That was February

As I write this, at the end of March, the dry period has finally broken, but in February it was still very dry.  Summer in Queensland is supposed to be hot and humid. Violent thunderstorms and massive downpours supposedly characterize the season and it's a time when the tanks and dams fill again and the soil builds its reservoir of moisture to survive the months to come.  However, here we are in February, the last month of summer and there's been no appreciable rain.  I've had to bring in water as the tanks would have run dry and the dams were probably 4'-5' below their normal levels.  Summer is the time for me to plant new stuff in the gardens as the seasonal rains gives it a good start, but not this year.  The bush is crackle dry under foot and I'm very wary of fire risk.

The chook's shade shed

The shade shed I built for the chooks last month has proved a success and on the really warm days the birds have had somewhere to hid from the sun during the worst heat of the day.  Flushed with my success with my new skill of carpentry I made a quantum leap of confidence and decided to build a new pullet house.  Put together with wood from the bargain bin at Bunnings (Australian equivalent of B&Q) and with a roof taken from the remnants of the hail damaged roof after the builders had done, I put together my new pullet house and I'm pretty proud of it.

A pullet house built to survive the storms.

I've used treated timber for the frame, paneled the walls and roof to keep the worst of the heat out and inside there are perches sufficient for a dozen birds.

Rear view showing the nesting boxes.

It comes with ventilation, a slide down entrance and nesting boxes, although seeing it's for pullets the nesting boxes weren't really needed.  Talking about the chooks, our friendly breeder Cat Wainright replaced our losses with a new cock and some hens to get the breeding going again.  We're trying to breed Blue Faverolles, but it is the nature of the breed that we also get Cuckoo, Black and Splash Faverolles as well, so meet the team...

The new gang comes together

Teddy, the Cuckoo Faverolle Cock, is a really teddy bear of a bird who is quite happy to have a cuddle.

The Black and Cuckoo Faverolle hens.

A Splash Faverolle Cockerel, Susanne's favourite.

and here's Charlotte, a Blue Faverolle Hen and exactly what we are trying to breed.

We collect the eggs and take them over to Cat at Hinterland Poultry who puts them into her incubators. Once the chicks hatch we collect the newborns and bring them back to raise them in our brooders, pullet runs, and once full grown back to Cat's for sale. Sometimes when we pick up the chicks an odd extra gets mixed in, but it's all good fun.

A mix of 3-week old chicks including a Buff Sussex, a Sussex Faverolle cross and a Cuckoo Faverolle enjoy a day out of the brooder in the chick run.

Still, enough about chooks, onto the wild birds...

Regulars (Seen at least 5 times a week)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing

Male Common Bronzewing

Dusky Moorhen
Galah
Magpie Lark

Magpie Lark

Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Plumed Whistling Duck

Plumed Whistling Ducks & Dusky Moorhen

Rainbow Lorikeet
Purple Swamphen
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
Wood Duck

Common  (Seen at least twice a week)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Blue-cheeked Honeyeater

Blue Cheeked Honeyeater

Brown Honeyeater
Grey Butcherbird
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Olive-backed Oriole
Pale-headed Rosella

Pale Headed Rosella

Pied Currawong
Spangled Drongo

Spotted Turtle Dove
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater
Willie Wagtail

Willie Wagtail

Uncommon (Seen 2-5x per month)

Brown Cuckoo Dove
Channel-billed Cuckoo
Dollarbird
Double-barred Finch
Forest Kingfisher
Grey Shrike Thrush
King Parrot
Laughing Kookaburra
Leaden Flycatcher
Little Friarbird
Rainbow Bee Eater
Red-backed Fairy Wren
Striated Pardalote
Welcome Swallow

Rare (Seen only once)

Cicadabird
Little Pied Cormorant
Rufous Whistler
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

Scaly Breasted and Rainbow Lorikeets

Varied Sitella
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike

Immature White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike

White-bellied Sea Eagle
White-faced Heron
White-throated Treecreeper

 Which is 51-species, not bad for a dry February.  Next month the drought breaks!

What happened to January?

