flying with the Welcome Swallows and a lone Musk Lorikeet appearing on an emu feeder. I understand that around 750 of the 850 bird species can be seen on the Gold Coast and we're only reaching the 200 mark so there's still a lot of potential, although our specific habitat will make some limits.  I was really pleased to see the Rose Robins again, a beautiful little bird. I saw a pair of them on four separate occasions and have seen them since, so I'm hoping they may become regulars. I'm afraid these are archive shots because my camera is in the repair shop.

Female Rose Robin

Male Rose Robin

As we say farewell to Cheadle we say hello to a new member of the household, Montague.  Monty is a red Burmese, following Susanne's affection for the breed, and has already settled in. He was five months old and sitting in a glass box in a local pet shop, which Susanne passed on a regular basis. As the weeks passed his siblings were all purchased, leaving the kitty all alone.  Susanne felt she couldn't leave him there in the 'aquarium' and so after a few negotiations over the price he's joined the family. He's already proving to be a real character and spends lots of time playing with Tolkien (another cat that thinks he's a dog!).

Monty bird watching.

I'm just cute and innocent!

Will somebody fill the damn water bowl.

Go on, give me some. You know that ice-cream isn't good for you...please.

And onto the birds...

Regulars (Seen at least x5 per week)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing
Double-barred Finch
Dusky Moorhen
Galah
Grey Fantail
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck

Plumed Whistling Ducks at feeding time,

Purple Swamphen
Rainbow Lorikeet

Rainbow Lorikeets on a seed bell

Striated Pardalote
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Common (Seen at least x2 per week)

Eastern Spinebill
Grey Butcherbird
Lewin's Honeyeater
Noisy Miner
Rainbow Bee Eater
Welcome Swallow
Willie Wagtail

Uncommon (Seen 2-5 times per month)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Blue-faced Honeyeater
Brown Honeyeater
Collared Sparrowhawk
Eastern Yellow Robin
Golden Whistler
Grey Shrike Thrush

A Grey Shrike Thrush - dull colours but a wonderful juicy song.

Figbird
Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella

Little Corellas and a Galah on the old gum tree.

Magpie Lark
Noisy Friarbird
Pale-headed Rosella
Red-backed Fairy Wren
Rose Robin
Rufous Whistler
Scarlet Honeyeater
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater
White-throated Treecreeper
Wood Duck
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Rare (Seen only once in the month)

Brown Thornbill
Grey Goshawk
Musk Lorikeet

A Musk Lorikeet - a first for the Holt

Satin Flycatcher

Satin Flycatcher on a Tree Fern

Silvereye
Tree Martin
Variated Fairy Wren
Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-faced Heron
Yellow-rumped Thornbill

And that's 57 species.  Next post winter arrives.

April and a little pottering going on...

It's mid-Autumn in Queensland and the cooler nights are beginning to settle in.  We had enough rain to top-up the tanks (at last!), but the dams are still below their normal levels. The Whistling ducks are still with us and are beginning to become a bit of a problem, because there's just too many of them. They try to steal the chook food and are causing quite a bit of erosion around the dam walls.  They're beautiful birds and I don't want to lose them entirely, but if their numbers dropped from the current 90+ to around a dozen I wouldn't complain.

Tolkien having a dip

 I've just been pottering this month. I've replaced most of the roofs of the chook sheds with steel roofing left over after after the house roofs had been replaced.  A little hail dented, but far better than the cheap wooden roofs that were there before.  We've only had this coop a year or so and it was leaking like a sieve.  The shade netting is there to hide them from passing raptors.

 

The roofs of the coops are replaced with wriggly tin

 It's been 6-months since the hail storm and the land has now repaired itself. If you know what you are looking for you can still see the scars on the branches where the hail scored them, but otherwise it's as if the storm never happened.  Having said that, as I mentioned in the last post, there has been some changes in the bird life with the complete absence of Bush Turkeys and reduced numbers of King Parrots, balanced to some extent by the horde of Plumed Whistling Ducks and the pair of Purple Swamphens and the Dusky Moorhen that have taken up residence.

The end of the Lap Swamp

We seem to have got the chook production line working well now. We have two brooders, two pullet runs and two main runs, all of which are usually full. Every 3-4 weeks I take another batch of eggs to Cat and her incubators and three weeks later she hands me back another batch of chicks.  They spend their nights in the brooders and days in the 'Chick run' until they become too big and need to be moved into a pullet run at about 4-weeks old.  They will stay in the pullet run for the next 8-12 weeks at which point they will either go off for sale, or if they are of particularly fine quality they may join the breeding flocks.

