Wattle in flower

There is a tremendous bloom of wattle in Canberra this year. Whole hillsides are bright yellow and the bushes are full of insects and birds. But not all the birds are there to chase the insects or sip nectar. This pair of tawny frogmouths were quietly roosting on an old tree limb, basking in the sunshine. Their part-built nest was fifty metres away. The male is on the left - he is slightly larger and has less rufous on his neck and wing coverts.

 

Tawny Frogmouths breeding

The first tawny Frogmouths are now incubating eggs.So the field season is now on for me until at least Christmas. That means lots of walking through the woods, checking locations where there have been frogmouths nesting in previous years and always looking out for more in new places.

A male frogmouth sits on his nest, as all males do during the day.

His female sits quietly all day in a nearby tree, they will share the 

incubation during the night, never leaving the eggs unattended.

Garden Possum

Brush-tailed possum in the garden

Click on the link below to watch the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8bYBfLH70E

I have set up a trap camera in the back garden to try it out and here are the first results. These are infra-red images of a Brush-tailed Possum, which are our common garden pet/pest depending on one's attitude to wildlife. He is feeding on scraps which we place on the old log for the birds during the day and the possums at night.

Not bad, for my very first wildlife film.

The camera I am using is a Bushnell Trophy Cam HD, and it was set about 4m from the log..

Spring rain

After a cold fairly dry winter there has been some rain recently, and spring is on the way. The tawny frogmouths have started to build their nests and are sitting close by. This male was sitting on his own while two females sat in a nearby tree. The rain has awakened the frogs which are now calling, and the invertebrates are moving. All good food for frogmouths, so they will lay their eggs soon.

The rain was rather heavy most of the day but he was quite sheltered, tucked in under the main stem of the tree above him. His head was catching some water though, and the water droplets were beading on his head and bristles.

Lyrebird chick

The lyrebird chick I found is now three weeks old and is beginning to shed it's down. Although it might benefit from that deep soft plumage for a few days yet as there was a fall of about two feet of snow last week up on the hill range in the nesting area and it was still lying around the nest. The adult female was nowhere to be seen when I approached the nest or while I was there. She will be spending most of her time foraging and will bring food back to the chick maybe once an hour. The chick is independent of her for daytime warmth now, but she will continue to brood it at night for another two weeks or so. Then it will be wholly on its own, until it fledges at seven weeks.

The blue irides are the true colour of the young bird's eyes.