Blog Archives
Yellow Figbird in Tropical North Queensland
Last weekend I was at Mission Beach in Tropical North Queensland. While there, I spotted a group of figbirds. The colouring of the males was quite different from the figbirds of the Sydney region. The northern variation (Sphecotheres viridis flaviventris) is called the Yellow Figbird for good reason:
Common name: Yellow Figbird
Scientific name: Sphecotheres viridis flaviventris
Approximate length: 29 cm
Date spotted: 15 May 2021 (autumn)
Location: Mission Beach, Tropical North Queensland, Australia: 17°51’56.6″S 146°06’33.5″E
Compare the more subdued colouring of this male figbird in the Sydney region:
In search of a dinosaur uh Cassowary
(Not in Sydney.) This weekend I’m in Tropical North Queensland with my family. On Saturday, we drove up the east coast of Australia from Townsville, heading north for three hours until we reached the town of Mission Beach. This stretch of coast is the one place in the world where you’re most likely to meet a real live dinosaur.
Well, it’s not an actual dinosaur. What we were looking for was a Cassowary, the closest thing to a living dinosaur that I can imagine. A Cassowary is a large bird, ranging from one-and-a-half to two metres tall and weighing in at around 60 to 70kg. That means the bird is about the same height and weight as I am, or even larger!
Upon entering the area of Mission Beach, we came across enticing road signs like this one:
Cassowaries are usually timid and avoid contact with humans. Before setting out, I’d done some research about where we’d be most likely to see one, if we were lucky. And yes, we were lucky! Within an hour or so of starting our wandering around the southern areas of Mission Beach, we spotted a Cassowary. My first photo shows this intriguing rear end poking out from behind a bush:
Soon the bird appeared in full view:
What a magnificent creature! We stayed well out of its way. Cassowaries are formidable. Quite apart from being large and fast, they have a big, strong beak and a twelve-centimeter-long, sharp claw on each foot, fit to disembowel any unwary adversary.
The curved bit that sticks up on the bird’s head is a hard, bony protrusion called a casque. Nobody is quite sure of its purpose. One theory is that the casque provides a sounding chamber that helps the bird make its deep, booming call. The colours on the bird’s head and in those red hanging wattles get brighter when the bird is agitated. Cassowaries can’t fly, but they can run up to 50 kilometres per hour, jump 2 metres straight up into the air, and swim well too.
This video shows the Cassowary quietly exploring the plants, looking for an edible treat:
Common name: Southern Cassowary
Scientific name: Casuarius casuarius johnsonii
Approximate height: Up to 2 metres
Date spotted: 15 May 2021 (autumn)
Location: South Mission Beach, Tropical North Queensland, Australia: Map
Call of the Red Wattlebird
This Red Wattlebird was quite chatty in the crisp morning air.
Usually when walking in the bush I hear the more raucous croaks of this bird and its cousin, the Little Wattlebird. So it was nice to hear something a little more melodious.
Here’s a still picture of the Red Wattlebird, showing the red flap below its eye which gives the bird its name:
The feathers on its back are quite decorative, and a sun ray lights up the yellow on the bird’s belly:
Common name: Red Wattlebird
Scientific name: Anthochaera carunculata
Approximate length: 35 cm
Date spotted: 24 April 2021 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’10.0″S 151°14’53.6″E
Eastern Rosella a frequent visitor
How lucky am I? This gorgeous bird has taken to dropping by frequently, and hanging out on our telephone line. It’s a male Eastern Rosella. Often the female comes along too, but she’s more shy and flies off when I appear.
Eastern Rosellas are medium-sized parrots, at about 30cm from head to tail. This one usually makes his presence known with a distinctive twittering call. The phone line is below the level of my lounge window, so he has to look up to spot me.
Common name: Eastern Rosella
Scientific name: Platycercus eximius
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 10 April 2021 (autumn)
Location: Allambie Heights, NSW, Australia
Scrubwren at a forest pool
Yesterday I spent some time sitting near a forest creek. Birds flitted around me. A Red Wattlebird dived repeatedly into the water and retreated to a branch for some serious grooming. A little scrubwren explored the mossy rock near the pools and running streams formed by the creek.
An aerial view showing the bird’s back:
Here’s one with a somewhat whimsical view of the water:
Common name: White-browed Scrubwren
Scientific name: Sericornis frontalis
Approximate length: 12 cm
Date spotted: 12 April 2021 (autumn)
Location: Manly Creek, New South Wales, Australia: 33°45’49.6″S 151°14’14.7″E
Diamond Python in Banksia tree
A couple of days ago, when walking along a bush bath in the Manly Dam park, I met a man carrying an empty cloth bag attached to a stick. I said hallo, received a friendly greeting in return, then asked him what he was capturing. He said, “Releasing, not capturing.”
“OK, what are you releasing?” said I.
“A Diamond Python.” When I responded with a delighted smile rather than a fearful gasp, he said, “Would you like to see it?” He led me down a path and pointed to the snake, which was making its way happily up a Heath Banksia tree.
