Summer rises

Last day of the month and year, I better get my skates on and get the November post out! November followed the continuing theme of dry days although the weather was beginning to warm as we finally reached summer.  The days were marginally longer (no long summer nights like you get back in the UK!) and the garden was looking very dry and very tired. The Grevilleas flowers were coming to an end and even the Bougainvilleas were beginning to run out of puff.  The dams were almost a metre off their normal height and several of the lilies that were trying to flower had been beached. The Milfoil was doing its best to add a splash of sunny yellow along the margins of the Lap Swamp, but the back dam was still looking green and murky thanks to the Plumed Whistling Ducks. According to the weather people Queensland had received only a fraction of its normal annual rainfall and although we weren't suffering anything like those towns and properties in the west of the state the forest floor was very crackly and dry under foot.

With all the dry weather the strimmer (whipper-snipper in Australia) was gathering cobwebs in the shed and most of my attention was on keeping the chooks from dying of heat stroke. A couple of days were really hot, nudging past 40 degrees, but I've now learned how to manage the heat better. The pullets have a tarp shade tent over their run and I open all the coop doors and laying box lids and that allows what breeze there is to flow through the coops. The chicks in the nursery would be moved each day as the sun swung around the house. By late morning I'd move them from the nursery into a caged frame on a table on the back deck and then again in the afternoon to a second nursery in the now shaded back garden.  I had to move the brooders of the really young ones indoors, into the air-conditioning, as the heat in the garage became stifling.  In the end I still lost a couple of the younger pullets, but it could have been a lot worse.  Despite all the heat the chooks kept laying and eventually I decided to stop putting eggs aside for the incubators with the full summer in sight as I would have had too many chicks indoors.

Another problem that reared its head was a rat infestation in my workshop.  Monty the cat did his best to keep the numbers down, but eventually I had to turn to laying poison. I really didn't want to go down this path, especially as the danger of one of the cats or dogs eating a poisoned rat was real, but I carefully monitored the surrounds and picked up any carcasses before this could happen, and I think we've got the problem whipped for the time being.

Down on the dams the Purple Swamphens played a continual cycle of building new nest, mating, and then abandoning the nest and moving to a new site before starting the process again. I've been really hoping for a group of gangly moorhen chicks, but they are still at it now.

Nest number 3

At the end of the month we were treated to the arrival of a mother Pacific Black Duck and ten freshly minted ducklings, which have kept me engaged ever since.

Momma duck and her brood.

and of course, Nitesh the Peacock has continued to enthrall me.

Well it's time for the monthly bird count....

Regulars  (seen at least 5 days in the week)

Australian Magpie

Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing
Channel-billed Cuckoo

Channel-billed Cuckoo

Common Mynah
Double-barred Finch

Galah

Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella

Little Friarbird
Magpie Lark
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner

Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck

Pacific Black Duck

Peaceful Dove

Peaceful Dove

Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck
Purple Swamphen

Rainbow Lorikeet

Rainbow Lorikeets

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Welcome Swallow
White-throated Gerygone
Wood Duck
Torresian Crow

 Common (Seen at least twice a week)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Honeyeater

Buff-banded Rail

Forest Kingfisher
Grey Shrike Thrush
King Parrot
Pale Headed Rosella

Pale-headed Rosella

Pied Butcherbird
Spangled Drongo

Variegated Fairy Wren

White-throated Honeyeater

White-throated Treecreeper

Uncommon (Seen two to five times during the month)

Blue-faced Honeyeater
Brown Cuckoo Dove
Cattle Egret
Cicadabird

The shy and secretive Cicadabird

Collared Sparrowhawk
Common Koel

Crested Pigeon
Dollarbird
Eastern Yellow Robin
Grey Butcherbird
Red-backed Fairy Wren
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Striated Pardalote
Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-headed Pigeon

White-headed Pigeon

White-faced Heron

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Rare (Seen only once)


Brown Falcon
Figbird

Female Figbird

Golden Whistler
Letter-winged Kite
Little Friarbird

Pheasant Coucal
Rufous Whistler

Male Rufous Whistler

White-bellied Sea Eagle

Willie Wagtail
Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Yellow-rumped Thornbill in the Brush Box.

Which tots up to 64-species, two better than last year and twenty better than the year before. Maybe I'm just getting better at spotting them.

One year on...

