The Shining Bronze Cuckoo is the worlds smallest Cuckoo. They are often heard in woodlands but not often seen. The Cuckoo is parasitic, laying a single egg in the nest of small Thornbills, Gerygones and Scrubwrens. The new parent then raises the chick as its own. The one below I found at the Coolart Wetlands watching a small group of Brown Thornbills.
Shining Bronze Cuckoo – well camouflaged
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I followed the sound of the Kookaburras hoping to get a clear shot of one. In the forests they don’t tend to let you get too close. I found this one enjoying some late afternoon sun. After a few moments he noticed something behind me and took off and flew straight at me, swerving at the last second and down onto the path 10 or so meters behind me, pouncing onto some prey and then flying back up into the trees.
Kookaburra, Moorooduc Quarry
Kookaburra spotting prey (or my hat)
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New Holland Honeyeaters dominate the formal parts of the Cranbourne Botanical Gardens. They are generally easy to get a nice image of but it can be much more time consuming trying to get a shot with a bit of personality. Many of the native plants are flowering at the moment so there are good opportunities to find an ideal bush with nectar filled flowers and wait for a Honeyeater to turn up. Many times they land on a high point behind you, you notice, you spin around and it takes off, then you curse yourself as you realise you just missed the shot that was right in front of you. I recently visited with a few bird photography friends and we had a challenging time attempting to find “the” shot – a never ending quest. It seems harder to get a good shot, that you are happy with, of a fairly common subject while often we seem happier with average shots of a rarer subject.
New Holland Honeyeater, Cranbourne Botanical Gardens
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Olive Backed Oriole, Cranbourne Botanical Gardens – a rare bird for me, only seen a few times before.
There is nothing like a nice afternoon bath in a small fresh puddle – perfect temperature, perfect depth. This New Holland Honeyeater was one of several birds that made quick flights into the water. After a quick dip and a splash around it would take off to a nearby branch to groom and then back into the water again. Bathing, grooming and keeping the feathers in good condition are extremely important to birds. It is fun and challenging to try and take decent images when the opportunity arises…
Bathing New Holland Honeyeater, Cranbourne Botanical Gardens,
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Spotted Pardalotes are tiny colourful birds that mostly feed in the tree canopy. They have quite a distinctive call but are not often seen. During the breeding season they come down from the trees and rather than build a nest in the branches they dig a small tunnel in a sandy bank – the tunnel has a small mouse sized opening but can be a metre long. I found this little family trying out a bank near where I happened to be photographing a family of nesting Yellow Robins. They had dug a few test holes and were looking at each others work. For such a shy bird they were very focussed on the potential nest holes and ignored my presence.
Female Pardalote, Moorooduc Quarry
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Male Pardalote, Moorooduc Quarry
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Above the Pardalotes were three White-naped Honeyeaters chasing each other. This one stopped and watched the Pardalotes for a while. The White-nape has a interesting call and bright Orange eye marking.
White Naped Honeyeater, Moorooduc Quarry
Moorooduc Quarry is fast becoming one of my favourite places to bird. It is a compact site with a variety of vegetation and landscapes and many bird species.
On the latest visit to check in on the Yellow Robin family I found the Robin now sitting on eggs in the nest.
Brooding Eastern Yellow Robin.
Keeping a careful eye on me – I kept my distance
I also found a few regulars and a new one for my site records – a Bassian Thrush – a speckled bird a little larger than a blackbird that loves to forage in the understory of thick cooler forests. While I was trying to photograph the Yellow Robins it popped out to see what the fuss was – posed for a few moments and then dashed back into the thick scrub. I have rarely seen a Bassian Thrush and this is only the second time I have been fast enough to get a photo.
Bassian Thrush, Moorooduc Quarry
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Grey Butcherbird watching the antics of the Galahs
Female Galah watching the nearby group of male Galahs, Moorooduc Quarry
Male Galah enjoying some dandelion seed heads.
In a follow-up visit to the Moorooduc Quarry to check on the progress of the little Eastern Yellow Robin nest, I found a completed nest, many other birds and another Drey (they seem to be popping out everywhere now I know they exist). A busy flock of Male Golden Whistlers came through and it soon became a little crazy with birds flying everywhere. The Robins were trying to protect their patch and the male Whistlers seem to be chasing each other. A few Brown Thornbills dropped into the mix as well to check out the fuss.
