Dry.....dry....dry...Cyclone Debbie!

March and the wet season was still absent without notice, at least until the very end of the month when the tail end of Cyclone Debbie twitched it's tail over the mountain and we got 410 mm of rain over 36-hours! Wet, yes, very, very, wet, but great for ducks...speaking of which!  For the last few years we have had a family of Plumed Whistling Ducklings appear on the dam and this year was no different. So despite me being absent at work for much of the month, may I present to you my monthly cuteness collection...

They are a source of pleasure and fretting, as each morning I would anxiously await the ducklings appearance and count them to ensure they all survived. There's all sorts of predators at the Holt, including Lace Monitors, Carpet Pythons, Brown Goshawk and Collared Sparrowhawk, Magpies, crows, Currawongs and eagles. It's a wonder that any clutches survive, but as I write this in early May I am pleased to say that five of the six have almost reached full maturity.

Meanwhile back in the shrubbery we were graced with a new visitor, a Striped Honeyeater. Not only new to the Holt, but a lifer for me, and it's appearance set my scurrying back to the bird books to work out what it was.

A Striped Honeyeater comes to visit.

and for those of you who are less interested in our feathered friends....

A female Eggfly catches some rays.

The common Blue Percher is a regular on the edges of the Lap Swamp.

Gecko love!

Sydney Snake the Carpet Python has taken up residence in the gutters...at least until the Big Wet hit.

Scarlet Percher

Native Paper Wasps

and back to the birds....

Regulars (seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Brown Honeyeater
Common Bronzewing
Double-barred Finch
Galah
Grey Butcherbird
Pacific Black Duck

Pacific Black Duck

Peaceful Dove

Peaceful Dove

Plumed Whistling Duck
Rainbow Lorikeet
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater

White-throated Honeyeaters

Common (seen weekly)

Bar-shouldered Dove
Eastern Yellow Robin

Eastern Yellow Robin

Grey Shrike Thrush

Grey Shrike Thrush

Lewins Honeyeater

Lewins Honeyeater

Noisy Miner
Pied Butcherbird
Pied Currawong
Spangled Drongo

A Spangled Drongo

Striated Pardalote
Welcome Swallow

Welcome Swallow roosting in the garage

Willie Wagtail
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Uncommon (seen occasionally)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike

Black-faced Monarch

Juvenile Black-faced Monarch

Golden Whistler

Female Golden Whistler

King Parrot
Leaden Flycatcher

Leaden Flycatcher

Magpie Lark
Noisy Friarbird
Rainbow Bee Easter

Rainbow Bee Eater

Restless Flycatcher
Rufous Fantail

Rufous Fantail

Rare ( seen once)

Azure Kingfisher

Azure Kingfisher

Brown Cuckoo Dove

Brown Cuckoo Dove

Brown Goshawk
Common Spoonbill
Figbird
Masked Plover
Rufous Whistler
Satin Flycatcher
Striped Honeyeater

New to the Holt, a Striped Honeyeater

Variegated Fairy Wren
White-bellied Sea Eagle
White-faced Heron
White-throated Treecreeper

White-throated Treecreeper

The lower numbers are more due to my being away at work than anything else, but that gives us a modest 51-species. See you all soon.

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.