On 18th Nov 2013 we got smashed by an intense hail storm. We had to have new roofs on the house, garage, workshops and chicken coops, a new solar hot water system, down pipes, guttering and four windows.  The surrounding woodland was shredded with hardly a leaf left on any of the trees and there were numerous casualties amongst the wildlife population.

Battered Tree Ferns

Stripped Gum Trees

Nature had a nasty fit and unfortunately we were the collateral damage; however, a year has passed and the land has largely recovered.  It took some months for the foliage to return to its former glory, but it got there, and the wildlife has bounced back, but there have been changes.

The Brush Box and Casuarinas stripped of leaves.

The Back Dam and surrounding forest stripped bare.

By January the foliage was recovering well, although my tea was getting a tad cold!

By March the Tree Ferns were surging back.

And now, 12-months on the gardens are lush again.

Whether they were there before and I just didn't see them or maybe they've come along since, we have benefited from both new plants and birds. Rising from the leaf litter smaller flowers have sprung up and the native Raspberries have spread considerably.

Native Violets

and Hyacinth Orchids

The Back Dam has recovered, although more recently has taken a hammering from an overabundance of Plumed Whistling Ducks, but it's the Lap Swamp that has flourished.

The Lap Swamp after the storm

One year on

The water level is down but the reeds are flourishing.

and the margins have been colonised by Wavy Marshwort

Nymphoides crenata - Wavy Marshwort

On the wildlife front we have seen an increase in Koalas and now we hear them growling in the trees virtually every night.

An apparently contented Koala

There seems to have been an increase in the number of lizard sightings, especially the large Lace Monitors.

A Lace Monitor stalking the Back Dam wall.

The changes on the bird front have been obvious as well. On the downside we have lost the resident pair of Bush Turkeys. They haven't been seen since the storm.  On the positive side we have picked up a resident pair of Purple Swamphens, who are even now nesting on the Back Dam.

Purple Swamphen on the nest

The Plumed Whistling Ducks have been a bit of a mixed blessing. The first group of around a dozen arrived the day before the storm and stayed. Their numbers increased to a peak of 135 by April and now have dropped down to a far more reasonable 50-60 ducks.  They are beautiful birds, but they've worn away much of the grass on the Back Dam wall, eaten all the Water Milfoil on the dam (which was a weed anyway!) and for a while drove away the other ducks. I had expected them to fly off for a breeding season, but they've now been here for just over the year so maybe they are here to stay.

Plumed Whistling Ducks

Another bird that has become resident this year is the Little Corellas, with a pair now visiting the feeding stations daily.

Snowball & Snowflake at the feeding station

There also seems to have been an increase in the numbers of smaller birds such as Leaden Flycatchers and Eastern Yellow Robins, both identified as breeding on the land.

Leaden Flycatcher

Eastern Yellow Robin

And so, all in all, nature appears to have achieved its balance once more, but I do hope that we don't get another hail storm like that again.

All change, but stay the same...

October is normally dry and warm, it's springtime and the flowers are all coming out, but this year Queensland recorded its hottest October on record and one of its driest with a mere 6mm of rain recorded across the state, and I don't know who got that 6mm shower, but it wasn't us. Most mornings I record the temperature at 8am and this month it bounced around the 20-22 degrees mark, hitting 30 degrees at 7 am on the 28th after a stinking hot day before when the mercury climbed to 38 degrees in the shade. Now that's not fun, and I had to spend a lot of time during that period ensuring the chooks didn't die of heat exhaustion. The dam levels are down by almost a metre, and the back dam waters have been heavily muddied by the flock of Whistling Ducks, still here after almost a year.

With Susanne away in India I was free to potter away to my hearts content, not having to stop for inconveniences like meal times and the like, so I was able to erect another chook coop for my Cuckoo and Black Faverolles, and a rather major construction for me, a Peacock run.  A friend had called earlier in the month and told me that he was planning on getting rid of his peacocks. Either I could take them or he was going to offer them to his local butcher in exchange for a slab of meat. I couldn't have such beautiful birds slaughtered, so I went into overdrive and built their new home.  I managed to pick up two old and well loved octagonal aviaries on Gumtree, which I used as bookends for the run and then built a two and a half metre wide by six metre long run between the two.  This eventually turned out to be a tad too compact for the Peacock when he was displaying, so I widened part of the run by another couple of metres so the pair now seem happy in their new home. So happy that the Peahen has laid 4 eggs!  The whole thing looks a bit Heath Robinson, but it works, and once they have settled, a period of about 6-months according to the experts, I'll be able to let them free range about the land.

