Pardalote Holt

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

February and it's a chook sale

February is the time when this season's chooks start reaching point of lay and I sell them on. It's a period of mixed emotions as I sadly say goodbye to some of my birds but gratefully receive a boost to my wallet. I keep a few to ensure new blood amongst the flock as some of my older birds no longer lay as regularly as they once did so here's some of the 'keepers'.

Marie (rear) and Therese (front)

Therese is quite the stunner

But Marie is a Splash and they're just drop dead gorgeous!

It's a bit of a change over time anyway as the northern species depart for warmer climes as winter approaches and there's a bit of a gap before all the smaller birds from the south come north. One species that seems to have set up home here are the Buff-rumped Thornbills. They are tiny birds that drift through the woodland in small flocks searching for grubs and insects. They have a distinctive call as they constantly chatter to each other.

Buff-rumped Thornbills have no white eyebrow like their slightly larger cousins the Yellow-rumped Thornbill

They do have the streaked coverts but foreheads are plainer rather than the white spotted on black of the Yellow-Rumped Thornbill.

A new visitor to the Holt was a Swamp Wallaby. They apparently commonly travel alone, but this one joined in with our resident Red-necked Wallabies.

Hello! Who's this?

Anyone about?

Boing! Only me.

Regular (Seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Brown Honeyeater
Buff-rumped Thornbill

Buff-rumped Thornbill catches his grub

Bush Turkey
Cicadabird
Common Bronzewing

Common Bronzewing playing peekaboo

Common Koel
Double-barred Finch
Forest Kingfisher
Galah
King Parrot
Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella
Nankeen Night Heron
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Pied Butcherbird
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck
Rainbow Lorikeet
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Yellow Thornbill

Common (Seen Weekly)

Common Mynah
Grey Shrike-Thrush
Spangled Drongo

Spangled Drongo

Uncommon (Seen occasionally)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Thornbill
Crested Pigeon
Dollarbird

Dollarbird

Eastern Boobook
Figbird
Little Friarbird

Little Friarbird stops for a drink

Magpie Lark
Masked Plover
Pale-headed Rosella

Pale-headed Rosellas at the feeder

Pheasant Coucal
Rufous Whistler

Rufous Whistler

Satin Flycatcher
White-headed Pigeon

White-headed Pigeon

White-throated Treecreeper

Rare (Seen once)

Australian Ibis
Little Pied Cormorant
Rainbow Bee Eater
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

And this months Australian mammal courtesy of the Department of the Environment is the Northern Bettong.

Northern bettong | Environment | Department of Environment and Science

Northern Bettong (Kangaroo Rat)

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

March and the world pauses

March has been a different world.It's been a bit of a quiet month on the birding front, primarily for me as I've been working all hours bringing back all the crews for the start of my company's operations with the added complexity of the Corona Virus implications. This has necessitated my working from home, which is good, but I've been so busy it's been difficult to find time to stick my head out of the door, which is not so good

.Regular (Seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Brown Honeyeater
Buff-rumped Thornbill
Bush Turkey
Cicadabird
Common Bronzewing
Forest Kingfisher

Forest Kingfisher

Galah

King Parrot
Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella
Nankeen Night Heron
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Pied Butcherbird
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck
Rainbow Lorikeet
Striated Pardalote

Striated Pardalote

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Yellow Thornbill

Common (Seen Weekly)

Common Mynah
Grey Shrike-Thrush
Spangled Drongo
Welcome Swallow

Uncommon (Seen occasionally)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Thornbill

Brown Thornbill

Crested Pigeon
Dollarbird
Eastern Boobook
Figbird
Little Friarbird
Magpie Lark
Masked Plover
Pale-headed Rosella

Pale-headed Rosella

Pheasant Coucal
Rainbow Bee Eater
Rufous Whistler
White-throated Treecreeper

Rare (Seen once)

Australian Ibis
Collared Sparrowhawk
Little Pied Cormorant
Little Wattlebird

Grey Fantail

Grey Fantail

Rufous Fantail

Straw-necked Ibis
White-bellied Sea Eagle

Scaring the ducks - White-bellied Sea Eagle

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Friday, February 7, 2020

January 2020 and the Holt sighs in damp relief

Well we finally got some decent rains. The dams have almost filled and some of the shrubs I had frankly written off have surprised me by throwing out green "I'm alive!" shoots. We lost a couple of Tree Ferns, but some younger plants have sprung up in their place, and much too my surprise, the Lilly Pilly (which was doing an impressive impression of a piece of driftwood) has started to green again.

To my surprise the Nankeen Night Heron has stayed on and is still here now. The Great Egret just managed a couple more weeks, but still fun to watch...as the pair of them weighed into my fish stocks!

Gotcha!

Great Egret in mating plumage

Its the blue/green eye piece that shows us that the bird is 'in the mood'.

Having a preen

Meanwhile our Nankeen Night Heron appears far more active than I have been used to birds of its species, flipping back and forth across the dam and even swimming like a duck.

Nankeen Night Heron has lift off

Stalking for a good hunting spot

Obviously not here..

Maybe act like a duck and the fish won't notice me.

There was also a quick trip up north which produced:

Red-winged Parrot

A Stink bug nymph

Rajah Shelducks

A Dingo bitch

And an Azure Kingfisher

But meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Regular (Seen daily)

Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Brown Honeyeater
Bush Turkey
Cicadabird
Common Bronzewing
Common Koel
Double-barred Finch
Forest Kingfisher
Galah
King Parrot
Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella
Nankeen Night Heron

Nankeen Night Heron

Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove
Pied Butcherbird
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck

Plumed Whistling Duck

Rainbow Lorikeet

Scarlet Honeyeater
Spangled Drongo
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
White-throated Gerygone

White-throated Gerygone

White-throated Honeyeater

Common (Seen Weekly)

Channel-billed Cuckoo
Common Mynah
Grey Shrike-Thrush
Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Uncommon (Seen occasionally)

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Thornbill
Crested Pigeon

Crested Pigeons

Dollarbird
Eastern Boobook
Figbird
Great Egret

Great Egret

Intermediate Egret
Little Friarbird
Magpie Lark
Masked Plover
Pale-headed Rosella
Pheasant Coucal
Satin Flycatcher
White-throated Treecreeper

Rare (Seen once)

Australian Ibis
Buff-rumped Thornbill
Little Pied Cormorant
Rainbow Bee Eater
Scaly Breasted Lorikeet
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

And this months Australian mammal is from the way up north, but you see them in the local area as well...

A Dingo

Monday, January 27, 2020

December 2019 the end of a Decade

The big dry continued until the Christmas period when finally the heavens cracked and we started to get some rain (a few days after I'd paid $200 for a tanker load of water to be delivered!), but oddly enough it was before then, whilst the dams were at there lowest that we became home for a Nankeen Night Heron and we also attracted the attention of a Great Egret, both very rare visitors. I can only surmise that the dam's water, that were now very shallow and and full of green algae were forcing the fish to the surface and the birds were having a great feed; however, as I write this a month later the dams have been filled with decent rains, the algae has gone and the Night Heron is still here, so who knows!

Nankeen Night Heron & Intermediate Egret

Intermediate Egret

Oi! stop eating my fish

Set up home in the Violet Thalia

OH don't get the hump

Great Egret (blue face) having a laugh

My demure little Nankeen Night Heron

Settling for the night

The long drought has been bad, certainly the driest that we have seen since building here all those years ago. A number of established shrubs and trees which I planted 10-years ago have died and at one point I though the back dam would dry completely.

Of course, being summer we are back into Dragonfly season again...