Lady Elliot Island - 3

Coral and shells

Lady Elliot Island is entirely built of coral and shell (with a bit of guano and plant matter added later). It rose from below the surface about 3500 years ago and the foundation platform can be clearly seen to be formed from the coral and shells, and the current coral platform which surrounds the island can be seen forming the next extension to the island if it is uplifted again in another few thousand years.

Although most of the colour in the coral is seen when it is alive and underwater, bits and pieces are washed up on to the beaches along with sponges.

And there are thousands of seashells on the beaches. The island is a green zone, where removal of anything natural from the island is prohibited, and as a result every visitor has the joy of walking the shore and discovering a variety of shells. It is the best beach I have ever seen for shells, with several species of cowrie and cone shells - the builders of some of which are deadly poisonous if picked up when alive. Then there are clams, spiders and others I cannot remember, there were so many.

My prize find was a nautilus shell with barnacles growing on it.

I also found a splendid growth of barnacles on an old washed up log. The whole shore is a beachcomber's delight. 

Lady Elliot island - 2

Noddies

Two species of Noddy nest on Lady Elliot Island, the White-capped (Black) and the Common (Brown), and despite their clearly different names they are rather similar when first seen.

The most common species on the island is the White-capped and they build flimsy nests of rotting leaves in the lower forks of the trees, many right next to the paths in the centre of the resort complex. The adults are a bit darker than the Common Noddies, but it is their smaller size and habits which distinguish them better from the Commons. 

I find it interesting how their chicks, even when downy, also have white-caps and their body down is sooty black.

The larger Common Noddies (on the right below) are more brown in general, but this can be difficult to discern in poor light, and the difference between the amount of white on each species' crown is also similar.

When nesting, the two species are easily identified because the Common Noddies nest on the ground, on the storm beaches,   

or in the shorter grasses at either end of the runway. The birds fly up whenever an aeroplane passes overhead, but they return immediately to their nests every time.

Lady Elliot Island - 1

I am just back from a family holiday on Lady Elliot Island on the Great Barrier Reef. A great venue for snorkeling, with wonderful coral, fish, turtles and the star attraction - manta rays.  

As we flew in we had a good overview of the island and its reefs. In 1805 an industry started up collecting and exporting sea-cucumbers to Asia, then a guano industry began and almost the whole island was stripped bare of vegetation as that was collected. Three feet or more of guano covered the island then. Now the island is largely regenerated, since a programme was began in the 1960s. The light house is the obvious man-made landmark on the island and there have been numerous shipwrecks in the past.

Now there are thousands of white-capped noddies nesting in the trees, and they roost on clear sunny perches like old tree branches over the beach as below. There are also large colonies of common noddies which nest on the storm beaches, especially at either end of the runway. Other sea birds which nest there include Red-tailed Tropic Birds, Bridled, Black-naped, Crested and Roseate terns.

And there are nesting Green and Loggerhead Turtles. The green turtle below was marooned on the reef platform at low tide so I lifted her into the water and she swam off gratefully. It was a tremendous experience to swim with these animals. They are used to humans and allow close contact and some individuals actually swam towards us to be scratched, probably using us as cleaning stations, but I didn't mind helping them at all. 

I will cover other wildlife of the island in subsequent blog-pages, but for now here is a shot of a white Eastern Reef Egret, there is also a dark grey morph. They forage along the reef and roost and nest in the trees.  

Bird Banding at the Weddin Mountains

Last weekend I was out catching birds at the Weddin mtns on a trip run by Harvey Perkins and Richard Allen. The bush was looking very green and lush, greatly changed from the dry and shrinking habitat I last saw there a year ago.

We caught 173 birds of a good variety of species, even though most of the summer migrants had left. We saw a flock of about sixty bee-eaters fly overhead, going north so that might have been them gone too. The birds we caught were of the resident or locally migratory species and there were many juvenile and first year birds indicating that there had been a good breeding season.

 An adult female Crested Shrike-tit, she has a green bib and collar, while the male has a black one - we caught her mate (but he was released before I could photograph him) and he was banded seven years ago at the same site.

A Varied Sittella, wonderful little birds which forage up and down tree bark in extended family cooperative groups. This bird is a full-grown male, the female has a white chin and lower face.

 

Two Spotted Pardalotes: an adult female on the left a male on the right. he is moulting the first four white spots on his crown, from the yellow spots he had while in juvenile plumage, similar to that of the female. His full adult plumage will have all-white spots on the crown and a brighter white stripe above the eye.          

A juvenile Painted Button-quail, fully feathered but only half adult size. These birds have been abundant throughout the grassy woodlands in our area this year and seem to have bred well.

Toilet wildlife

I was camping out at the Weddin Mountains at the weekend, catching birds - more later. We arrived after dark and set up the tents then explored around, including in and around the long-drop toilet. There were some wonderful creatures there.

Several Perons Tree Frogs were sitting on the wall and one was in the overflow pipe of the water tank. I even had a frog on the inside canopy of my tent. They have splendid yellow and black stripes on the inside of their thighs which show up bright when they jump.

And there was a beautiful Barking Gecko, which seemed to live a in crack at the edge of the concrete base. This species reserves fat in its tail, and this specimen had a very fine supply.

 Then of course there were lots of spiders, red-backs in below dark corners and a huge orb-weaver round the back with a several metres-wide web.

More Time Out

Went to see Santana in Melbourne last night at the Rod laver Arena - that's where they hold the tennis open. Must be one of my favourite venues, big enough to hold a stadium set as it was when we saw the Stones there a few years ago, and yet just right for a party atmosphere as with Santana. And we had seats next to the stage, very nice thank you.