The markings on the snake’s skin are amazingly intricate. And such a gorgeous face:
The snake catcher said that the snake had been found on the roof of someone’s car in a nearby suburb. He’d been called to remove the snake, and Manly Dam park is a great place to release creatures like this.
Diamond Pythons are related to Carpet Pythons, and are native to the eastern coast of Australia (which is where I am). They’re the most southerly occurring python in the world. This one was about two metres long, I think. They can grow up to three metres.
Here’s a short video showing the snake’s lazy movement as it slides along the branches of the Heath Banksia tree:
Thank you to Chris Zabriskie for the video soundtrack:
What True Self, Feels Bogus, Let’s Watch Jason X by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/reappear/
Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/
What about the birds, you may ask? Since this is primarily a blog about birds, where do they fit in? Diamond Pythons do eat birds, but their typical prey is small animals and reptiles. The python lies in wait for its prey, sometimes for days on end. Then the snake snatches the creature, wraps itself around it, and smothers it to death before swallowing it whole.
Swans enjoying flooded picnic area
It’s been a bit wet on the east coast of Australia. For many people, the recent floods have been devastating and very sad. I’ve been lucky to be largely unaffected. I’m so sorry for all those who’re still suffering the effects of the flood
Yesterday it stopped raining and I went for a walk. I came across these swans exploring a picnic area:
Today the water has already receded quite a bit:
The swans are nearby, relaxing on the recently-emerged grass:
For those who’ve seen my posts about the family of swans over the past few months: yes, this is the same family. The babies are pretty much grown up already.
Common name: Black Swan
Scientific name: Cygnus atratus
Approximate length: 120 cm
Date spotted: 25 March 2021 (autumn)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’58.5″S 151°15’18.6″E
Beautiful red and brown Orb Weaving Spider
When walking along bush paths, especially early in the morning, I often walk through large spider webs spun across the path. Not infrequently, I end up with a spider in my hair or on my clothes.
Today I spotted the web and its occupant in time to avoid a collision! The spider was a Garden Orb Weaver (Eriophora sp). This individual was quite lovely, with red upper legs changing to black as they reached its body. Look at that cute furry head!
This was a large spider, its body about 2 cm long. We often see Garden Orb Weavers in our area, but I haven’t seen one with this colouring before. They come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colours. (In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone decides to do more research into these spiders and split up the classification a bit.) Here’s a side view of the one I saw yesterday:
I carefully walked around the web, using a tried-and-true method of waving a stick in front of me to detect stray strands of silk, and photographed the spider from the other side:
Garden Orb Weaving Spiders aren’t keen to bite you. If they do bite you, the symptoms are usually mild, usually limited to pain and swelling at the site of the bite. If you have worse symptoms or are concerned, seek medical advice. I haven’t yet been bitten. Long may that happy state of affairs last!
Location of the spider: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’51.5″S 151°14’51.0″E.
What about the birds, you may ask? Since this is primarily a blog about birds, where do they fit in? Birds do eat these spiders. Recently, an Australian Noisy Miner was extremely interested in a large Orb Weaver outside my window. The bird approached along the telephone line, then leapt into the air and hovered about a metre away from the spider. For some reason, the bird abandoned the attack. Maybe there wasn’t enough room for the bird to fly in, grab the spider, then swoop away before hitting the window.
Juvenile Channel-billed Cuckoo and female Koel Cuckoo
Today an unearthly caterwauling called my attention to a juvenile Channel-billed Cuckoo perched on a wire. It was crouched down, flapping its wings, and uttering harsh calls:
Even at this age, it’s a big bird. I’d guess it was already full size, at around 60 centimetres in length. A giant baby indeed. And one that needs a lot of feeding.
The youngster stretched out its neck and called even louder:
It peered up into the air expectantly:
I didn’t catch any pictures of the next stage, alas, because the bird flew to a leafy tree and was mostly hidden from view. I did see the dedicated proxy parent, a Currawong, feeding the youngster, accompanied by a frenzied gabbling noise from the demanding child.
Common name: Channel-billed Cuckoo
Scientific name: Scythrops novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 58-65 cm
Date spotted: 23 January 2021 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’06.4″S 151°14’52.6″E
In a nearby tree, a female Koel Cuckoo sat and watched the commotion:
Common name: Common Koel or Eastern Koel
Scientific name: Eudynamys scolopacea
Approximate length: 45 cm
Date spotted: 23 January 2021 (summer)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’06.4″S 151°14’52.6″E
Both Channel-billed and Koel cuckoos are parasitic cuckoos, which means that they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, and leave it up to those other birds to feed and care for the youngsters. Bot cuckoo types are migratory, coming down to this part of Australia for the warmer summer months, then heading to more northern countries for the winter.
Want to know more? I’ve posted some pictures and stories about previous encounters with cuckoos.
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
Sydney Birder 