Peak everything season - September

September is always a great month for wildlife at the Holt and this year was no different. It's times like these that I really wish that I was retired so that I could spend more time at home just watching the great range of birds and critturs that we get here.  Every night the male Koalas have been growling, the Fruit bats squabbling and the Mountain Brushtail Possums...well my vocabulary isn't up to describing the sound they make, but my nickname for them is 'Squealing Kangarillapigs', which might give you a clue.

Young male Koala

Just dozing in the sun.

I attended a bird/animal box course run through the local Land for Wildlife offices and now have a new nest box placed. This one is focused on the Owlet Nightjar...a bird that I have never seen, but could well be here, so why not give it a try?  I'm confident that even if the Owlet Nightjars don't see the for rent sign, something will.

Owlet Nightjar nesting box

I was really pleased to see a Richmonds Birdwing Butterfly here again. These gorgeous butterflies used to be common in the region, but are apparently less so now. They are really Rainforest butterflies, but this one seemed to enjoy the Jasmine.

The male Richmond's Birdwing Butterfly.

On the wing the green is quite stunning.

Feeding on jasmine.

Everyone seems to have young at the moment, including the Red-necked Wallabies. This one comes down to the bird feeder each morning and grabs a snack of grain.

Red-necked Wallaby and joey.

Dad? keeping an eye out.

And onto the bird lists...

Regulars (Seen daily)

Australian Magpie

The noble Australian Magpie

and sitting on her nest.

Bar-shouldered Dove
Brown Honeyeater
Common Bronzewing
Double-barred Finch

Double-barred Finch

Galah

Galah - crest up.

King Parrot

Juvenile King Parrot

Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella

Little Corella - crest raised

Noisy Friarbird
Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck

Just love those scapulars - Pacific Black Duck

Peaceful Dove

Peaceful Doves - probably one of our most common residents

Pied Butcherbird
Plumed Whistling Duck

Plumed Whistling Duck

Preening and dozing

Pied Currawong
Rainbow Lorikeet

The raucus Rainbow Lorikeet

Scarlet Honeyeater

Scarlet Honeyeaters are present in numbers

Female Scarlet Honeyeater on the Fire Sprite

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Portrait of a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Torresian Crow
Welcome Swallow
White-throated Gerygone

Common (Seen Weekly)

Eastern Spinebill
Eastern Yellow Robin

The adult Eastern Yellow Robins are getting run ragged feeding their young...

Who are getting plumper by the day..

Forest Kingfisher
Grey Shrike Thrush
Golden Whistler
Lewins Honeyeater
Little Friarbird

Little Friarbird

Magpie Lark
Noisy Miner

Noisy Miners in the Silky Oak

Silvereye

Silvereyes are still busy

and still very cute.

Striated Pardalote
White-throated Honeyeater

White-throated Honeyeaters

Willie Wagtail
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Uncommon (Seen occasionally)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike

Blue-faced Honeyeater
Brown Cuckoo Dove

Brown Cuckoo Dove

Brown Goshawk

Brown Goshawk

Brown Thornbill
Buff-rumped Thornbill

Buff rumped Thornbill

Crested Pigeon
Eastern Boobook
Figbird

Figbird

Grey Fantail
Leaden Flycatcher

The beautiful female Leaden Flycatcher

I just love these birds

and the male.

Little Pied Cormorant
Pale-headed Rosella
Rainbow Bee Eater
Sacred Kingfisher

Sacred Kingfisher way up the old gum tree.

Shining Bronze Cuckoo

A shy Shining Bronze Cuckoo

Spangled Drongo

Spangled Drongo

Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-throated Treecreeper

Rare (Seen once)

Black-faced Monarch

Black-faced Monarch calls

Channel-billed Cuckoo
Grey Butcherbird
Little Shining Bronze Cuckoo
Masked Plover
Pale-headed Rosella
Restless Flycatcher
Rufous Whistler

The charming female Rufous Whistler

Spotted Pardalote
Varied Sitella

Varied Sitella

White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike

White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike

White-bellied Sea Eagle
White-headed Heron

White-headed Heron imitates a Wedgie and scatters everything

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Which is about all for now. See you next month.

