Breeding residents, steamy days, big lizards and all sorts of visitors.

December comes and with it hot and steamy days as we get stuck into the Queensland summer. I have to admit that as far as the weather is concerned it's not my favourite time of the year. The humidity makes it unpleasant, the heat causes difficulties for the chooks, and it's just not very Christmassy eating your roast turkey in a 35 degree heat. On the other side of life December can be a very interesting month. Now's the time when we begin to see all the recent hatchings from the Spring, which leads me on to Breeding Residents.

We Birders classify birds in a number of ways and one such classification is the Breeding Resident, which in simple terms means that the bird breeds here and is resident throughout the year, as opposed to a Breeding Migrant, that breeds here and then buggers off for a season or so. It's taken some time to identify the Breeding Residents at the Holt. When we first moved her, way back in 2004, I was still trying to simply identify the birds (an ongoing process even today) and of course we built a house and a dam, which will have disrupted the local wildlife for a while. Then the long process of developing the habitats for the wildlife began and I stocked the dam, planted the shrubs and trees that would attract the critters and started logging what I saw. I remember the first Breeding Residents that I identified were the Striated Pardalote, after whom the Holt is named. They nested in a hole in a mud wall that had been carved out of the hill for the cut upon which the house was built. Soon after I found my first nesting pair of Olive-backed Orioles in a scruffy nest in a young gum tree situated near the main intermittent creek, and then it was half a dozen twigs thrown together by a Common Bronzewing at the forest edge. And so the Holt developed, and although I haven't found all the various nests I do see the juvenile birds appear that demonstrate the birds have finally become breeding residents. Perhaps the most recent have been the Plumed Whistling Ducks that first bred here a couple of years ago and now ducklings in December has become a regular in the calendar.

Pacific Black Duck and ducklings

I can't guarantee that all I call Breeding Residents actually nest on our property, as we live in a large swathe of white mahogany dry schlerophyll forest that wraps around Mt Tamborine. Sclerophyll forests are a typically Australian vegetation type having plants (typically Eucalypts, Wattles and Banksias) with hard, short and often spiky leaves, which is a condition closely associated with low soil fertility (rather than rainfall/soil moisture). Low fertility also makes soils undesirable for agriculture and native vegetation has, therefore, remained relatively intact. Plants grow slowly in nutrient-deficient conditions and this makes it quite difficult to establish those that I have wanted to bring in the birds. Pardalote Holt is sited on an unnamed foothill of the mountain and some of the Breeding Residents may nest elsewhere on the hill, but I'm confident that they do breed either here or close by. My current list of Breeding Residents includes:

Breeding Residents

Australian Magpie

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike

Brown Honeyeater

Cicadabird

Juvenile Cicadabird

Common Bronzewing

Double-barred Finch

Eastern Yellow Robin

Juvenile Eastern Yellow Robin

Forest Kingfisher

Galah

A family of Galahs

King Parrot

Leaden Flycatcher

Noisy Friarbird

Noisy Miner

Olive-backed Oriole

Pacific Black Duck

Pale-headed Rosella

Peaceful Dove

Pied Currawong

Plumed Whistling Duck

Rainbow Lorikeet

Striated Pardalote

Juvenile Striated Pardalote

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Torresian Crow

White-throated Gerygone

White-throated Honeyeater

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

There are probably more, but these are those that we can claim with some certainty. I have left some species off the list because they might breed at the Holt, but aren't present throughout the year.  Some probably sit in a grey area, such as the Welcome Swallow.  The Swallows breed in the garage each year and can be seen around the mountain throughout the year, but not necessarily at the Holt.

So, what else has been happening.  The warmer weather has brought out the reptiles and they've been further encouraged by our Guinea Fowl who appear to enjoy dropping caches of eggs all over the place, a nice snack for a passing Lace Monitor. Unfortunately this has led to an increase in numbers of these large goannas and they occasionally try to sneak into the chicken runs. On the flip side, if the Guinea Fowl see them then a mobbing will occur with the embarrassed Monitor being forced to retreat up the nearest tree.

A large Lace Monitor (over 5' long) scuffling through the woodland.

A smaller Lace Monitor takes refuge up a tree. They are superb climbers.

One snake that is appearing with more regularity is the Yellow-faced Whip Snake. This slender and quick moving snake feeds on smaller lizards (skinks and geckos) catching them on the run. They're fairly common and are venomous, but the literature suggests that although painful they aren't considered dangerous.  My experience has been that they are quite shy and will use their speed to get away if they notice a human nearby.

A Yellow-faced Whipsnake catching some of the morning dew.

And here are some odds and sods that I caught in my lens as I wandered around the Holt:

Spider Wasp catches a Bee

A Graphic Flutterer

A juvenile Eastern Water Dragon

The arboreal Fawn footed Melomys (formerly known as the Mosaic-tailed Rat).

A Red Arrow resting on a Sedge frond.

A Scarlet Percher

Native Bees chasing pollen

A Blue Skimmer

A Red-necked Wallaby

At which point I had better move on to the bird lists.

Regulars (seen at least x5 per week)

Australian Magpie

Bar-Shouldered Dove

Common Bronzewing

Double-barred Finch

Double-barred Finch at the feeder

Galah

Laughing Kookaburra

Little Friarbird

King Parrot

Olive-backed Oriole

An Olive-backed Oriole with a BIG bug!

Noisy Friarbird

Pacific Black Duck

Pacific Black Duck

Pale-headed Rosella

Peaceful Dove

Pied Currawong

Plumed Whistling Duck

Rainbow Lorikeet

Rainbow Lorikeet munching pollen at a Grevillea.

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Torresian Crow

White-throated Gerygone

White-throated Honeyeater

White-throated Honeyeater

Wood Duck

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Common (Seen at least twice a week)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike

Brown Honeyeater

Channel-billed Cuckoo

Cicadabird

The shy Cicadabird

Leaden Flycatcher

A Leaden Flycatcher

Little Corella

Noisy Miner

Spangled Drongo

A Spangled Drongo

Uncommon (Seen 2-5 times in the month)

Brown Cuckoo Dove

Eastern Yellow Robin

Figbird

Forest Kingfisher

Grey Butcherbird

Magpie Lark

Pied Butcherbird

Pheasant Coucal

Red-browed Finch

Mutual preening by the Red-browed Finches

Rufous Whistler

Satin Flycatcher

Male Satin Flycatcher

White-bellied Sea Eagle

The rather large White-bellied Sea Eagle

White-throated Treecreeper

A White-throated Treecreeper

Willie Wagtail

Rare (Seen only once)

Brown Treecreeper

Buff-rumped Thornbill

A Buff-rumped Thornbill surprised by a falling leaf.

Crested Pigeon

Eastern Boobook

Eastern Koel

Grey Shrike Thrush

Golden Whistler

Lewins Honeyeater

Little Pied Cormorant

Red-backed Fairy Wren

Rufous Fantail

Varied Sitella

Wedge-tailed Eagle

White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike

A juvenile White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike

Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Which at 61-species is our best December so far. Let's hope the New Year continues the upward trend.