Today after joining with the Melbourne people in their favourite pastime of sitting in a chic street cafe for breakfast, we went up the Eureka Tower to the 88th of 91 floors,

and looked down...

 and over the city, with Flinders St Station and the river Yarra 'way below...

Time out

Field work is less demanding at this time of year, in between studies in Australia and Scotland. Which means I have time for a social life, so the family went out for a walk around the city last weekend to look at the various light shows organised by ENLIGHTMENT, the Canberra light festival   http://www.enlightencanberra.com/  and created by The Electric Canvas, led by Peter Milne. http://www.theelectriccanvas.com.au/  The buildings used as canvases were the National Gallery of Australia, The National Library, Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House and Parliament House, all within an easy walk around the lawns between them. 

The globe which hangs outside the Art Gallery looked like a meteor about to crash into building and the images spread on the walls came from the latest exhibition of costumes from the Ballets Russes.

The National Library was lit with very clever images such as these of marbled endpapers and bookshelves hanging over the entry steps.

 

The Old Houses of Parliament were lit in a variety of different styles, from Graffiti of political slogans to photomontages of prime ministers. Lots of people were out and about, walking like us or giving slow drive-pasts.  

The New Houses of parliament looked like stonehenge when an image of Arthur Boyd's 'Untitled (Shoalhaven Landscape)' was projected onto the front facade. The original 1984 oil on canvas hangs inside the building and the tapestry for which it was a plan hangs there in the Great Hall.

All credit for the artwork to The Electric Canvas thanks guys....

Mole Crickets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J51W-kBhcg

The insects in the garden have had a good breeding year after all the rain. And now at dusk the mole crickets are firing up into a wondeful deafening song. Its great to hear them so loud again. There are several in the lawn, sitting snug in their burrows. I can feel the vibrations if I creep up close and can pin point the burrow entrances. The insects are several cm long, but seldom seen.

Click on the link above to hear them sing.

Dainty Swallowtail Butterfly hatch

The garden has been full of butterflies this summer and the next generation is now hatching. Here are a few images of a Dainty Swallowtail Papilio anactus, hatching after eating the orange tree in the back patio.

As she was on the underside of the tree and in shade, I reflected sunlight up onto her to photograph her in fresh light. She greatly appreciated that and soon warmed up; stretched and shivered her wings, then took off. 

  

There are more to follow. 

Life's good

It is now the end of summer and life is easy.

There has been a great crop of fruit in the garden this year, starting with a few good servings of strawberries, then thousands of mulberries from two trees. Since then there have been big juicy apricots and plums, most of which went into jam. Now we have tomatoes which grow wild wherever I have spread compost. This is the third or fourth pick and there will be at least the same to come.

Nice to sit on the veranda in the late afternoon sun, with a glass.

And then there will be figs and a bumper crop of pears........

Magazine article

A copy of the Leopard magazine arrived with the post today from Scotland. And there on the cover was one of  my photographs of a ptarmigan taken last summer while I was over there. There is a full four page article inside, which I wrote for the magazine with more of my shots illustrating the ptarmigan's life in the Scottish Highlands. Go to http://www.leopardmag.co.uk/ for more info. One of the inside photographs and caption is copied below.

A hen ptarmigan in summer plumage. The fine pattern of browns, yellows, black and white mix to form an excellent match with the colours of the heather, blaeberry, lichens and rocks of the high hilltops.

Bird banding in Mallee

Last weekend I was out banding birds in mallee woodland at Charcoal Tank Nature Reserve, near West Wyalong. The trip was organised by Mark Clayton who has been banding birds there for over twenty years and seen big changes in bird numbers there as the habitat has changed over the dry years and now a wet one. One bird we caught was a fine adult male Common Bronzewing, above. This is a common and widespread Australian species of pigeon, readily identified by the male's pale forehead and rich rusty red underwing.  

We caught three Painted Button-Quail which have bred well in the tall grasses that have grown throughout the east in the high rainfall of the 2010-2011 spring. This bird is the more brightly coloured female with chestnut neck, back and coverts. The male which incubates and rears the chicks is smaller and more buff in colour.

The grasses are about a metre tall, and have cast their seeds, but still provide a thick understory to the red ironbark trees. In previous years the ground has been open, with a thin covering of leaf litter and sparse grasses and shrubs.

We also caught a mallee heath specialist species, the Shy Heathwren. This is closely related to the Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, which it clearly resembles. That species is however, more associated with coastal heaths and scrub farther east. The Shy Heathwren fills this habitat niche from near West Wyalong and to the west.

The bird we caught was an adult female, identified by the pale eyestripe and dull wing flash of white and dark feathers. The male has more a pronounced white eyestripe and wing flashes.

While we were catching birds in nets, we ourselves were repeatedly caught in the large anchor strands of cobwebs spun by orb-weaving spiders. Here a female sit in the centre of her web while the smaller male sits quietly on the edge. She is quite likely to eat him after they have mated.

Juvenile tawny frogmouth

Most of the tawny frogmouth chicks have fledged now and are roosting with the adults during the day. Here an adult male is next to a pine tree trunk with a large juvenile next to him. The young bird can be readily identified by the shorter bristles above its bill. The young bird's tail and wing feathers are also not fully grown yet although it has been out of the nest for over a month. Note the rounded end to the its tail compared with the sharp tip to the adult's tail feathers. Also, there are yet shorter feathers on the underside of the tail.

Seen from the top side, the young bird is noticeably more buff in colour generally, with less intricate dark markings on the coverts than on the adult. Also the difference in the roundness of the tail feathers is very clear. The edges of the wing feathers - the primaries and secondaries are all clean and smooth, unlike the adults' ones which are rough and jagged through wear and tear.