Pardalote Holt: The end of Autumn

Sunday, June 23, 2013

The end of Autumn

June 1st is supposed to be the first day of Winter in Australia, and so May would be the final month of Autumn. Unfortunately the seasons don't seem to take much notice of our arbitrary calender selections over here and so nature does its own thing.

The way it should be!

Local knowledge would have me believe that at this time of year I could enjoy long, dry, balmy days and cooler evenings, and for a good part of the month that was true, but on the 6-days that it rained...it wellied down! This would normally be a good time to be pruning, tree felling and cutting back the long grasses, but the 6-days of rain made things so wet that put a dampener (no pun intended) on all these activities. So, instead I built another garden bed and watched the birds.

First garden bed now established


New bed for veggies, protected by chicken wire and bird netting.

One of the high points of the month for me was finding an Echidna. They're probably fairly common in these parts, but this is the first I had seen. Unfortunately, it would turn over and let me have a look at its head and face and I wasn't going to do a Steve Irwin and poke it, so I only have a shot of its back.

Echidna

Moving swiftly on to the birds...

Regulars (Seen at least x5 per week)

Australian Magpie

Magpie's singing on the back deck

Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing
Bush Turkey
Eastern Spinebill


Eastern Spinebill & Brown Honeyeater feeding on Pineapple Sage

Galah

Mallard Duck
Pacific Black Duck

Pacific Black Duck & ducklings

Peaceful Dove
Pied Currawong
Rainbow Lorikeet
Torresian Crow
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Common (Seen at least x2 per week)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike

Eastern Whipbird
Grey Fantail

Grey Fantail

Pied Butcherbird

Rainbow Bee Eater

Spangled Drongo
Striated Pardalote
Welcome Swallow
Wood Duck
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Uncommon (Seen 2-5 times per month)

Brown Cuckoo Dove
Brown Honeyeater
Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella
Little Pied Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant

Olive-backed Oriole
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Pacific Baza

Pacific Baza

Pale-headed Rosella
Rufous Whistler

Female Rufous Whistler singing her heart out

Spotted Turtle Dove

Varied Sitella
Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-bellied Sea Eagle

White-bellied Sea Eagle

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Rare (Seen only once in the month)

Blue-cheeked Honeyeater
Brown Falcon
Brown Thornbill
Forest Kingfisher
Grey Shrike-Thrush
Golden Whistler
King Parrot
Lewins Honeyeater
Little Eagle
Little Friarbird
Little Black Cormorant
Scarlet-backed Fairy Wren
Variated Fairy Wren
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike

White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike

White-bellied Tree Creeper
White-thoated Honeyeater

Which is 56 species, one more than May last year (see post June 2012), but what I do find odd is that some of the birds that were common this time last year have become less so this year. The Double-barred Finch disappeared altogether and I was worried they had been eaten by something, until they re-appeared in June. The appearance of the Pacific Baza increased my concerns at the time, as although their normal food is stick insects and bugs they will eat small birds, and we did have 4 Baza's playing in the trees. In fact the Baza'z (pronounced Bar Za) where in the mating mood - see below.