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.