Pardalote Holt

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

A new member of the family...

Winter is here and cool nights and blue sky days have become the norm. The odd night of rain and some heavy dews have made the pre-dusk mornings dank and chill, but as the sun rises the bush is full of birdsong and when the grevilleas are lit up then it's small bird city! The earliest of the winter arrivals is usually the Grey Fantail, but in June the Eastern Spinebills turn up and dominate the flowering grevilleas, although the Brown Honeyeaters often put up a determined resistance. The shrubs are soon filled with the Spinebills, Brown, White-faced, Yellow-faced and Lewins Honeyeaters. Then, just when you think that you couldn't get any more birds in the Firesprites the Scarlet Honeyeaters turn up and blow everything else away!

Bit of a stunner this one!

Taken from above, bird and flower in harmony.

Rich nectar for hungry birds.

Meanwhile, back in the tree lined creeks Eastern Yellow Robins compete with Spotted and Striated Pardalotes for suitable nesting sites and in the coops the Faverolles are getting broody. Are first chicks of the season hatching on the 18th.

Three of my Salmon Faverolle hens.

and now....may I introduce you to the new member of the family, our Blue Roan Cocker Spaniel puppy, Chudleigh....

Chudleigh meets Bitsy & Tolkein

Chudleigh goes hunting

Juju notes the newcomer and comes out to play

"Hey! You look fun"

Chudleigh cuddles!

Showing remarkable patience towards her new chum!

Ah! well, let's get back to the birds...

Regulars (Seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Brown Honeyeater

Brown Honeyeater in the Firesprite

Common Bronzewing
Double-barred Finch
Eastern Spinebill

Eastern Spinebill in the Firesprite

Galah
Grey Fantail
Laughing Kookaburra
Lewins Honeyeater

Lewins Honeyeater in the Firesprite

Noisy Miner
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck

Plumed Whistling Ducks dozing in the afternoon sun

Rainbow Lorikeet
Restless Flycatcher
Striated Pardalote
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater

White-throated Honeyeater in the Firesprite

Willie Wagtail
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Yellow-faced Honeyeater in the Firesprite

Common (Seen Weekly)

Eastern Yellow Robin

The perfect Eastern Yellow Robin - all bright and fluffy!

Grey Butcherbird
Grey Shrike-thrush
Little Corella
Noisy Friarbird
Pied Butcherbird
Welcome Swallow

Uncommon (Seen occasionally)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Golden Whistler
King Parrot
Masked Plover
Pale-headed Rosella
Rainbow Bee Eater
Rose Robin

A female Rose Robin

Scarlet Honeyeater

Scarlet Honeyeater in the Firesprite

Spotted Pardalote

Spotted Pardalote nest hunting?

Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-throated Treecreeper

Rare (Seen once only)

Blue-faced Honeyeater
Brown Goshawk
Brown Thornbill
Little Wattlebird

Little Wattlebird having left the Firesprite

Magpie Lark
Olive-backed Oriole
Silvereye
Straw-necked Ibis
Varied Sitella

Varied Sitella

Top Knot Pigeon
Wood Duck

Friday, June 30, 2017

May and little to say!

Who knows, I was away! Yes, I really was....well for a week anyway. Yup! I finally went up north for a week, for work reasons, visiting the metropoli of Cairns, Weipa, Injinoo and Hopevale. Injinoo is on the far northern tip of Cape York and one of the northernmost settlements in Australia. Anyway, I was working, but as I scuttled about from place to place I did manage to snap the odd bird.

Black-fronted Dotterel

White-breasted Woodswallow

Figbird

Australian Kestrel

Little Egret

Pheasant Coucal

Coucal catches the worm

Female Red-winged Parrot

Male Red-winged Parrot

Sacred Kingfisher

Sacred Kingfisher on a mangrove sapling

A Square Tailed Kite

White-breasted Woodswallow

and at the other times, when I was back at home....

Regulars (Seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Brown Honeyeater
Common Bronzewing
Double-barred Finch
Galah
Grey Butcherbird
Grey Fantail
Laughing Kookaburra
Lewins Honeyeater

Lewins Honeyeater

Noisy Miner
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove

Peaceful Doves on the driveway

Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck
Rainbow Lorikeet
Restless Flycatcher

Restless Flycatcher

Striated Pardalote
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Feed me Mummy!

Torresian Crow
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater
Willie Wagtail

Common (Seen Weekly)

Bar-shouldered Dove
Eastern Spinebill

Eastern Spinebill arrives

Eastern Yellow Robin

Grey Shrike-thrush
Golden Whistler
Rainbow Bee Eater

Rainbow Bee Eater

Welcome Swallow
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Uncommon (Seen occasionally)

Azure Kingfisher

Azure Kingfisher hunting from the Violet Thalia

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Goshawk
Figbird
King Parrot
Little Corella
Masked Plover
Pale-headed Rosella
Pied Butcherbird
Rose Robin

A male Rose Robin

Rare (Seen once only)

Little- Pied Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant dries his wings

Magpie Lark
Satin Flycatcher
Shining Bronze Cuckoo

The shy Shining Bronze Cuckoo

Straw-necked Ibis
Varied Sitella

The tiny insect hunting Varied Sitella

White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike
White-bellied Sea Eagle
White-throated Treecreeper
Wood Duck
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

April, I love the way she comes

As summer breaks into Autumn (which we don't have here...it's just a Pom trying to put a European seasonal framework onto his existence in the subtropics) and we move on past the welcome drenching of cyclone Debbie things begin to happen at the Holt. The winter migrants begin to appear. Led by the Rose Robin and swiftly followed by the Black-faced Monarch, small birds begin to drift in. As the climate cools through April and May I expect to welcome back a host of smaller birds including Grey Fantails, Spotted Pardalote, Eastern Spinebills and eventually the Scarlet Honeyeaters; however, until that lot arrives we'll just have to have a look at some of this month's visitors.

I was working in my office one day when I was distracted from my labours by the honk of Emmy the Peahen, and on looking outside I could see she was entertaining a guest. Concerned that she might get carried away and do the little fellow some injury I grabbed the camera and skipped downstairs to intervene.

Emmy finds a turtle crossing the driveway.

Looks like a young Saw Shelled Turtle

I think we can assume that he wasn't happy, but it sure looked like it was smiling.

and a last shot before I assisted it into the deep undergrowth by the dam.

Perhaps an odd place to find visitors to the Holt is in the spa bath, to get to which the crittur has to climb over the front step, up the stairwell and into the master bathroom, before climbing into the bath. I think that we can safely assume that at least some of these would be bathers are assisted to the bath by Juju the cat; however, the good news is that I rarely find anything dead there. Perhaps she's just looking for friends (or toys!)

Striped Marshfrog

Eastern Chestnut Mouse

Mountain Brushtail Possum

Now one of these made his own way into the tub, but one really made Susanne scream (guess which?).

The other visitor of note has been the Brown Goshawk. These cunning raptors appear far to regularly for the comfort of our chickens, but mostly they seem to hunt the Peaceful and Bar-shouldered Doves.