Pardalote Holt: End of the year and summer swelters

I've lived in Australia for 14-years now, mostly at Pardalote Holt and I'd like to be able to know what to expect as the season changes, but this year it just seems to have been hot. Don't get me wrong, it's usually hot, hot and humid, in the wet season, but this time its been even hotter and more humid. It's been pretty unpleasant for both us and the chickens, although despite a plethora of chicken killing hot days, we've only lost two, one of which was sick and the other fairly old. I think I've largely got a handle on the challenges that 40-degree days cause the chooks, but this year there seems to have been a lot more of such days. Of course some critters positively revel in the heat and humidity, especially lizards...

A Lace Monitor stops from its flight up a tree to check me out.

A Water Dragon with an oddly coloured mismatching head.

The rest of the wildlife appears relatively unaffected. Parrot numbers increase as the weather warms up and the number of Galahs has boomed from a couple of pairs to a couple of dozen. Their noisy offspring are a constant chorus at the moment, hissing, clucking and crying for food. In fact anyone coming to visit for the 'peace of the countryside/bush' forget it. The Holt seems robed by a cacophony, by day it's the crowing roosters, honking Friarbirds, crying Peacocks, the staccato chatter of screaming Guinea fowl, hissing Galahs, rattling Spangled Drongos, screeching Sulphur Crested Cockatoos and cackling Kookaburras. As dusk falls the day cacophony is replaced by the nocturnal dissonance of squawking Fruitbats, squealing Possums, growling Koala, waves of sizzing Cicada, motor revving Cane Toads, the ping pong plock of the Striped Marsh Frogs and...... the occasional barking dog (GET BACK INSIDE BITSY!!). Now, I'm not complaining about this after all, it's an indication of the success we've had in attracting wildlife, but it can get a tad distracting.

A Brush-tailed Mountain Possum just hanging around

Quiet as mice in the day, but wait until dusk falls and they really start growling.

Some of you may have noted that I missed a post in Dec/Jan and I apologise, but life just got a wee bit busy. Over the Xmas period we hosted nine Airb&b guests, who were a delight, and in the new year I took on the permanent role of HR Manager for a mining company. Living where we do is a lifestyle choice (and one that I wouldn't readily change), but it does mean that I leave for work at 6.50 am and return at 6.50 pm, and I get up at 5 am to release, feed and water the birds. This gives me only the weekends free to catch up on the housework and squeeze in some work on the grounds and a little birding. This isn't a complaint, I am just happy to be back on a regular salary, it's just the way things are for the time being.

On another front I am saving time as I've reluctantly stopped posting photographs of the Tamborine Mountain Wildlife Pics page. I've enjoyed contributing to the page over the last few years, but more recently I found myself increasingly drawn into debates over whether to feed wild birds or not. It's an area that I feel strongly about and I stand on the side of the debate supported by the RSPB, Audubon Society, Griffith University Environment Dept, and various other scientific studies. On the other side of the debate are the Wildlife Carers who have the unenviable task of taking sick birds to the vets (usually to be euthanized). The particular focus of this part of the debate is Psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD) an awful viral disease that affects New World and Old World Parrots. The disease attacks the feathers, beak and claws of affected birds, sometimes in different ways, but in essence their feathers fail, beaks become malformed and liable to secondary infection and then the birds die. It is horrible. The studies indicate that the chief infection path for the disease is through the nest site as the fledglings immature immune system makes them vulnerable, however, adult birds can pass the disease on to each other through feather debris and faeces. The Wildlife Carers have latched onto the latter and decided that the best approach is not to feed wild birds at all; however, studies on feeding wild birds, by a number of sources (including Prof. Jones from Griffith) have determined that whilst feeding wild birds can increase the chances of passing on infections (for a variety of diseases) the beneficial effect on the population as a whole far outweighs the disease transmission factor. With this in mind I believe we should be encouraging people to feed birds and educating them on the right way to do it (good food/bad food, hygiene, etc). Anyway, my posts on the facebook page were attracting comments that were increasingly unpleasant, so I decided to leave....but you can still see my piccy's here.

Nov/Dec Birds

Regulars (seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Brown Honeyeater
Cicadabird

The shy Cicadabird

Common Bronzewing
Double-barred Finch
Galah

Mother and child Galah photobombed by Rainbow Lorikeet

King Parrot

Male King Parrot, always inquisitive.

Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella
Noisy Friarbird
Olive-backed Oriole

Olive-backed Oriole catches the worm.

Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck

Plumed Whistling Duck on the dam.

Rainbow Lorikeet
Spangled Drongo
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow

Common (seen weekly)

Channel-billed Cuckoo
Leaden Flycatcher

A female Leaden Flycatcher

Noisy Miner
Pied Butcherbird
Welcome Swallow
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater

White-throated Honeyeater on the flowering Thalia.

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Uncommon (seen occasionally)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Common Mynah
Dollarbird
Eastern Boobook
Eastern Koel
Eastern Yellow Robin
Figbird
Forest Kingfisher