Eastern Yellow Robin in a typical perched hunting pose…ready to pounce on its prey from above.
Eastern Yellow Robin II
The completed nest of our Eastern Yellow Robin, made of paperbark strips and camouflaged with moss and lichen held in place by spider web netting – amazing engineering
One of the bright male Golden Whistlers that moved through the Robin’s nest area…
A curious Brown Thornbill, watching the action
A possum Drey, Moorooduc Quarry
Moorooduc Quarry is a very good site for woodlands birds and for the Peregrine Falcon. The quarry is cut out from a hillside in Mt Eliza and from the top has vast views of the surrounding countryside. With such great views and an abundance of potential prey it is no wonder that the Peregrines can be found here all year round. They also breed at the site each year.
On a recent visit I walked into the quarry and looked for the Peregrines amongst the tall dead trees that overhang at the top of the cliffs. Spotting a Peregrine on a tall tree near one of the tracks that circle the lip of the quarry I thought I would try my luck and sneak up for a photo. I am pretty sure he watched me all the way, gave me a bit of chance for a photo through the fringing bushes and then took off and flew to the other side of the quarry. When the Peregrine took off he just leaned forward and dropped straight down to build up speed, glided for a while and then flew up to the other side.
Near the top of the Quarry, Moorooduc Quarry Flora and Fauna Reserve
View into part of the lake at Moorooduc
Peregrine Falcon – a regular at the site, watching me puff my way up the steep track.
Dropping straight down the cliff edge to build up speed.
With only a few days to go until Spring officially starts, the local trees and Ducks are right on schedule. A late afternoon walk along Elster Creek to see what was about started with trying to find the Lorikeets I could hear in the flowering tree that hangs over the fence in my backyard into the creek. The Rainbow Lorikeets were feeding on the small white flowers and seemed to be enjoying the sun. They allowed me to get quite close before they flew onto the next flowering tree.
Rainbow Lorikeet, Elster Creek, Elwood
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At the local wetlands lake I ran into a birding friend Gio, and we walked along the banks together planning our next day trip into the bush. We came across a family of Wood Ducks that had nested nearby and were now raising 10 checks. Wood Ducks have quite large families and I think it is needed as quite a few chicks are taken by many predators. Wood Ducks are usually pretty calm around people and just wander back to the water if you approach but these adults were much more nervous of us and took to the water straight away.
Female Wood Duck and Chicks, Elster Creek
Is the male Wood Duck sticking his tongue out at me?
The Australian Garden is located at Cranbourne and is part of the Royal Botanic Gardens. It is dedicated to Australian plants and landscapes and displays the various regions of Australia and its native plants. A great place to take visitors. It has large formal created gardens and larger areas of open natural parkland, woodlands, heathlands and even wetlands. It has many species of birds and quite a few Black or Swamp Wallabies as well as Wombats and Echidnas. I have visited a few times in the last couple of weeks. The previous Post at this site was about the Bandicoots that I had photographed. [I have since found out that the Bandicoot without the tail and the healed scars is called Stumpy and is a regular at the Stringybark Picnic area.
Australian Garden, Royal Botanical Gardens, Cranbourne – red centre section
Black Fronted Dotterel – a pair were working the waters edge along one of the ponds
By far the most abundant bird in the formal part of the Garden is the New Holland Honeyeater. Due to their numbers and ready food source available with the flowering Australian natives they are a great target for taking photos.
New Holland Honeyeater
New Holland Honeyeater
New Holland Honeyeater
New Holland Honeyeater on a standard weeping Grevillea.
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A pair of New Holland Honeyeaters – spring was definitely in the air…
Brown Quail, Jawbone Flora and Fauna Reserve
Well camouflaged amongst the dry grass
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Another highlight was a New Holland Honeyeater that seemed happy to ignore us and allow a close approach for photos. It spent 20 minutes hunting for insects from a few perches close to the path.
