January and mid-summer dampness is upon us

January can be an exciting time of the year in the garden with the summer rains providing the kick start for the plants to start flowering.  Both the gums and the wattles have begun to bloom and this brings increased activity from the smaller birds, the Honeyeaters in particular, but down in the Ginger Garden and on the dams we get the flashier shows from the Gingers and the Lilies.

A little Costa Rican Ginger

The Green Beehive Gingers in bloom.

The culinary Ginger is building up to full steam.

Another Beehive Ginger.

The classic Chocolate Beehive Ginger

The nice thing about the gingers is that they enjoy a damp and shady spot where little else will thrive and they seem to attract a lot of insects, which makes them very popular with the Fairy Wrens.

I have been really pleased with the lilies this year. We lost a lot of the native Blue Lilies to the Plumed Whistling Ducks, but the hybrid lilies on the Lap Swamp have been gorgeous.  The dams in particular have been great fun due to the sheer number of Dragon and Damselflies that have appeared. They have always been fairly common, but this year has been exceptional and these stunning insects have been out in force.

A Blue Skimmer (orthetrum caledonicum) in an unusual pose, but he seems happy.

A Scarlet Percher (diplacodes haematodes) having a rest.

Another Scarlet Percher

An Australian Tiger (ictinogomphus australis)

A Yellow-striped Flutterer (Rhyothemis phyllis) 

An Australian Tiger poised to pounce.

Duel docking stations for a Scarlet Percher and an Australian Tiger.

An Australian Emperor Dragonfly (Hemianax papuensis)

A Yellow Striped Flutterer again.

Blue-tailed Damselflies mating (ischnura elegans)

The male grasps the female's neck with his anal claspers during mating.

A Blue Skimmer enjoys the sun

The Australian Tiger showing both the club tail and anal claspers.

More damselflies enjoying a ride on a lily pad.

I have no idea why I bothered to add their Latin names, it just seemed the thing to do when showing dragonflies...strange.

The marginal plants, especially the Violet Thalia have been blooming as well, attracting even more birds and insects to the summer feasts.

Yellow-faced Honeyeater on the Violet Thalia

Now I realise that there have been a lot more flowers and bugs in this post, but I can reassure the birders that our feathered friends our still my core interest. Having said that I have to admit the whole dragonfly thing can easily drag you in as they are such stunning creatures and it isn't until you really stop and look at them that you begin to understand just how many varieties there are. With the length of the post in mind I haven't put up any animal shots this time, but rest assured the Koalas, Brush-tailed Possums and Red-necked Wallabies have been as active as usual and for those of you who may be visiting this year I am confident that you will not be disappointed.

Turning to the birds, the range of birds is up on last year and what isn't really indicated in the lists is the numbers of birds that have been appearing.  The Plumed Whistling Duck numbers have decreased to a far less damaging half dozen or so, but the Leaden Flycatchers and White-throated Honeyeaters have been out in force.  The big mover has been the Peaceful Doves that have been everywhere. This may be due to the fact that I've avoided cutting back the grass so far as I haven't wanted to disturb the nesting Purple Swamphens. The dam wall is looking like a complete jungle at the moment, but as the huge grasses have started seeding the smaller seed  eaters such as the Peaceful Doves and Red-browed Finches have cashed in on the available food supply.

Red-browed Finch playing with a feather.

At which point I shall move onto the lists...


Regulars  (seen at least 5 days in the week)

Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing
Double-barred Finch
Galah
Little Corella
Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck

Mumma Duck and her growing ducklings enjoy (or not) the summer shower

Peaceful Dove

Peaceful Doves in the Silky Oak

 Plumed Whistling Duck

Plumed Whistling Duck and a pair of Pacific Blacks sitting on the side of the dam.

Purple Swamphen

Purple Swamphens mating. It's actually a lot less frenetic than it looks.

Rainbow Lorikeet
Spangled Drongo

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
White-throated Honeyeater
Wood Duck

A Pair of Wood Duck drakes chilling on the Lap Swamp

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Yellow-faced Honeyeater enjoying nectar from the Marmalade Grevillia

 
 Common (Seen at least twice a week)

Australian Magpie
Brown Honeyeater

Brown Honeyeater startled in a Grevillea.

Channel-billed Cuckoo
Grey Shrike Thrush
King Parrot

Immature King Parrots at one of the feeding stations

Laughing Kookaburra
Leaden Flycatcher

A male Leaden Flycatcher taking a break. They are normally very active and quite noisy little birds.

Noisy Friarbird
Pale Headed Rosella
Pied Currawong
Red-browed Finch
Welcome Swallow

Uncommon (Seen two to five times during the month)

Azure Kingfisher

Azure Kingfisher shouting at the fish?

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Eastern Yellow Robin
Forest Kingfisher

A Forest Kingfisher enjoys the last rays of sun for the day.