Winter arrives and the world gets even drier.

All-in-all it was an odd month; very dry with only one very light shower over the whole month and a lot of windy days. I had a bit of a disaster when both of my camera lens gave up the ghost, but it did give me an excuse to upgrade to a 70-300mm lens, which is fantasadobi! (Not that it's made my camera work any better.

I lost a pullet to a Grey Goshawk early on in the month. My fellow chook breeders all started discussing how to kill the raptor when I mentioned this, and were somewhat aghast when I announced that I had no intention of killing such a beautiful bird of prey, however, something had to be done. The Goshawk stayed around for a couple of days and I made sure that he was aware that I was out and about, and despite giving the pullets a few more scares he was unsuccessful. Whilst he was missing, I was watching his tactics and it soon became obvious there was only one direction that he could really attack from and so a simple solution presented itself. I put up a 4m x 3m square white bird net, the sort of thing you protect your vegies with, as a panel blocking his attack vector.  It has worked superbly so far. As a net it hasn't been to affected by the winds, and we've had some strong ones since, and it's visible enough to put most birds off.

Anti-hawk net

A few birds have accidentally flown into it, having been startled by something, but they've just slid down the net and taken off again apparently with nothing more than a few ruffled feathers. Success!

In a fit of enthusiasm I've started erecting nesting boxes. Not as simple as back in the UK, you need to get them a lot further up the tree, and gum trees have less branches to fix them to, but after a while spent precariously balancing on my 5m ladder I eventually achieved the aim. Now we wait until Spring to see if anyone takes any notice of them

With a larger hole I'm hoping a pair of Parrots may take a shine to this one.

Nice view from the box, overlooking the dam.

On the chook front we finally got some Blue Faverolle chicks. We lost our Blue Faverolle cock to the heat earlier in the year and had to wait until the Splash cocks matured enough, but finally we have success.

Louis & Napoleon our Splash Faverolle cocks.

Blue Faverolle chicks making sure I've got the heat right.

And so, on to the birds...

Regulars (Seen at least x5 per week)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove

Bar-Shouldered Dove stepping out on the drive.

Bronzewing

female Common Bronzewing

Double-barred Finch
Dusky Moorhen
Eastern Spinebill

Eastern Spinebill feeding on the Pineapple Sage

Galah
Grey Fantail

Grey Fantail

Mallard

Monty Mallard on the bird table

Pacific Black Duck
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck

Purple Swamphen

Purple Swamphen

Rainbow Lorikeet
Striated Pardalote
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Common (Seen at least x2 per week)


Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Honeyeater
Grey Butcherbird
Grey Shrike Thrush
Laughing Kookaburra

Laughing Kookaburra

Lewin's Honeyeater
Noisy Miner
Rainbow Bee Eater
Welcome Swallow
White-throated Gerygone
Wood Duck
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo


Uncommon (Seen 2-5 times per month)

Golden Whistler
Grey Goshawk
Magpie Lark
Noisy Friarbird
Olive-backed Oriole
Pale-headed Rosella
Peaceful Dove
Rose Robin

Rose Robin

Rufous Whistler
Silvereye

Silvereye in a Wattle

Varied Sitella
Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike
White-eyed Duck

White-eyed Duck (Hardhead) surrounded by a flotilla of Plumed Whistling Duck and a lone Pacific Black Duck

White-throated Treecreeper
Willie Wagtail
Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Rare (Seen only once in the month)

Blue-faced Honeyeater
Brown Goshawk
Figbird
Little Corella
Pale-headed Rosella
Spangled Drongo
Tawny Frogmouth


Which is 53-species, which is 10 below last June.  The number surprised me as there seemed to be a lot of birds around, especially the smaller species, but I'm confident the spread will improve.