Slime mould at Manly Dam!
This morning I came across two colonies of slime mould. At least, I think that’s what this yellow gunge is. I’m not a mycologist — it’d be great to hear from someone who knows for certain.
This photo shows two mounds of bright yellow slime mould (I think) that I spotted on the ground in Manly Dam Park, New South Wales. The mounds nestled amongst the ground cover of leaves and sticks:
The stuff was soft to the touch. I prodded the larger piece with a stick, and discovered that the inside was mushy and slightly darker in colour than the outside:
Slime mould is the coolest thing since poached eggs. It spends part of its time as tiny separate organisms. When the going gets tough, the separate bits find each other and form a single body that can move around in search of food. The body seems to have an intelligence of its own, and scientists are intrigued by the possibilities of human cooperation with slime mould.
In a different area of the park was a collection of similar stuff, this time part-way up a tree trunk:
I didn’t get very close, because there was a lot of vegetation-covered ground ground between me and the tree. It looked like the ideal home for snakes, spiders, and leeches. Instead, I used my camera lens to zoom in:
So, what do you think — slime mould or not?
If you’re interested in more beautiful and interesting fungi, take a look at my Soothing Musing: The humble mushroom.
Cockatoo on a beach at sunrise
Common name: Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Scientific name: Cacatua galerita
Approximate length: 50 cm
Date spotted: 27 December 2020 (summer)
Location: Forty Baskets Beach, New South Wales, Australia: 33°48’11.5″S 151°16’12.1″E
Eat your greens! Baby swans growing up
Early in October I spotted a family of swans at Manly Dam. These are Australian Black Swans. When I first saw them, there were five baby swans (cygnets), closely watched over by two adults. This was one of the little ones, just a few days old then, I think:
Since then, I’ve been watching the cygnets grow. Alas, two of them disappeared over the weeks. But there are still three of the cygnets, still with their parents in late December, and much bigger and stronger.
The video below shows a cygnet and a parent feeding on water weeds. This was towards the end of November, when the cygnets were around six weeks old. Near the beginning of the video, the adult swan grabs a clump of weed and dumps it near the baby.
Eat your greens!
Later the video zooms out to show the entire family of three babies and two adults:
Here’s one of the cygnets swimming with an adult, also at around six weeks old:
On 23 December, at ten to eleven weeks old, the cygnets are much bulkier and their faces look more swan-like:
Even at this age, their wings are still small and stumpy, nowhere near ready for flight:
Common name: Black Swan
Scientific name: Cygnus atratus
Approximate length of adult: 120 cm
Date spotted: 9 October 2020 (spring) through to 23 December 2020 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’58.5″S 151°15’18.6″E
Sandy termite mound looks like a maze
This sandy mound caught my eye, because it looked like it had some weird dark encrustations growing on it:
A closer look revealed a maze of tunnels, actively being built by termites:
I’d passed this sandy mound many times before, not realizing it was a termite mound. Most of the termite mounds in our area of Australia look quite different from this one. They’re dark in colour, and are usually half way up a tree. I’m also surprised to see the termites building onto the outside of the mound in this way.
Here you can see that the termites have covered over some of the tunnels, and the roofs in the middle area are already dry and looking more like the rest of the mound:
So cute! Baby kookaburra in nest
For the past few weeks, I’ve been following the progress of a baby kookaburra and its parents. The baby was housed in a termite nest on an old, dead tree. The first time that I noticed the nest was more than a month ago, on 17 November. At that time, the only sign of the baby was a faint crooning sound emerging from the termite nest. I’d heard baby kookaburras before, so I stuck around to see what would happen. Sure enough, an adult bird arrived with some food.
From that day on, I visited the nest regularly. And now, I’m delighted to report that the baby bird has safely left the nest and is being fed in the nearby trees.
The first video shows the baby kookaburra just a few days before it left the nest. The date was 14 December, almost a full month after I first noticed the nest. In the video, the baby peers curiously (and hungrily, no doubt) from the nest. You can hear an adult kookaburra off camera, calling to let the chick know that food is on its way. I moved the camera to take in the adult on a nearby branch. The bird checks the surroundings carefully, including me, to decide whether it’s safe to approach and feed the chick.
