Bird banding at Moruya

Last weekend several of us from Canberra went down to Moruya to catch and band birds in a patch of forest. This was to individually mark birds with colour bands so that Michael and Sarah Guppy can follow the breeding biology and habitat use by a range of passerines. The bird above is a Red-browed Finch.

Micheal and Sarah have been studying these birds for several years, and it is all done on their own land so access is easy and the whole project is very well organised. We quickly set up a base station in the forest and started catching birds.

One of the more abundant and studied species is the Superb Fairy-wren, a male is shown here being delicately measured.

Another study species is the Brown Thornbill - the bird shown here clearly shows how readily the birds can be individually identified by the unique combination of colour rings which each bird is given.

We caught 146 birds altogether of numerous species, and we had two Olive-backed Orioles in one net. The sexes are very similar, but can be distinguished. The male, here on the left, has slightly more green about his throat as can be seen in these photos.

This spectacular bird with a bald head and splendid Elizabethan ruff is a Noisy Friarbird. They mostly forage high in the canopy so it was unusual to catch one. Although these features are readily seen in the field, when in the hand they can be studied more closely. Why do they have a bald head? They are members of the honeyeater family, so this could perhaps help keep their plumage clean of sticky nectar? And look how they have retained eyebrows - a sensible adaptation to keep the rain out of their eyes? What is the purpose of that horn on top of the bill? And when did you last see a birds ears so clearly? Great birds.

Orchids

Several species of orchid are now in full flower on Black Mountain in the middle of Canberra. There are over 50 species known for the local patch of dry hilly forest. Here are a few shots of the more abundant species.



A group of Wax-lipped orchids, stand erect with single flowers.

A colony of Nodding Greenhoods stand on a mossy gully bank. Many of the smaller green orchids are easily overlooked.

A single Nodding Greenhood.

A cluster of Pink Finger Orchids. Their flowers dot the ground all over the forest.

A Black Mountain Leopard orchid. A species thought to be unique to the ACT region, but locally common and many are now in flower.

Echidnas

While out looking for frogmouths today, I came across three echidnas, two males and one female. She was having a siesta with her head tucked under a log, the males were sniffing around, following her scent trail - its the mating season.

Echidnas are quite furry animals really, with a layer of fine hairs beneath those sharp spines.

And now fire
Two days ago I noticed smoke rising from a patch of bush where I new there was a frogmouth nest. The park rangers were burning ground litter in the wood to reduce fire danger to the nearby suburbs. They did well, and the ground cover was only lightly burnt when I went in the day after. And no trees were damaged or canopy burnt. However, there must have been intense smoke during the burning and a bit of heat and flame - enough for an incubating frogmouth to desert his nest. This might not have been too much of a problem if they could safely leave their eggs during the day, but only fifty metres away was a pied currawong nest with young. They are predators of frogmouths eggs and young. The exposed white eggs of a frogmouth, left unguarded would have been an easy meal for the currawongs.


A few flames still licked on the day after. The frogmouth nest is up below the canopy.


This was the male sitting on the nest before the fire.

Now the nest is empty and abandoned. The currawongs were feeding their young in their nest while I was visiting the site. There was no sign of the frogmouths.

Mixed findings

Spring is rolling on and yesterday I saw a fledgling Horsefield's bronze cuckoo being fed by a pair of buff-rumped thornbills. And today I found a grey fantail incubating one egg.


Fantail nests are delicate eggcups of cobwebs balanced on a thin branch. They always have a tail hanging down which seems to break up their outline and reduces the risk of predators seeing them.

Meanwhile, predators seem to be finding the frogmouth nests. In the past few years, only a few nests have been predated, but this year eight have been lost so far. Currawongs or possums might have taken some eggs or young, but some nests have eggshells and young lying below them, so they hadn't been eaten by them. I have seen brown goshawks most days when I have out in the bush, and one pair which have abandoned their nest have a goshawk nest only 25m away. And I found the plucked remains of a chick on a branch not far from another nest which had been raided.

A dead frogmouth chick of less than a week old lies below its nest.

More signs of Spring

Today I flushed a hare from her form where she had two small young. They were lying in tall weedy patch directly below a white-winged chough nest, and about 250m from a wedge-tailed eagle eyrie. I wished them luck and moved on.


