Yellow robin in shades of blue
A yellow-breasted robin contemplated a piece of blue plastic:
The bird then hopped onto an artistically faded green fence. The muted autumn light added shades of blue to its plumage:
Common name: Eastern Yellow Robin
Scientific name: Eopsaltria australis
Approximate length: 15 cm
Date spotted: 12 May 2020 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’36.7″S 151°15’16.6″E
Grey Butcherbird on blue sky
A Grey Butcherbird posed on a dead tree branch against an autumn-clear sky:
Butcherbirds are one of the types of black-and-white birds that frequent our area. They’re smaller than magpies and currawongs. When you manage to get a close-up view of a butcherbird’s beak, you notice the hook on the end. Magpies and currawongs have straight beaks without a hook:
Butcherbirds eat lizards, mice, small birds, insects, and other small creatures. The next photo shows the bird spotting some small creature in the scrub below. After I captured this shot, the bird swooped down then returned to its perch without its prey.
Common name: Grey Butcherbird
Scientific name: Cracticus torquatus
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 8 May 2020 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’33.1″S 151°14’47.9″E
Willie Wagtail
Each time I walk around a particular area of the Manly Dam national park, there’s a little Willie Wagtail darting from branch to branch. I don’t know if it’s the same bird each time. It’s cute and cheeky. In this shot, I caught the bird in a rare contemplative mood:
In a previous post, I published a couple of videos of a Willie Wagtail in Pyrmont, near the Sydney city centre. In particular, the first video shows the bird carolling its song to all passers-by, with the Sydney harbour in the background. It’s worth a look: Willie Wagtail sings to beauty at dawn.
Common name: Willie Wagtail
Scientific name: Rhipidura leucophrys
Approximate length: 20 cm
Date spotted: 6 May 2020 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’34.3″S 151°14’47.4″E
Collared Sparrowhawk
This sparrowhawk was sitting quietly on a branch above a scrubby patch of bush, on the edge of Manly Dam.
I think it’s a sparrowhawk, but it could be a Brown Goshawk. They’re very similar in appearance. Collared Sparrowhawks have a very long middle toe. This was the only photo I managed to take before the bird flew away, and the photo doesn’t show the toes too well. Brown Goshawks are larger than Collared Sparrowhawks, but it’s hard to judge the size of a bird.
Common name: Collared Sparrowhawk
Scientific name: Accipiter cirrhocephalus
Approximate length: 30-40 cm, wing span 55-80cm
Date spotted: 6 May 2020 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’31.8″S 151°14’46.8″E
Lace monitor lizard in a tree
I was walking along, my gaze in the treetops as usual, looking and listening for birds. I heard a frantic scurrying on the path ahead of me, and was just in time to see a lace monitor lizard scramble onto a tree. The lizard hid for a while at the base of the tree, observing me:
I was intrigued and a little nervous. This was a big lizard, about as long as I am tall. I’m close to 6 foot! Lace monitors are also known as tree goannas (Varanus varius). They can grow to two metres (seven feet) in length and weigh up to 14 kg (30 pounds). They’re predators, living off birds and eggs, other reptiles, and small animals.
I encountered this one a couple of days ago in Manly Dam National Park (map), on the east coast of Australia slightly to the north of Sydney.
The monitor made its way slowly up the tree, flicking its forked tongue in and out, as you can see in this video:
In the following picture, the lizard has reached a safe height and paused to observe me again:
Look at those hands!
Here’s a far-away picture of the lizard on the tree, to show its size and its surrounds:
What a gorgeous, wild creature to encounter on a morning walk.
Cuckoo bee visits my study
Bees in Australia can look different from what you might expect. This little creature buzzed into my home study yesterday, explored the room, then tried to exit via a closed window:
It’s a cuckoo bee. More specifically, it’s a Domino Cuckoo Bee (Thyreus lugubris). Why the word “cuckoo” in the name? Like their avian counterparts, cuckoo bees lay their eggs in the nests of other bees, rather than building their own nest.
Here’s a still photo of the bee:
After taking the photographs, I used the glass-and-paper trick to capture the bee, and released it outside. It zoomed off quite happily.
Kookaburras at dawn
In my previous post about birdsong at dawn, I mentioned that dawn is a calm but not quiet time around here. One bird that was remarkable for its absence in yesterday’s video was the kookaburra. This morning the laughing cacklers made up for that!
Birdsong at dawn
Dawn is a calm time of day in early autumn in this part of the world. Calm, but not quiet. I shot this video from my lounge window two days ago. You can hear a cockatoo coughing and lorikeets chirruping. About half way through, a couple of magpies join in with their warbling:
Blue-tongued Lizard in my garden
Every now and then we spot a Blue-tongued Lizard in our garden. These lizards are large and slow-moving. This one was about the length of my forearm and about the width of my wrist.
Blue-tongues are skinks, a type of lizard that has overlapping scales, with a small bony plate in each scale on its head. They have small legs, and the back legs in particular often don’t do much.
In this video you can see the lizard’s blue tongue flicking in and out:
Blue-tongues live a long time, sometimes up to 20 years. They eat small creatures, including small snakes and funnel-web spiders. A good friend to have in your garden!
It’s always a pleasure to see such a lovely wild creature living amongst us.
Olive-backed Oriole looking a bit fierce
Olive-backed Orioles are lovely, with their smooth olive-green backs and mottled chests. I caught this one facing directly into the camera, and noticed how fierce those eyes look.
The fierceness fits the bill, if you’re a worm or some other prey for this bird. The oriole was bashing a worm around, softening it up before swallowing it, just before I took the above picture.
The next picture shows the bird with the worm in its beak. But, as is so often the case with bird photography, a branch got in the way!
Not fierce, just inquisitive:
Common name: Olive-backed Oriole
Scientific name: Oriolus sagittatus
Approximate length: 25-28 cm
Date spotted: 18 April 2020 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’39.5″S 151°14’57.9″E
Here’s a picture of the bird’s surrounds. In the background is the water of Manly Dam:
Sydney Birder 