Sorry, missed January.  Should have skipped it completely as it was not a good month.  It's supposed to be hot, stormy and wet.  Well it was certainly hot and there was the odd storm, but the big wet didn't arrive and despite a few showers the dam levels continued to sink.  We had two disasters this month, the first was on the fourth when the heat got so bad that despite my best efforts we lost Henri the Blue Faverolle Cock and two hens to heat exhaustion.  It was just a horrible day with the temperature going over 40 degrees and I spent a lot of time running backwards and forwards ensuring that the hen's water was available and cool, but it obviously wasn't enough. I wasn't the only one to have problems and two local breeders, that I know, lost three and seventeen chooks, and some poor chap in New South Wales lost a whole flock of 150 birds.  It's pretty gut wrenching picking up dead birds that you've cared for and so I'm determined it won't happen again.  To that end I've built a shade shed for the run, put bird baths in all the runs, and the latest coop that I built (yes, I built it!) has paneling on the walls and roof to keep the heat out.

The second disaster was that one of our water tanks became fouled.  We got a plumber in who flushed the downpipes, and in one there was a lot a leaf detritus, but he was expecting to find a dead animal or frog to be the cause.  The other tank wasn't too contaminated, so we drained the first and the plumber chlorinated both, not nice when you've been used to lovely clean rain water.  I had been hoping for the usual seasonal downpour so that I could fill the tanks, dilute the nasty stuff and then get someone in to clean the tanks (water tanks need to be full to be cleaned), but as previously mentioned the weather has denied us the relief.

On the good news front, the trees and foliage have continued to bounce back after the November hail storm.

Taken 2-months after the storm.

As you can see the trees are all green and 'fluffy' and the Bougainvilleas on the dam wall have even started to flower again. A combination of the heat and limited shade has brought a flourishing of lizards, but the bird community has been a bit up and down.  A noticeable absentee is Bobby the Bush Chook, the Scrub Turkey, that hasn't been seen since the storm, but other birds have been either absent or in limited numbers as well.  On the plus side both the Dusky Moorhen and the Purple Swamphens appear to have taken up residence on the dam, which I am really pleased about, and towards the end of the month I saw a Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo a couple of times, a completely new bird to the Holt.

The Purple Swamphen discovers the delights of my bird feeders.

The other less usual visitor have been the Plumed Whistling Ducks.  Ever since we've been here we've had a pair turn up over the Christmas period, but this year we've had two distinct flocks coming and going since mid-November and they are still here, about two dozen birds.  Plumed Whistling Ducks are not only very pretty, but they're real characters and can often be seen trooping around the dam in long lines, one after the other, whistling as they go.  They're great fun to watch.

A pair of Plumed Whistling Duck

So, onto the birds....

Regulars (Seen at least five times per week)

Australian Magpie
Bar-Shouldered Dove
Bronzewing

Common Bronzewing at the feeder

Dusky Moorhen
Galah
Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Plumed Whistling Duck

Lots of Plumed Whistling Ducks

Rainbow Lorikeet
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
Wood Duck

Common (Seen at least twice a week)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Double-barred Finch
Laughing Kookaburra
Magpie Lark
Noisy Miner
Pale-headed Rosella
Pied Currawong
Purple Swamphen
Red-backed Fairy Wren
Spangled Drongo

Spangled Drongos

Spotted Turtle Dove
White-throated Honeyeater
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Uncommon (Seen 2-5 times per month)

Dollarbird
Channel-billed Cuckoo
Cicadabird
Figbird
Forest Kingfisher
Grey Butcherbird
Grey Shrike Thrush
Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo

Crap shot of the Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo!

Leaden Flycatcher
Little Friarbird
Mallard Duck
Noisy Friarbird
Sacred Kingfisher

Sacred Kingfisher

Shining Bronze Cuckoo
Welcome Swallow
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike
White-throated Treecreeper
Willie Wagtail

Rare (Seen only once)

Brown Cuckoo Dove
Brown Falcon
Eastern Yellow Robin
Grey Goshawk

Grey Goshawk

Little Pied Cormorant
Red-browed Finch
Rufous Whistler
Satin Flycatcher
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Straw-necked Ibis
Variegated Fairy Wren

Red-backed and Variegated Fairy Wrens having a natter behind a wood pile.

Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-throated Gerygone 

Which is 57-species.

And just to prove this isn't all about birds, a Striped Rocket Frog took up residence in an old fish tank for a few days, and every night its call could be heard echoing out of the tank.

A Striped Rocket Frog calling.

Be back soon with the Feb round up...