Pardalote Holt: Arid October

The land goes all crackly and bushfires threaten.

October has been dry, drier than a lizard's arse! Winds have combined with the heat dessicating the forest floor so that the leaves crackle beneath your feet. The water levels in the dams has dropped by a couple of feet. The plants have withered and one well established Grevillea was toppled by strong gusting winds. There was a bushfire within a kilometre or so and I spent a worrying day watching helicopters water bombing the leaping flames. In the same week Queensland experienced its first officially recognised fire tornado - imagine a twister, but composed of flames and spiralling 200m+ up into the sky, scary! The upshot of which is that any gardening consisted of lugging watering cans around trying to keep the more fragile plants alive.

To add to our woes Cheadle (the Border Collie) got in amongst the hens and killed them all except for Pierre who managed to jump the fence and hide behind a Tree Fern. As you can imagine this was pretty devastating for us. I was vastly relieved to find Pierre had survived, but over the next couple of nights when I put him into the roost it was obvious that he was extremely distressed and very lonely. I knew that getting more Salmon Faverolle hens would take months and so after a visit to the very nice and helpful Cat Wainright at Gold Coast Hinterland Poultry I obtained two girls to keep him company. I chose Silver Sussex, a heritage breed, because they were good all rounders and were large enough to be able to withstand Pierre's affections.

Isha steps out

The new Chooks (Joy & Isha - named after my sister and sister-in-law) soon put a spring back into his step and within seconds of them being introduced Pierre was doing his mating dance and we were away.

A happy Rooster

Over the next few weeks the girls proved that they were real professionals producing eggs daily and keeping Pierre happy, so despite our sad losses all is well in the hen house once more.

Joy turns broody

Towards the end of the month Joy turned broody and in the next post I will show you the results.

Susanne's interest in chooks stepped up a notch after a visit to Cat's chook sale and so we've added to our flock a trio of Partridge Wyandotte Bantams. Susanne named the cockeral Merlot and the hens Cab and Sav.

Sav and Merlot

Initially we kept them in a seperate coup as they were only a third of the size of Pierre and I was worried that he would bully them. After a few days I let them out into the main run and after a few stouches between the two cocks they settled down; however, Pierre was still in his loving mood and at this stage both Joy and Isha had gone broody and had taken to sitting on their eggs. Pierre saw Cab and Sav as two potential new members of his harem and acted appropriately. Merlot, who is a third of the size of Pierre was having none of this and threw himself at Pierre, knocking him off the startled Sav, and no sooner had Merlot landed than he whipped around, quick as a flash, and pecked the embarrased Pierre's backside. Pierre, obviously embarrassed by his ignoble humiliation retreated to the coop, but this was not the end of it. Several times over the next few days Pierre tried to mount the hens and each time Merlot bodyslammed him in the neck and pecked his arse. Pierre gave up. A couple of days later Isha stepped out of the nesting box for a breath of fresh air. Pierre obviously thought that this was his chance as Isha was one of his existing harem. He puffed up his chest, performed his mating shuffle and climbed aboard and then bang, Merlot whalloped him again. Whether Pierre's mating days are now over are yet to be seen, but we watch the hen house with interest.

Merlot calls the challenge.

and on to the wild birds....

Regulars (Seen at least x5 per week.)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove

Bar-shouldered Dove

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Bronzewing

Female Bronzewing

Brown Honeyeater
Bush Turkey
Dollarbird

Dollarbird

Double-barred Finch

Double-barred Finches snuggle up.

Forest Kingfisher
Galah
King Parrot
Laughing Kookaburra
Little Friarbird
Mallard Duck
Noisy Friarbird
Pacific Black Duck
Pale-headed Rosella
Peaceful Dove

Peaceful Dove comes a'courting

Pied Currawong
Rainbow Lorikeet

Rainbows queuing for the bird table on the one wet day in the month.

Spangled Drongo

Striated Paradalote
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
Welcome Swallow
Wood Duck
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Common (Seen at least x2 per week.)

Eastern Whipbird
Grey Shrike Thrush
Lewins Honeyeater
Magpie Lark
Noisy Miner
Scarlet-backed Fairy Wren
Scarlet Honeyeater
Varied Sitella
Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-throated Treecreeper
Willie Wagtail

Uncommon (Seen 2-3 times during the month)

Crested Pigeon
Figbird
Intermediate Egret