Friday 24 September 2010

Warming up

The weather is warming up now and the wildlife are responding. I have seen a couple of shingleback lizards in the past few days and I came across this bearded dragon sun-basking on a log yesterday.


I have been doing the rounds of tawny frogmouth nest sites and after the cold but wet winter, they are at all stages of breeding. Some have hatched young, some are only laying now and others have failed. I suspect goshawks have taken one adult and a chick from one nest, and have either killed or frightened off another pair from a partially built nest. The goshawks built a new nest only fifty metres from the frogmouth nest last year and I think they ate the fledglings. The site is now empty of frogmouths.

Goshawks and sparrowhawks are very noticeable at the moment as they display over their nest sites and the males are hunting to provide the females with extra food. The male goshawk below was being mobbed by a group of noisy miners yesterday while it sat over a dam watching a group of wood ducks. Unfortunately he was about twenty-five metres from and in between a male frogmouth on a nest and his mate in a roost.


Near another goshawk nest site, I found a dead common bronzewing - killed by a gos? I couldn't tell, but I photographed the wing plumage as it showed the range of metallic colours which give the bird its name; orange, yellow, green and purple.

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