The leverets as they were concealed under the weeds.

I opened the cover briefly to take a photograph then replaced the herbage.

Farther on I came across a party of three Kookaburras lined up on a branch where they calling in chorus.

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.

Bird-banding at Charcoal Tank, West Wyalong


Last weekend I was out at Charcoal Tank reserve mist-netting birds with a few other people in a group organised by Mark Clayton. Spring has arrived, there was water lying all around and running down the creek lines, the grass was tall and green and the birds were breeding. The birds above were a group of brown-headed honeyeaters, two adults and a juvenile, recently fledged.

There were also a few painted button-quail about, another sign of fresh growth and spring bird movements. This was a female which we caught.

We caught twenty-two different species. mostly locally breeding birds which were on their breeding territories. These are two spiny-cheeked honeyeaters, an adult on the left and an immature on the right.

The adult spiny-cheeked honeyeaters have white cheeks and the spiny plumes are obvious.

The immature spiny-cheeked honeyeater has yellow cheeks and its spiny plumes are less developed.

There was a pallid cuckoo calling all weekend but we never saw or caught it. We did however catch a fan-tailed cuckoo which we never heard calling.

This bird was surely a sign that bird were breeding well now that the drought has ended. I found further evidence in the form of red-capped robins with young in the nest and another pair with fledged young, a pair of jackie winters with eggs and inland thornbills with young in the nest.

The cuckoo really was a splendid bird and when it opened its bill it showed its typical cuckoo bright red gape.

Storm

Last weekend there was a terrific storm and lots of trees were blown down. Several trees fell around the previously mentioned nest. I checked the birds anxiously during and after the worst weather and the male was sitting tight throughout. The eggs are due to hatch any day now and it would have a been a great loss if his efforts failed.


The neighbouring birds also sat tight through the storm and here the male sits hunched down as the rain runs over his back and the branches are soaked. Like all the other nests I know of, they survived, many with adjacent trees coming down. By selecting to nest away from the ends of branches, and on thick ones, Tawny Frogmouths seem to avoid the worst effect of the winds.

Early nests

A male frogmouth sits tight on his nest, with unusually little cover above him, on a wild wet and windy day.

It has been quite a wet winter in Canberra this year and in response, several tawny frogmouths have began nesting early. Some laid eggs on the 12th August, three weeks earlier than recorded in previous years. However, in the past week or so there have been some very wet and windy days, with snow lying in the nearby hills, and heavy snowfall in the Snowy Mtns, where I have just had a great day out on the snowboard.

Other birds which had built nests did not lay, and they have been sitting nearby, probably waiting for warmer weather to return before laying. I expect things to pick up again this week as there is warmer settled weather coming in.

A female frogmouth sits in a more sheltered spot in the lee of a tree stem while her mate sits on the nest above.

Greenshank sighting

One of the adult greenshanks which we caught in Sutherland in May has been seen on the tideline of the River Stour at Mistley, south-east England. The bird was spotted and photographed by John Keep.



Here is a photo of the bird being ringed by Ruth Croger.

And a map showing the ringing and sighting areas, where this bird was seen and another which was caught at Montrose last autumn and controlled in Sutherland in May.

This colour-ringing project is being co-ordinated by several Greenshank enthusiasts and records of other birds ringed and re-sighted can be accessed via The Greenshank Migration Story website at

http://www.greenshank.info/

Many thanks to Pete Potts for organising such a fulfilling study.

Ringing golden eagle chicks


I spent Monday ringing golden eagle chicks with Ewan who is studying their habitat use. All three nests were in Scots pines and there was only one chick in each, which is unusual for the area they live in. They often rear three chicks as there is abundant prey in the area, mostly mountain hares, red grouse and ptarmigan.

Ewan climbing up to one nest which requires skilled rope-work to do so safely.

Me with a five-week old chick. The eyries are so large that there is plenty room to sit on the nest along with the bird.

Two plucked red grouse lie in the nest with the chick.

Rain

It is raining so I have taken time out. While staying with friends I noticed the rainwater droplets forming on the plants outside the kitchen window, particularly on the blue petals of the mecanopsis, Himalayan poppies. The rain stopped so I dashed out and took the advantage of the fresh light and colour saturation, which brings out the blue of the petals - that is usually washed out by bright sunlight.