Two chicks taking up residence on the table.

 It does mean that we've become Hobby Farmers, or Chook Breeders, which is much further than I had planned to go, but I kind of like having chooks all over the place.

A pair of Salmon Faverolle Cockerels enjoying the afternoon sun.

Even if they do spend a great deal of time and effort digging up my flower beds!

A trio of 3-week old chicks taking a rest from digging up the flower beds!

 We've had a couple of small storms come through.  I was worried one day when we saw what I thought was going to turn into a twister, but to my relief it just got wet and windy.

I thought we had a twister on the way, but just rain.

This little chap was spotted by Julia Wallace when she and Martin came to visit.  The poor little fellah had been rooted out of the undergrowth by the dogs and had taken cover in the upper branches of the Grevillea whilst the dogs continued to search below.  It's not a mouse, it's a Grassland Melomys, although I have no idea what the big differences are.  You will all be glad to know that I called the dogs in and the Melomys was able to go back to enjoying the undergrowth.

A Grassland Melomys understandably scared watching the dogs searching for him below the Grevillea.

And now to the birds

Regulars (Seen at least x5 per week)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing
Double-barred Finch
Dusky Moorhen
Galah

Galahs on the bird feeder

Grey Butcherbird
Magpie Lark
Noisy Miner
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck
Purple Swamphen
Rainbow Lorikeet
Striated Pardalote
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
Welcome Swallow
Wood Duck
Willy Wagtail
Wood Duck
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Common (Seen at least twice a week)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Eastern Whipbird
Grey Fantail
Laughing Kookaburra
Noisy Friarbird
Pale-headed Rosella
Rainbow Bee Eater
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater

Uncommon (Seen 2-5 times a month)

Blue-faced Honeyeater
Brown Honeyeater
Eastern Yellow Robin
Figbird
Golden Whistler
Grey Shrike-thrush

Grey Shrike Thrush

Hardhead Duck
King Parrot
Lewins Honeyeater
Olive-backed Oriole

Male Olive-backed Oriole

Female Olive-backed Oriole

Red-backed Fairy Wren
Rufous Whistler
Spangled Drongo
White-throated Treecreeper
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Rare (Seen only once in the month)

Brown Cuckoo Dove
Collared Sparrowhawk
Crested Pigeon
Dollarbird
Fan-tailed Cuckoo
Grey Goshawk

Grey Goshawk

Little Wattlebird
Hardhead

Hardhead or White-Eyed Duck

Mallard
Rose Robin
Satin Flycatcher

Satin Flycatcher

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Straw-necked Ibis
Varied Sitella
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Whistling Kite
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike


Which is 62-species, well, it was a quiet month.

March and much about Ducks

Plumed Whistling ducks line the banks of the dam.

When we first built Pardalote Holt and it's dam we were delighted to welcome, after a very short period, our first ducks to the dam.  These brave and intrepid colonizers were Pacific Black Ducks, common across most of Australia and largely, very well behaved. Before long the PBDs were joined by Wood Ducks, very commonly seen locally, but really more suited to grasslands and farms than in the thicker wooded areas such as Pardalote Holt.  Over the next few years that was about it apart from the very occasional visit of a lone Grey Teal or Hardhead, that would stay for a day or so and then wander off.  Another visitor who has been seen on a far more regular basis is a Mallard drake, presumably escaped from someone's collection. At any one time it was rare to see more than a dozen or so ducks on the dam.

Hardhead Duck

A few years ago, at Christmas, we were visited by a pair of Plumed Whistling Ducks, real beauties with barred chestnut coloured bellies and 'upswept cream flank-plumes'.  As with the other 'rarities' they stayed a few days and then pushed off, but the following Christmas they reappeared, and the next Christmas again.  For the last 4-5 years I would be awaiting their arrival for the festive season and they never let me down. I have no idea whether it was the same pair, or whether it was just the time of the year that the species passed through the region, but they never let me down.

Last year things changed. Instead of Christmas the Plumed Whistling Ducks arrived early, just a few days before the hail storm, and instead of a lone pair there was a dozen of them.  When the hail storm hit one was unfortunately killed, but the others stayed on, so I got used to the pleasure of seeing them on the dam on a daily basis.  I still expected them to move on in January, as had happened in the past, but not only did they stay, but more joined them.

Plumed Whistling Ducks craning to see what's happening.

