Category: wildlife

The Lilly-pillies along our creek (Syzygium smithii) are fruiting now, and they attract many birds. Not only were there flocks of King Parrots and Satin Bowerbirds feeding just metres from our house today, but in the same tree we also spotted a Tooth-billed Bowerbird, a juvenile Golden Bowerbird and 2 Spotted Catbirds. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Tooth-billed Bowerbird:

:

Spot the Spotted Catbird:

 

Having a siesta:

Likewise, in a sunny spot:

 

On the other side of the creek we could hear the dominant female cassowary walking around, calling occasionally. She has been around quite often recently, not so much interested in the Lilly-Pilly fruits (she prefers the fruits of Jungle Vine and native Ginger), but on the lookout for a mate.

Here she is following Dad and the chicks

but he isn’t interested, (yet) and actually chased her away (usually the male is wary of the larger female).

The chicks can benefit from his guidance for a bit longer…

 

 

 

Late summer/ early autumn is an excellent time for butterflies. A visit to the small Lantana patch near the road on a sunny day yielded more than a dozen species within half an hour.

From the large Monarch,

Blue Tiger,

Lemon Migrant (lots of them!),

and Blue-banded Eggfly

to the smaller Caper Gull,

Green-spotted Triangle,

Blue Argus

and even smaller Dusky Knight.

Several species of ‘Blues’ (family Lycaenidae) are tiny, like this Purple Cerulean (wingspan 23mm)

and the Small Green-banded Blue.

but most are getting ready to pupate

Mum and joey have been around frequently, feeding on a variety of plants, like Acacia melanoxylon, Wilkiea pubescens, Smilax australis, Syzygium oleosum and Bursaria spinosa.

The little one is now climbing quite confidently and often feeding a little away from her mother.

 

I started to write this blog in February. Now in mid-April, the joey has grown considerably, and on one day we saw it on its own. Most of the time it is still close to mum and cuddling up to her often.

This male spent all day in one tree, about 5 metres from our veranda. Feeding, sunbathing, preening, snoozing, feeding, snoozing, feeding, pooping,…

I had a lazy day, too, watching him for hours. He was briefly joined by a Golden Bowerbird (sorry, no acceptable photograph) and some Satin Bowerbirds.

Who says that birdwatching is supposed to be hard?! And imagine, what great photographs someone with a better camera than my little Canon SX70 could take!

Over the last few days a lot more of the Symplocos fruit have ripened, the birds are spoilt for choice.

This male might have already finished breeding, there are a few juvenile doves around. Another male is sharing incubating duties with his mate in a nest nearby. He is sitting tight from about 9 am to 4.30pm. The female has the longer night shift.

There are doves calling almost all day long, it is difficult to estimate how many are here now. They should have plenty of fruits for another month.