December 2019 the end of a Decade

The big dry continued until the Christmas period when finally the heavens cracked and we started to get some rain (a few days after I'd paid $200 for a tanker load of water to be delivered!), but oddly enough it was before then, whilst the dams were at there lowest that we became home for a Nankeen Night Heron and we also attracted the attention of a Great Egret, both very rare visitors. I can only surmise that the dam's water, that were now very shallow and and full of green algae were forcing the fish to the surface and the birds were having a great feed; however, as I write this a month later the dams have been filled with  decent rains, the algae has gone and the Night Heron is still here, so who knows!

Nankeen Night Heron & Intermediate Egret

Intermediate Egret

Oi! stop eating my fish

Set up home in the Violet Thalia

OH don't get the hump

Great Egret (blue face) having a laugh

My demure little Nankeen Night Heron

Settling for the night

The long drought has been bad, certainly the driest that we have seen since building here all those years ago. A number of established shrubs and trees which I planted 10-years ago have died and at one point I though the back dam would dry completely. 

Of course, being summer we are back into Dragonfly season again...

Graphic Flutterer

Graphic Flutterer

Scarlet Percher

Yellow-striped Flutterer

Scarlet Percher

And back to the birds....

Regular (Seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove

Bar-shouldered Dove

Brown Honeyeater
Bush Turkey

Boris the Busk Chook

Cicadabird
Common Bronzewing
Common Koel
Dollarbird
Double-barred Finch
Forest Kingfisher

Forest Kingfisher

Galah
King Parrot

King Parrot

Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella
Nankeen Night Heron

Nankeen Night Heron

Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Pied Butcherbird
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck

Plumed Whistling Ducks

Rainbow Lorikeet
Scarlet Honeyeater

Female Scarlet Honeyeater

Spangled Drongo
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
White-throated Gerygone

White-throated Gerygone

White-throated Honeyeater

Common (Seen Weekly)

Channel-billed Cuckoo
Common Mynah
Grey Shrike-Thrush
Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Uncommon (Seen occasionally)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike

Brown Goshawk
Crested Pigeon
Eastern Boobook
Figbird
Great Egret

Great Egret

Intermediate Egret

Intermediate Egret

Little Friarbird
Magpie Lark
Pale-headed Rosella
Pheasant Coucal
Satin Flycatcher

Satin Flycatcher

White-throated Treecreeper

Rare (Seen once)

Buff-rumped Thornbill
Little Pied Cormorant
Pacific Baza
Rufous Whistler

Female Rufous Whistler

Scaly Breasted Lorikeet
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

And this months Australian mammal is from the back garden...

Red-necked Wallaby

Cleaning up the leftover bird feed

Crispy November

Still no significant rain and it gets ever drier with bushfires burning at Binna Burra in the rainforest, something that's not supposed to happen. These are worrying times, not helped by a Government led by climate science deniers.  We're relatively unscathed compared to Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, but the number of bushfires in Queensland has been over a hundred and the smoke travels huge distances.  One has to wonder about the future with increasing heat and less and less moisture it's difficult to be optimistic.  The greatest tragedy is the loss of wildlife and every day there are pictures on the internet of animals being rescued, but how many have died.  We will never know, but it will surely make a massive dent in the already stressed populations.

On a cheerier note, we seem to be seeing a good number of juvenile birds at the Holt, especially amongst the Scarlet Honeyeaters.

Juvenile Scarlet Honeyeater

Adult female

Juvenile Scarlet Honeyeater investigating a cobweb

and being loud about it.

Adult  male at the Grevilleas.

The Firesprite Grevillea is definitely their favourite.

and onto the monthly bird sightings...

Regular (Seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Brown Honeyeater
Bush Turkey
Common Bronzewing
Dollarbird
Double-barred Finch
Galah
King Parrot
Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella
Magpie Lark
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Pied Butcherbird
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck
Rainbow Lorikeet

Mating dance of the Rainbow Lorikeet

Scarlet Honeyeater

Scarlet Honeyeater

Spangled Drongo
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater

Common (Seen Weekly)

Cicadabird
Common Mynah
Forest Kingfisher
Grey Shrike-Thrush
Magpie Lark
Yellow-rumped Thornbill

A shy Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Uncommon (Seen occasionally)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Goshawk
Channel-billed Cuckoo
Figbird
Little Friarbird
Pale-headed Rosella
Pheasant Coucal
Striated Pardalote

Striated Pardalote

Welcome Swallow
White-throated Treecreeper

Rare (Seen once)

Buff-rumped Thornbill
Common Koel
Pacific Baza
Scaly Breasted Lorikeet
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike
White-headed Pigeon

White-headed Pigeon

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Which is 51-species.  And your Aussie critter of the month is:

The Yellow-footed Antechinus

October 2019

October is one of the big change months.  Our winter visitors, the small birds including Silvereyes, Fantails, Pardalotes and Whistlers drift away and in their place come the northern migrants including the Dollarbird, Spangled Drongo, Olive-backed Oriole and Channel-billed Cuckoo.  A sign that the wet season is due, but apart from one good shower mid-month the rain stayed away and the ground moisture continued to dry.

The Silky Oak managed a good showing of flower, but with the long dry it was short-lived. Despite all this arid weather there was one good splash mid-month, enough to give the Lorikeets a dip, so here's my Soggy Lori reveiew...

Keeping warm together

Dozing in damp warmth

Drying a little now

That's much better

All fluffed up

Yeah! we're better now

A trip up north added some variety during the earlier part of the month...

Forest Kingfisher

Sacred Kingfishers

A whole family

Darter

Striated Heron and Common Sandpiper

Brolga's in flight

And on to the monthly sightings....

Regulars (Seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Brown Honeyeater
Bush Turkey
Common Bronzewing
Double-barred Finch
Galah
Laughing Kookaburra
Magpie Lark
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Olive-backed Oriole

Olive-backed Oriole

Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Pied Butcherbird
Pied Currawong

Pied Currawong

Plumed Whistling Duck
Rainbow Lorikeet
Scarlet Honeyeater

Scarlet Honeyeater trills

Spangled Drongo
Silvereye
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater
Yellow Faced Honeyeater

Common (Seen Weekly)


Common Mynah
Forest Kingfisher
Grey Shrike-Thrush
King Parrot
Magpie Lark
Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Uncommon (Seen occasionally)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Goshawk
Channel-billed Cuckoo
Dollarbird
Eastern Boobook
Figbird
Little Corella
Little Friarbird
Pale-headed Rosella
Pheasant Coucal
Striated Pardalote
Welcome Swallow
White-throated Treecreeper

Rare (Seen once)

Mistletoebird
Scaly Breasted Lorikeet

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike
White-headed Pigeon
Wood Duck

Which is 51-species.  And your Aussie critter of the month is:

Long-nosed Potoroo from the Albany Advertiser