By the end of February the number of Plumed Whistling Ducks on the dam had increased to 65 comprising at least four distinct family groups, each taking one part of the dam walls to preen and roost.  When one family came in contact with another there would be quite a kafuffle as each group competed for territory.  No real violence, but a lot of bowed heads, strutting and a lot of noise.  Pizzey & Knight describe the call as a 'spirited whizzing whistle' and this suits well.  Normally not too noticeable, but when family groups collide this would raise to cacophony level and if I was on the phone would have to retreat indoors.

However, things haven't stopped there and the numbers have continued to rise.  Yesterday a passing Collared Sparrowhawk spooked them onto the waters of the dam all at once and I was able to count them fully.  92- ducks!  Add this to the two dozen PBD's and 8- 10 Wood Ducks and my small patch of water is now home to over a hundred ducks, none of whom show any sign of moving on.  When I'm filling the birdtables in the morning I almost feel as if I'm being shepherded around by the ducks as I move around to the main 'duck table'. I frequently have to chase them out of the chook runs as they try to sneak in and steal the chook's grain.

Plumed Whistling Duck trying to sneak into the chook runs.

At about the same time that the Plumed Whistling Ducks appeared we were also joined by a lone Dusky Moorhen and a pair of Purple Swamphens.

Purple Swamphen on the bird feeder.

The former is very quiet and goes about his business without fuss, but the latter parade around the dam making all sorts of strange calls.  To quote Pizzey & Knight again, their calls include 'high-pitched rasping screeches, nasal 'nerks', cooings and unusual liquid thuds'. I can attest to all these strange sounds but would add another sound that is similar to an over inflated football being kicked very hard whilst held still...well, it's very difficult to describe.  Now, there's no doubt that it's the Purple Swamphens that are the masters of the dam as not only will they lord it about, but they will also lay into a family group of Plumed Whistling Ducks, causing them to scatter and come into contact with the other groups and so igniting another spasm of spirited whizzing whistling.  Whoever said it was quiet in the country had obviously never visited our dam.

Since the storm, almost 6-months ago now, the vegetation has largely regrown, but former regular visitors are noticeably absent.  The Brush Turkeys haven't been seen at all, and Sparky and the King Parrots have been irregular at best.  On the other side of the coin we have been blessed with a lot of other birds, particularly smaller birds such as Cuckoos, Whistlers and Eastern Yellow Robins, who have appeared far more often than in the past'

March Birds

Regulars (Seen at least x5 per week)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing
Double-barred Finch
Dusky Moorhen
Galah
Grey Butcherbird

Grey Butcherbird

Magpie Lark
Noisy Miner
Pacific Black Duck
Pale-headed Rosella

Pale-headed Rosella

Peaceful Dove
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck
Purple Swamphen
Rainbow Lorikeet
Striated Pardalote
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow

Torresian Crows

Welcome Swallow
Wood Duck
Willy Wagtail

Willie Wagtail

Wood Duck

Common (Seen at least twice a week)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Honeyeater
Laughing Kookaburra
Noisy Friarbird
Rainbow Bee Eater
White-throated Gerygone

Uncommon (Seen 2-5 times a month)

Blue-faced Honeyeater
Cicadabird

Female Cicadabird in full song

Dollarbird
Eastern Whipbird
Eastern Yellow Robin
Figbird
Forest Kingfisher
Golden Whistler
Grey Shrike-thrush
Hardhead Duck
King Parrot
Leaden Flycatcher
Olive-backed Oriole
Red-backed Fairy Wren
Rufous Fantail
Rufous Whistler
Satin Flycatcher
Spangled Drongo
Spotted Turtle Dove
White-throated Honeyeater
White-throated Treecreeper
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Rare (Seen only once in the month)

Brown Cuckoo Dove
Brown Goshawk
Lewins Honeyeater
Little Pied Cormorant
Masked Plover
Pacific Baza
Pied Butcherbird
Silvereye
Tree Martin
Variegated Fairy Wren
Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike
White-faced Heron

Which is 65-species!

And then of course there's the chooks and the day-to-day stuff...

Black Crow Butterfly

Tolkien having a nap

Wanderer Butterfly (US name Monarch)

Chicks having a day out of the brooder

Pullets hoping for tidbits.

Teddy and Dotty (Cuckoo Faverolles), Betty (Black Faverolle) and Charlotte and Jane (Blue Faverolles)

A Lace Monitor scaring the ducks.

The land 5-months post storm.

A native Violet.