New Holland Honeyeater
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Kamarooka Forest is part of the Greater Bendigo National Park. It is north of Bendigo and contains a variety of habitats and plenty of interesting sites for finding birds and animals. I recently spent a day exploring Kamarooka with a birding mate, John. I clocked up a new Vic lifer (312) as well – White Fronted Honeyeater. Along the way we found plenty of small birds and one that I have only seen a few times before – a White Bellied Cuckoo Shrike. One of our favourites was a Weebill, Australia’s smallest bird. We also tracked a bird call that neither of us had heard before and it turned out to be a Restless Flycatcher making a very unusual call – certainly one we had not heard before.
Golden Whistler
Female Golden Whistler
Weebill – Austrralia’s smallest bird
White Bellied Cuckoo Shrike
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Restless Flycatcher making a very unusual and loud call.
Eastern Yellow Robin nest
Eastern Yellow Robin
Eastern Yellow Robin building a nest – The robin circled around the rim and using its wings and chest to press the lichen into the top of the rim
Applying a bit more spider web and using its bill to push in the lichen and moss
Eastern Yellow Robin nest – under construction
Eastern Yellow Robin trying its nest on for size…
Following on from yesterday’s You Yangs post – The parasitic Mistletoe is also fruiting and the tiny Mistletoebirds are having a feast on the new fruit. One of the highlights of our photography expedition was watching the behaviour and skills of a few Mistletoebirds as they worked the Mistletoe bushes on the various gum trees. They would select an attached fruit bud and carefully remove its cap and pull out the fruit. It would not just eat the bullet shaped fruit, it would squeeze and twist several times and then when the fruit had released its sticky white secretion, the birds would then swallow it. The Mistletobird has a fast digestion and processes the fruit in an amazing time (4min to 25min). We watched as one did excrete a seed and did so slowly and seemingly with purpose. In doing a bit of research on mistletoe I found a picture where a Painted Honeyeater actually has to pull out the fruit seed from its vent as the white liquid is very sticky. This made sense as our Mistletoebird spent a bit of time on the branch wiggling about and when it moved away there was a little mound of white secretion and the seed pods stuck to the branch. This is how the mistletoe attaches to the host branch. In this case the seed wont germinate successfully as it was still located on the Mistletoe bush. The birds we photographed were very focussed and did not seem to mind 4 blokes only a few metres away clicking away with cameras. They kept an eye on us but were not at all nervous and one spent a few minutes sunning itself. We took hundreds of shots of the little birds.
At one point a New Holland Honeyeater flew into the mistletoe bush and started to chase off the female Mistletoebird. After a flurry of wings and loud calls, each bird flew off in different directions but our little friend came back for an encore and after a few more pics we left her in peace.
Mistletoebird, You Yangs
Squeezing the seed pod/fruit
Spending a few moments and using the branch to remove the stick seed pod excretion.
Mistletoe bird excretion with a few visible seeds stuck to the branch.
Mistletoebird
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New Holland Honeyeater
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Mistletoe bird back again
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The You Yangs Regional Park (about 45 min SW of Melbourne) is a great place to visit and to photograph birds and wildlife in general. There is a variety of vegetation and terrain that brings in a good selection of birds at various times of the year. At the moment several of the gum tree species are flowering and many Parrots, Lorikeets and Honeyeaters are visiting. Recently I drove with a few local birder friends and we explored the usual spots and then onto a few new ones that I had not been to before. For the middle of winter there were quite a few birds and animals around. The Koala of course was safe up his tree and just ignored us. The Grey Kangaroos we came across along one of the walking tracks were wary but generally unconcerned – the larger ones took off first into deeper less exposed scrub followed by the younger ones and a few remaining females with Joeys in the pouch just stood up and watched us walk by. Enjoying the early morning sun on a cold winter’s morning was more important than panicking about a few walkers passing. We even had enough time to take a nice series of images. The local sounds were made up of Wattlebirds, Magpies, Kookaburras and several large family tribes of White Winged Choughs. In amongst these usual sounds we kept our ears open for the various Thornbills, Robins and Weebills. At one section that I have not explored that much we found a small group of White Throated Treecreepers. They move around a tree very quickly and are often defy gravity working their way along the bark upside down looking for hidden insects.
Scarlet Robin, You Yangs Regional Park
Musk Lorikeet
Large Gum Tree
A napping Koala, You Yangs Regional Park
Young Grey Roo
Mum Grey Roo and Joey
White Throated Treecreeper
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The Gap Year and Beyond 