Lewins Honeyeater
Magpie Lark
Noisy Miner
Pied Butcherbird
Red-backed Fairy Wren
Rufous Whistler
Sacred Kingfisher
Variegated Fairy Wren
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Treecreeper

Rare (Seen only once)

Black-faced Monarch
Brown Goshawk
Bush Turkey
Cicadabird
Crested Pigeon
Fairy Martin
Figbird
Grey Butcherbird
Little Black Cormorant
Little Wattlebird
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

Scaly Breasted and Rainbow Lorikeets in the Silky Oak

Silvereye
Striated Pardalote
Varied Sitella

The very small and very fast Varied Sitella.

Wedge-tailed Eagle
Willie Wagtail
White-faced Heron
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Which is 61-species, four up from last year.

Summer rains arrive...

 December comes and so does the rain, the heat and the storms, but overall we didn't do too badly.  The storms were relatively mild and the rain heavy enough to give the parched soil a good drink. The wallabies certainly appreciated it and throughout the month we were graced by a number of Red-necked Wallabies grazing on the fresh shoots on the dam wall.

Red-necked Wallaby trying out the fresh grass on the dam wall.

and trying out a bit of vine growing through a Bougainvillea.

One area of fascination for me was the family of Pacific Black Duck that appeared on the dam on the last day of November.  Initially there were ten ducklings, but within a couple of days that dropped to seven. I have no idea what got them, but the list of possible assassins is long. Snakes, Lace Monitors, Hawks, Falcons, Harriers, Kookaburras and foxes are but a few of the potential killers. Towards the end of the month Mom and the seven ducklings disappeared for a week and when they reappeared there were six.  Within a couple more days they were down to four, but now, a month later the remaining four would appear to be large enough to be able to fend for themselves and I've been watching them flapping their wings in preparation for flight.

The original ten.

By now at a week or so, down to seven but gaining in confidence.

2-weeks and growing fast.

At 3-weeks. A favourite spot was a bale of straw I'd put in the dam to lower the algae levels.

Still young enough to get under Mom.

Even if it was a bit of a squeeze.

I loved watching them dabble in the shallows.

By week 4 they were growing fast.

A wave of ducklings picking up the clearings beneath the feeder.

Still only half the size of Mom, but now  looking like the real thing.

New years day and we have 5-ducklings left.

Of course, it's very sad that so many didn't survive, but that's nature for you.  Those that have survived have given me great pleasure and I'm looking forward to seeing them fly, although when they do I probably won't recognise them when and if they return.

Whilst the ducklings have been growing the Purple Swamphens have continued their laborious nest building. They eventually built 5-nests, but have returned to the first, which they are now focusing a lot of effort on.

No wonder my dam wall is looking so bare.

No leaf too large.

The Swamphens have been real troopers. In January we had a a lot of rain and at one point the dams began to overflow.  Throughout the 48-hours or so whilst the water levels were rising one of the Swamphens was sitting on the nest, so the other just kept beavering away trying to keep the nest above the surface of the water.  Its efforts were enormous and I was greatly relieved that when the water levels finally began to fall it had been successful and the nest was still dry, albeit with an 18" climb to get into it!

It's that time of year when a lot of juveniles begin to appear, especially amongst the parrot population and so we've been treated to visits from juvenile Cockatoos, Galahs, Pale-headed Rosellas and King Parrots.  The Wallabies appear to be carrying young as well, so it's obviously the time of rebirth for the land as the rains come and provide the necessary growth for the wildlife to flourish. It's also the time when a lot of interesting mushrooms and toadstools appear.

Pink and shaggy

Virgin white

Soft ochres

Forests of toadstools on a mulch heap.

Bright orange fungi growing from the bark of fallen branches.

This was taken at about 8 am, interesting collar.

By 4pm it was twice the size and had umbrella'd out.

Still, enough about fungus, onto the monthly bird round up.

Regulars  (seen at least 5 days in the week)

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

Family of Galahs with a juvenile in the centre.

Little Corella

Little Corellas in the Silky Oak

Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck

Plumed Whistling Ducks on the water.

Purple Swamphen

Water off a duck's (or in this case a Purple Swamp Hen) back.

Rainbow Lorikeet

Rainbow Lorikeet

Spangled Drongo

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo in the Silky Oak.

Torresian Crow
Variegated Fairy Wren

Male Variegated Fairy Wren in the Bougainvilleas.

White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater
Wood Duck
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
 
 Common (Seen at least twice a week)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike

Forest Kingfisher
Grey Shrike Thrush

Grey Shrike Thrush with a Cicada in beak.

King Parrot
Laughing Kookaburra
Little Friarbird
Magpie Lark
Noisy Friarbird
Pale Headed Rosella

Family of Pale-headed Rosella, juvenile in the middle.

