Baby Kookaburra practising its call
This youngster looks too bashful to burst into the full-throated call of an adult Kookaburra. Perhaps it hasn’t developed the vocal power yet. Or perhaps it’s daunted by those pesky cicadas!
Male Koel Cuckoo in shot at last
Recently I’ve managed to snap a few shots of female Eastern Koels, also called Common Koels or Koel Cuckoos. Now a male has come into my sights:
While the female is rather pretty, with shades of cream and brown overlaid with stylish spots, the male is primarily black. In fact, this photo shows more variation in colour than usual, because of the soft morning light.
If you’d like to see some shots of the females, or hear some of the cuckoos’ calls, take a look at this list of posts.
Common name: Common Koel or Eastern Koel
Scientific name: Eudynamys scolopacea
Approximate length: 45 cm
Date spotted: 28 December 2018 (Summer)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
Magpie song with a touch of Star Wars
A sociable magpie dropped by the other day to try out its song on me. I think the bird is still a youngster, as its eyes are not yet the bright red of an adult. The magpie let me get up to about two metres away, and still happily continued its song. I didn’t try to get any closer. After all, it’s a wild bird and entitled to its space. Plus, magpies are known to fly off the handle at times.
As well as the usual magpie warbles, this bird adds a few extra whistles and chirps. Sometimes it sounds as if it’s been listening to a Star Wars sound track!
Common name: Australian Magpie
Scientific name: Gymnorhina tibicen
Approximate length: 40 cm
Date spotted: 24 December 2018 (Summer)
Location: Allambie Heights, NSW, Australia (near Sydney
Kookaburras and leafhopper egg sack
A few weeks ago I wrote about the true bug that laid a clutch of eggs on my wall, and the hatching of those eggs into cute little leafhoppers. Yesterday I took a picture of two kookaburras high in a tree, because I thought the angle was cute:
As well as the underside of the kookaburra beaks and their beady eyes, looking more closely, you can see…
Yes, an egg sack that looks just like the one on my wall. The two kookaburras and the egg sack were high, high up in a gum tree. Someday soon, tiny little critturs like these will hatch. I bet the mother bug wasn’t aware that two such fearsome beaks would be in close proximity to her brood!
Common name: Laughing Kookaburra
Scientific name: Dacelo novaeguineae
Approximate length: 47 cm
Date spotted: 24 December 2018 (Summer)
Location: Manly Dam Nature Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’56.2″S 151°15’22.5″E
Leafhopper bugs hatched from egg sack
At the beginning of this month I posted some pictures of a pretty little bug moving around a big white patch of gunk on my outside wall. The bug turned out to be a “true bug” in the Hemiptera order, also called leafhoppers or planthoppers. Specifically, I thought it may be a Eucalypt Planthopper (Eurybrachyidae).
At the time I wrote that post, I wasn’t sure that the big white patch of gunk was related to the bug, though it seemed likely. Now it’s certain. Three weeks after the first sighting, this happened:
Tens of tiny little bugs hatched from the egg sack. Each bug is minute – just a millimetre or two long. Too small for me to see properly with the naked eye. The above image is zoomed in.
I saw the bug creating the egg sack on 24 November, and the little creatures hatched around three weeks later, on 16 December.
Here’s a sideways view, so that you can see the forest of tiny antennae:
Now they’ve all dispersed, leaving us with just a white patch on the wall. I’ve seen similar patches before, and wondered where they came from. Now I know!
Big lizard climbing tree near Sydney
The things birds in Australia have to put up with! This is a Water Dragon up a tree, probably looking for a nice breakfast of eggs:
What a lovely long tail it has! Perfect for keeping a grip on a tree branch. Australian Water Dragons reach 90 cm in length. They have large heads which they can lift up quite high above the level of their bodies. Their scientific name isItellagama lesueurii lesueurii.
Growing up – juvenile Powerful Owls near Sydney
Two months ago I spotted a family of Powerful Owls in Manly Dam National Park, near Sydney. Last week I spotted two of them again in the same area of bush. Given their fluffiness, I think these are the two juveniles of the family.
This is what the scene looked like without my camera’s powerful 60x zoom. If you look carefully, you can just make out the two owl-shaped dots in the centre of the picture:
Below is a closer view. It seems to be usual for one bird to be awake and vigilant while the other sleeps:
In this video, the awake owl blinks a slow, wise blink and wiggles its head from side to side in that endearing yet terrifying manner they have. A little later, the call of a passing Currawong attracts the owl’s attention:
Common name: Powerful Owl
Scientific name: Ninox strenua
Approximate length: 65 cm
Date spotted: 25 November 2018 (Spring)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia
Tiny bugs – planthoppers or leafhoppers or something Hemipterous
Two odd little bugs have paid a visit to my house, one just recently and the other last year. They’re not birds (well, duh) but every now and then I like this blog to include interesting creatures that birds may come across.
Here’s the first bug. It was a reasonable size, a bit smaller than the fingernail on my little finger:
Pretty! A knowledgeable friend told me it’s a “true bug”, which is actually a classification of a set of bugs rather than a character reference. True bugs belong to the huge order of Hemiptera.
The bug was on a wooden wall, and spent quite a bit of time around a patch of white stuff with a hump in the middle of it. Perhaps a clutch of eggs? I didn’t see whether the bug spewed out the white stuff, but it did spend time wiggling its abdomen above it.
Here’s another picture of the same bug:
Evidently cicadas are Hemiptera too, though the cicadas around here are much bigger that this little critter. I’m thinking it may be a Eucalypt Planthopper (Eurybrachyidae) like these bugs.
Last year, another odd little bug paid a call. This one was very small indeed. It’s on the armrest of a garden chair:
Another view of the same bug:
It’s hard to tell which end is the front of the creature, and which is the back. In fact, it doesn’t seem to make much difference to the creature either. In this video, you’ll see the bug move forwards and backwards with equal comfort:
Cute huh. Let me know if you know more about either of these bugs.
Koel cuckoos calling
The Koel cuckoos are in town! They were diving through the treetops and calling all round me when I went for a stroll in the bush today. Here’s a picture of one of them – a female:
In the following short video you can hear the cuckoos calling to each other. You can’t actually see any birds:
Common name: Common Koel or Eastern Koel
Scientific name: Eudynamys scolopacea
Approximate length: 45 cm
Date spotted: 25 November 2018 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’56.2″S 151°15’22.5″E
Termite nest in tree
There’s no bird in this post, but something that birds encounter often: a termite nest high in a tree. This one is in Manly Dam National Park, near Sydney, Australia:
Termites that build nests in trees are called arboreal termites. They carry mud up the tree and use it to build their nests, which can grow rather large, like this one. I’ve come across tunnels of mud that run across roads and up trees. The termites build the tunnels for protection from the sun and from scavenging creatures. The termites usually also have underground tunnels.
Here’s a closer view of the same nest:
When the nests are old and abandoned, birds like kookaburras will dig holes in them and use them as homes.
Sydney Birder 