Pardalote Holt: #faverolles

Showing posts with label #faverolles. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

April 2019 and it finally dawns on me...

Every year I expect it to rain in Jan/Feb and every year it rains in April and if it weren't for being able to check back to previous posts I would probably be continuing to expect rain earlier, As you can gather, April arrived and with it quite a lot of rain. Great for plants, less great for photographing birds, but I did what I could.

The chooks are doing well, with this years generation rapidly approaching point of lay (and sale). Here's some of my star pullets.

Gigi

Daphne

Ebony

Gigi again

Daphne again

Daphne and Penny Hen

Despite considerable interest from the Lace Monitors...

A young Lace Monitor

Yeah...I'm watching you.

Just keep away from my chooks!

and onto the natives....

Regulars (Seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Brown Honeyeater
Bush Turkey
Common Bronzewing

Common Bronzewing

Double-barred Finch
Galah
Laughing Kookaburra
Lewins Honeyeater
Little Corella
Magpie Lark
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Pied Butcherbird
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck

Plumed Whistling Ducks

Rainbow BeeEater

Rainbow Bee Eaters

More Bee Eaters

Rainbow Lorikeet
Leaden Flycatcher
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Torresian Crow

Torresian Crow looking a little chilly

White-throated Gerygone

White-throated Honeyeater

Common (Seen Weekly)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Eastern Whipbird
Forest Kingfisher
Grey Shrike-Thrush
King Parrot
Yellow Faced Honeyeater

Uncommon (Seen occasionally)

Eastern Yellow Robin
Golden Whistler

Glamorous male Golden Whistler

Grey Butcherbird
Grey Fantail
Leaden Flycatcher
Little Friarbird
Rose Robin

A pert little female Rose Robin

Scarlet Honeyeater
Silvereye
Striated Pardalote
Welcome Swallow
Willy Wagtail

Willy Wagtail

White-throated Treecreeper
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Rare (Seen once)

Brown Goshawk
Brown Thornbill

A tiny Brown Thornbill

Little Pied Cormorant
Olive-backed Oriole
Pale-headed Rosella
Scaly Breasted Lorikeet
Shining Bronze Cuckoo

Shining Bronze Cuckoo

Spotted Turtle Dove
Varied Sitella
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike
Wood Duck
Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Mad March...splosh!

What happened in March...oh! oh! it rained. It rained a lot actually, making up a bit for the arid January and February. Now that meant limited birding, but my chooks are now heading rapidly towards point of lay and, for the most, sale.

A nice plump Black Faverolle

Completely out of season Trixie hatches a wee chick.

Young Eastern Water Dragon just cruisin'

Comfy in its flower pot.

One of my 'Fancy Layers' a Silver Sussex/Salmon Faverolle cross breed

A plump and healthy Salmon Faverolle

I'm sure this one's wearing a false beard!

Proud mum Trixie and her bub.

Regulars (Seen daily)

Australian MagpieBar-shouldered DoveBrown HoneyeaterCommon Bronzewing
Double-barred FinchGalah
Laughing Kookaburra
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy MinerPacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Plumed Whistling Duck
Rainbow Lorikeet
Striated Pardalote
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater

Common (Seen Weekly)

Grey Butcherbird
Little Corella
Pied Butcherbird
Pied Currawaong
Rainbow BeeEater
Spangled Drongo
Welcome Swallow
Willie Wagtail
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Uncommon (Seen occasionally)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Buff-rumped Thornbill
Grey Shrike Thrush
King Parrot
Leaden Flycatcher
Magpie Lark
Olive-backed Oriole
Pale-headed Rosella
Yellow-talied Black Cockatoo

Rare (Seen once)

Blue-faced Honeyeater
Brown Quail
Cicadabird
Eastern Yellow Robin
Figbird
Forest Kingfisher
Golden Whistler
Masked Plover
Pheasant Coucal
Rufous Fantail
Straw-necked Ibis
Tawny Frogmouth
Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike
White-throated Treecreeper

51-species, which is about all for now.

And for the Non-Aussie's here's a piccie of one of the burnt lands amazing fauna courtesy of the ABC...

A Northern Quoll equipped with location transmitter attached, ready for release.

See you next month.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

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.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Hot and sticky patches with more hot and stickiness to come...

October swings in again and as with last year its been a real taster of an expected hot summer to come. I noted that 12-months ago I was reporting temperatures reaching 38 degrees in the shade, and the same happened this year. I've learned how to handle the heat in regards to the chooks and now we rarely suffer heat casualties; however, it was a dreadful period for our flocks as in quick succession we lost Mathilde and Mandy to Eagles, Brutus to an escaped dog, Francois to old age and 'Ercule to a mystery wasting disease. To add the misery in regards to the chooks we've had a lousy year in terms of hatches with barely 10% of our incubator batches hatching. On the other side of the fence our birds have done a little better with the natural method and we currently have five chicks that have come out from beneath a chicken instead of a heat lamp. Hopefully things will improve.

Wee Em's three chicks.

Back at the house we've had the fun and frustration of playing host to Wonk, a mischievous Brush-tailed Possum that has taken to stealing into the kitchen after dark and helping himself to apples and bread. Now I've no concerns about providing a bit of tucker to one of our furry friends, but twice he's managed to turn the hot tap on as he left, almost draining our tanks. We've now solved the problem with a rubber band around the tap and leaving a chopped apple for him outside. I have to admit, he's a cute little beggar.

Wonk lurking under the kitchen table

Not happy with my presence he ambles over to the dishwasher...

and up he goes onto the working surface...

perhaps not as gracefully as he'd intended...

and then it's off into a hiding place...

...behind the mug tree...

Where I give him an apple for his efforts.

Outside the warm weather has brought the Dragonflies and Damselflies back with a vengeance. The Lap Swamp in particular appears "abuzz" with both Dragonflies and Damselflies flitting back and forth across the calm waters.

An Orange Threadtail

A Blue River Damsel

An Eastern Billabongfly

A Scarlet Percher

The very pretty Emerald Tau

and onto the birds

Regulars (seen at least 5 days in the week)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing
Channel-billed Cuckoo
Double-barred Finch