Pied Butcherbird
Red-browed Finch

Uncommon (Seen two to five times during the month)

Crested Pigeon
Dollarbird
Eastern Yellow Robin
Lewins Honeyeater
Little Pied Cormorant
Noisy Miner
Red-backed Fairy Wren

Juvenile male (above) and female Red-backed Fairy Wrens

Swamp Harrier
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Welcome Swallow
White-headed Pigeon
White-throated Treecreeper
White-faced Heron

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Rare (Seen only once)

Azure Kingfisher
Brown Cuckoo DoveCollared Sparrowhawk
Eastern Whipbird
Leaden Flycatcher
Mallard

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Willie Wagtail

Which tots up to 56-species.A drop of four species from last year, which is surprising as the land has now fully recovered from the hail storm on Nov 2013.

Summer rises

Last day of the month and year, I better get my skates on and get the November post out! November followed the continuing theme of dry days although the weather was beginning to warm as we finally reached summer.  The days were marginally longer (no long summer nights like you get back in the UK!) and the garden was looking very dry and very tired. The Grevilleas flowers were coming to an end and even the Bougainvilleas were beginning to run out of puff.  The dams were almost a metre off their normal height and several of the lilies that were trying to flower had been beached. The Milfoil was doing its best to add a splash of sunny yellow along the margins of the Lap Swamp, but the back dam was still looking green and murky thanks to the Plumed Whistling Ducks. According to the weather people Queensland had received only a fraction of its normal annual rainfall and although we weren't suffering anything like those towns and properties in the west of the state the forest floor was very crackly and dry under foot.

With all the dry weather the strimmer (whipper-snipper in Australia) was gathering cobwebs in the shed and most of my attention was on keeping the chooks from dying of heat stroke. A couple of days were really hot, nudging past 40 degrees, but I've now learned how to manage the heat better. The pullets have a tarp shade tent over their run and I open all the coop doors and laying box lids and that allows what breeze there is to flow through the coops. The chicks in the nursery would be moved each day as the sun swung around the house. By late morning I'd move them from the nursery into a caged frame on a table on the back deck and then again in the afternoon to a second nursery in the now shaded back garden.  I had to move the brooders of the really young ones indoors, into the air-conditioning, as the heat in the garage became stifling.  In the end I still lost a couple of the younger pullets, but it could have been a lot worse.  Despite all the heat the chooks kept laying and eventually I decided to stop putting eggs aside for the incubators with the full summer in sight as I would have had too many chicks indoors.

Another problem that reared its head was a rat infestation in my workshop.  Monty the cat did his best to keep the numbers down, but eventually I had to turn to laying poison. I really didn't want to go down this path, especially as the danger of one of the cats or dogs eating a poisoned rat was real, but I carefully monitored the surrounds and picked up any carcasses before this could happen, and I think we've got the problem whipped for the time being.

Down on the dams the Purple Swamphens played a continual cycle of building new nest, mating, and then abandoning the nest and moving to a new site before starting the process again. I've been really hoping for a group of gangly moorhen chicks, but they are still at it now.

Nest number 3

At the end of the month we were treated to the arrival of a mother Pacific Black Duck and ten freshly minted ducklings, which have kept me engaged ever since.

Momma duck and her brood.

and of course, Nitesh the Peacock has continued to enthrall me.

Well it's time for the monthly bird count....

Regulars  (seen at least 5 days in the week)

Australian Magpie

Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing
Channel-billed Cuckoo

Channel-billed Cuckoo

Common Mynah
Double-barred Finch

Galah

Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella

Little Friarbird
Magpie Lark
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner

Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck

Pacific Black Duck

Peaceful Dove

Peaceful Dove

Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck
Purple Swamphen

Rainbow Lorikeet

Rainbow Lorikeets

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Welcome Swallow
White-throated Gerygone
Wood Duck
Torresian Crow

 Common (Seen at least twice a week)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Honeyeater

Buff-banded Rail

Forest Kingfisher
Grey Shrike Thrush
King Parrot
Pale Headed Rosella

Pale-headed Rosella

Pied Butcherbird
Spangled Drongo

Variegated Fairy Wren

White-throated Honeyeater

White-throated Treecreeper

Uncommon (Seen two to five times during the month)

Blue-faced Honeyeater
Brown Cuckoo Dove
Cattle Egret
Cicadabird

The shy and secretive Cicadabird

Collared Sparrowhawk
Common Koel

Crested Pigeon
Dollarbird
Eastern Yellow Robin
Grey Butcherbird
Red-backed Fairy Wren
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Striated Pardalote
Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-headed Pigeon

White-headed Pigeon

White-faced Heron

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Rare (Seen only once)


Brown Falcon
Figbird

Female Figbird

Golden Whistler
Letter-winged Kite
Little Friarbird

Pheasant Coucal
Rufous Whistler

Male Rufous Whistler

White-bellied Sea Eagle

Willie Wagtail
Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Yellow-rumped Thornbill in the Brush Box.

Which tots up to 64-species, two better than last year and twenty better than the year before. Maybe I'm just getting better at spotting them.