Nitesh the Peacock

The reason for the title, 'All change, but stay the same' comes from my recent birding observations. From July through to September we saw the season of the small birds. Beginning with the Grey Fantails and then followed by Golden Whistlers, Eastern Yellow Robins and a host of honeyeaters we saw the shrubs and bushes alive with small birds. It's no surprise that their arrival coincided with the flowering of the Grevilleas that offer rich nectar for both the birds and the insects, but as we moved into October and the Grevilleas began to fade so the numbers of small birds dropped, but they are being replaced by the larger migrants.  Dollarbirds are the first to arrive, growling and churring from the tree tops and then the Channel-billed Cuckoos, the Pheasant Coucal, Common Koel and Spangled Drongos.  Some birds are here throughout the year; the bulk of the parrots, the ducks, pigeons and doves, but the numbers ebb and flow as the seasons change. The Pale-headed Rosella numbers decline whilst the the King Parrots increase. Many birds are nesting; the Welcome Swallows built a new nest in the garage and their 4 fledgelings took to the wing in early November.

Welcome Swallow on the security lights

There have been juvenile Robins and Whistlers hopping around in the under-storey, and young Olive-backed Orioles following their parents through the upper canopy of the gums.

We've had a few new visitors as well. A Buff-banded Rail appeared on the dam and stayed for about 3-weeks. A shy and secretive bird that I was really pleased to be able to photograph.

Buff-banded Rail

 Less welcome are a pair of Common Mynahs, an invader species, that appear to have set up home in the trees behind the water tanks. I have mixed feelings about Mynahs and the indigenous Noisy Miners, as they are bully birds that worry and mob smaller birds, having said that I have as yet to see them do that at the Holt.

As the Grevilleas withdraw from public life the Bougainvilleas really hit their pace and this year we have had a really impressive flowering. Although they provide little food for the birds (other than the insects they attract) they do provide them with good cover from the marauding raptors.

Bougainvilleas on the dam wall.

The first of the Wattles, the David's Tree has been really doing well, smothered with trails of golden pea-like flowers and constantly buzzing with bees, who seem to love it.

David's Tree in full bloom

On the mammal front the Koalas have been particularly active, the males calling (growling) most evenings, and the Red-necked Wallabies have been sneaking up close to the house in search of greener food; however, it's time for the monthly bird list.


Regulars  (seen at least 5 days in the week)

Australian Magpie

Australian Magpie sunbathing

Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing
Double-barred Finch

Double-barred Finch

Galah

King Parrot

Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella

Little Friarbird
Magpie Lark
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner

Noisy Miner in the Silky Oak, the largest native Grevillea.

Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck

Pacific Black duck take-off.

Peaceful Dove
Pied Butcherbird
Pied Currawong

Pied Currawong in the Silky Oak

Plumed Whistling Duck
Purple Swamphen

Rainbow Lorikeet

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Welcome Swallow
White-throated Gerygone
Torresian Crow

 Common (Seen at least twice a week)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike in the Brush Box

Buff-banded Rail

Buff-banded Rail

Common Mynah

Common Mynah

Dollarbird
Forest Kingfisher
Grey Shrike Thrush
Leaden Flycatcher

Male Leaden Flycatcher in full song.

Variegated Fairy Wren

Variegated Fairy Wren

Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-throated Honeyeater

White-throated Honeyeater in the Grevilleas

White-throated Treecreeper
Wood Duck

A pair of Wood Duck on the Lap Swamp.

Uncommon (Seen two to five times during the month)


Channel-billed Cuckoo

Channel-billed Cuckoo

Crested Pigeon
Eastern Yellow Robin
Grey Butcherbird

Figbird
Mallard
Pale Headed Rosella
Pheasant Coucal
Rufous Whistler

Female Rufous Whistler singing from a Wattle

Scarlet Honeyeater
Spangled Drongo
Striated Pardalote
Tree Martin
White-necked Heron

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Rare (Seen only once)


Brahminy Kite
Brown Cuckoo Dove

Brown Cuckoo Dove

Little Black Cormorant
Little Pied Cormorant
Masked Plover
Nankeen Kestrel
Pheasant Coucal
Red-backed Fairy Wren
Swamp Harrier

Swamp Harrier eyeing up the chooks

White-bellied Sea Eagle

White-bellied Sea Eagle

White-faced Heron
Willie Wagtail


Which totals 64-species, not bad at all.  See you in November.