The heat continues

Despite a couple of very light showers the dry and the heat continued unabated. The Met Office keeps throwing out statements about record breaking temperatures and Queensland is now 87% drought declared. It's not been good and I've been spending a good time each evening with a watering can trying to keep the plants alive. Although I'm now settling into the routine of working in Brisbane again, leaving at 6.50 am and getting home at about 6.50 pm, the extra time spent watering the garden and managing the chooks has been taking it out of me. It's been a while since weekends were so looked forward to!  Having said that it means that I'm up each morning letting the chooks out at dawn, a time of day that I've always enjoyed.

The heat is definitely keeping the lizard population active...

Young Eastern Water Dragon

and a fairly large Lace Monitor patrolling the edge of the dam

As I write this, mid-March, the Pardalote Holt drought has finally broken and we've had a couple of days of substantial rain, so I'm a very happy chappie at the moment.  Too late to save the fruit on the lemon tree, but the garden is getting a good soaking. Fingers crossed it will keep going for another few days.

Regulars (seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Common Bronzewing
Galah
Laughing Kookaburra

Laughing Kookaburra

Noisy Friarbird
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove

Peaceful Doves

Plumed Whistling Duck

Plumed Whistling Duck (with Pacific Black Duck in background) dabbling in the shade of the Thalia.

Rainbow Lorikeet
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
White-throated Honeyeater

Common (seen weekly)

Bar-shouldered Dove
Brown Honeyeater
Double-barred Finch
Forest Kingfisher
Grey Butcherbird
Magpie Lark
Noisy Miner
Spangled Drongo
White-throated Gerygone
Willie Wagtail
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Uncommon (seen occasionally)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Black-faced Monarch

Crappy shot of a juvenile Black-faced Monarch

Channel-billed Cuckoo
Cicadabird
Crested Pigeon
Eastern Yellow Robin
Golden Whistler
Grey Shrike Thrush

Juvenile Grey Shrike Thrush

King Parrot
Leaden Flycatcher

Female Leaden Flycatcher

Lewins Honeyeater
Little Corella
Little Friarbird
Olive-backed Oriole
Pale-headed Rosella
Pied Butcherbird
Pied Currawong
Rainbow Bee Eater
Satin Flycatcher
Striated Pardalote
Variegated Fairy Wren
Welcome Swallow
White-throated Treecreeper

Rare (seen once)

Grey Fantail
Little Pied Cormorant
Pacific Baza

A young Pacific Baza or Crested Hawk

Red-backed Fairy Wren
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Wedge-tailed Eagle

Which is back up to 52-species. Not great, but considering that during most of the daylight hours I'm not here I can live with it.

Hot, Hot, Hot!!!

Sorry that this is late (again), but I'm finding that the new job sculls up most of my spare time. Anyway, excuses out of the way, January...what can we say about January. Well it was hot, really hot. On New Years day we measured a temperature of 40 degrees in the shade, on the back deck, and mid-month we had another heatwave when the temperature hit 42 degrees.  To save the chickens from the heat I had to clear out a downstairs room, lay down some paint sheets and move all the vulnerable chickens inside and into the air conditioning. It saved the chickens, but the house had the smell of chicken poo circulating for a week afterwards.  It was not pleasant at all.  It was hot and humid, as one would expect in the Wet Season, but hardly any rain and the garden was struggling. In fact it didn't rain until mid-March, by which time my citrus trees had shed all their fruit and almost died.
When it comes down to it January was a bloody unpleasant month, and don't ask me about the electricity bill brought about by the entirely necessary use of the air conditioning.

Arthur the Garage Cock - avoiding the heat

Some of my younger pullets staying in the shade.

Emily is still going strong.

If it's hot, have a dirt bath to cool down.

Despite the heat, or perhaps because of the heat there seemed to be a lot of Koala activity and the cute and furry "Drop Bears' could be heard growling most nights.

Koalas abound

The heat, whilst unwelcome to the rest of us, proved very popular with the lizards and skinks were everywhere. The abundance of lizards proved very popular with birds such as the Laughing Kookaburras that were enjoying a feast.

A Skink slithers through the leaf litter

Another species of Skink

A Tawny Frogmouth (skink devourer)

A Red-necked Wallaby enjoying some Barbed Wire Vine...

They must have lips of steel!

and so to the birds...

Regular (seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Common Bronzewing

A male Common Bronzewing

Double-barred Finch
Galah

Portrait of a Galah

King Parrot

Mrs King Parrot drops by.

Noisy Friarbird
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Plumed Whistling Duck

Plumed Whistling Duck hoovering up the scraps from the feeders.

Rainbow Lorikeet
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater

White-throated Honeyeater on Violet Thalia

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Common (seen weekly)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Honeyeater
Cicadabird
Eastern Yellow Robin
Grey Shrike Thrush
Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella
Olive-backed Oriole
Pied Currawong
Spangled Drongo

Spangled Drongo

Uncommon (seen occasionally)

Channel-billed Cuckoo

A Channel-billed Cuckoo winging past at dawn.

Forest Kingfisher
Leaden Flycatcher
Little Friarbird
Magpie Lark
Noisy Miner
Pale-headed Rosella

The ever shy Pale-headed Rosella

Pied Butcherbird
Scarlet Honeyeater
Willie Wagtail
White-throated Treecreeper

Rare (seen once)

Brown Thornbill

Brown Thornbill

Common Mynah
Dollarbird
Eastern Boobook
Little Pied Cormorant
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Variegated Fairy Wren

So, only 44-species, but taking into account that I was either at work or sheltering in the air-conditioning then I'm not really surprised.