Meanwhile, the chick becomes more vociferous and sticks its head further out of the nest, impatient at the delay. The adult moved to a different branch to give itself a direct line of flight. I managed to catch a view of the adult there too, before moving back to the nest in time to see the adult arrive and feed the baby:
The parents were tireless and devoted in their care for the baby. On a couple of occasions, I spotted them foraging for food:
When the parents were not around, the chick eyed me from the safety of its home. The smallest scuffle was enough to bring an inquisitive eye to the hole in the nest:
Partially hidden but oh so curious:
The nest was on the skeleton of a dead tree:
This is an earlier, short video (taken on 3 December) showing a parent arriving to feed the chick:
When I arrived on 17 December, the nest was quiet. Again the next day, there was no activity at the nest. I explored the area and soon heard the characteristic crooning of a kookaburra youngster. I found it in a quiet, tree-filled glen, being attended to two adults in turn. It was early in the morning, and the birds were high in the trees, so I didn’t manage to get a good photo. This is the glen:
This is the only photo I have of the youngster. Alas, I didn’t get the full head in the shot, but you can see the fluffiness of the feathers and the short tail:
Common name: Laughing Kookaburra
Scientific name: Dacelo novaeguineae
Approximate length: 47 cm
Date spotted: 18 December 2020 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia
This is the view the baby kookaburra had from its nest. It looks over Manly Dam towards the dam wall, with a bottlebrush bush glowing in the early morning light. A room with a view indeed:
Finally, here’s the view that the baby must have seen when it first emerged from its nest and could look in the other direction, up the length of Manly Dam:
Male and female Brush-turkeys getting affectionate plus bonus baby
Over the past few weeks I’ve been watching the action at a Brush-turkey mound. The male bird is very attentive, keeping the mound in good shape and calling to attract females.
Every so often, a female arrives and starts taking the mound apart! At first I thought the male was annoyed when he pecked at the female. But watch what happens at about one minute into the video. The male is the one with the long yellow flaps hanging below its beak:
Male Australian Brush-turkeys build huge mounds of leaves and other plant matter each year. They lovingly tend the mound, spending hours every day reorganizing the leaves. Every now and then, the male utters a strange booming call (I managed to make a video of this male calling a few weeks ago) to let females know he’s ready for business.
Females come and inspect the male’s work. If they approve, the birds mate and eventually the female lays eggs in the mound. The chicks hatch of their own accord, and are immediately independent of their parents.
Several females have visited this particular mound over the weeks. I’ve been waiting for chicks to appear, but haven’t seen any yet.
In the meantime, in another area of the park today, this cute little young Brush-turkey flew past me at knee height. It was about the size of a large fist. I didn’t know they could fly at this age!
Common name: Australian Brush-turkey
Scientific name: Alectura lathami
Approximate length of adult: 60-70 cm
Date spotted: 13 December 2020 (summer)
Location of the chick: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’55.6″S 151°15’05.3″E
Song of the Golden Whistler
In competition with the raucous remarks of a nearby cockatoo, this little Golden Whistler sings his heart out.
Golden Whistlers are also known as thunder birds, because evidently they tend to sing in response to loud noises. Maybe the calls of the cockatoo were actually encouraging the little songster!
Common name: Golden Whistler
Scientific name: Pachycephala pectoralis
Approximate length: 16-18 cm
Date spotted: 9 December 2020 (early summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°47’02.4″S 151°15’14.9″E
Triangle of power: Three Powerful Owls
High, high in the trees perched three of Australia’s biggest owls: Powerful Owls:
I used the super zoom on my camera to see one of the birds up close. It knew I was there! What big eyes:
Powerful Owls eat small creatures, including possums. The birds can weigh well over 2 kilograms, and reach up to 65 centimetres in height. Look at those huge feet and strong claws. Like all owls, the birds hunt at night and roost quietly during the day.
Common name: Powerful Owl
Scientific name: Ninox strenua
Approximate length: 65 cm
Date spotted: 6 December 2020 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia. (Approximate map reference: 33°46’55.8″S 151°15’12.1″E)
The loudest insect in the world: Australia’s green cicada
It’s summer in Australia, and the cicadas are already out in full force. This year is going to be a bumper year for cicadas, it seems. Cicadas are a good source of food for many birds. The food comes in particularly handy at this time of year, when chicks are hatching and demanding to be fed.
Today I spotted a green cicada for the first time ever. Well, that’s not exactly true. I did once see half a green cicada buzzing around, which was very distressing. The creature must have had an encounter with a bird. Today’s insect, though was in one piece, and lovely to see:
This cicada is known as the green grocer, or the great green cicada. It’s more scientific name is Cyclochila australasiae.
Cicadas make a very loud noise. The green grocer is one of the loudest insects in the world, spewing out a noise that can reach 120 decibels. (Prolonged exposure to a noise level of 90 decibels is harmful to the human ear, and 120 decibels can cause immediate harm.) Cicadas make their noise by pulsating their abdomens.
To see a cicada singing, or to see other types of cicadas, take a look at my earlier posts.
Magpie-lark eating a cicada
This Magpie-lark, also known as a Mudlark or a Peewee, has caught a cicada for breakfast.
Cicadas are large beetles that appear around Sydney in summer and drive us all crazy with their singing. You can hear the harsh, ringing sound of the cicadas in the video.
There are a few different types of cicadas, many of them quite lovely. Take a look at these posts to see some that I’ve photographed on other occasions.
Back to the bird! This Magpie-lark is a male. You can tell by the colour of its throat, which is black. Female birds have a white throat.
Common name: Magpie-lark, also called a Peewee or a Mudlark
Scientific name: Grallina cyanoleuca
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 28 November 2020 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’35.5″S 151°14’50.3″E
Sydney Birder 