Early Morning Rain

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It rained this morning, only lightly and only for twenty minutes, at four am. I went walking just before sunup in open woodland adjacent to a mangrove river catchment.
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The first thing I noticed was the Billy Goat Plums were in flower and the leaves were collecting water droplets on the bottom of the leaf.
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Billy Goat Plum Terminalia ferdinandiana
White-naped Honeyeater Melithreptus lunatus
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So of course some birds were taking advantage of the aerial water supply and rubbing themselves against the leaves as they repeatedly flew up into them.
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Yellow Oriole Oriolus flavocinctus
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I also noticed small unidentified insects hovering about the Billy Goat Plum’s flowers. I assume the Bar -breasted Honeyeater was breakfasting on these insects.
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Bar -breasted Honeyeater Ramsayornis fasciatus
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While I was stalking the Yellow Oriole I came across several birds in or around their nests.
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Broad-billed Flycatcher Myiagra ruficollis female
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Northern Fantail Rhipidura rufiventris
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Long-tailed Finch Poephila acuticauda
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I am always on the lookout for wrens and I noticed a larger-than-normal bird earning a living down among the shrubs and newly emergent Acacias and Eucalypts. I finally managed to get a decent shot of the parasitic Little Bronze-Cuckoo female eating caterpillars. Not surprising considering the amount of nests being looked after in that neck of the woods.
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Little Bronze-Cuckoo Chrysococcyx malayanus Female
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An hour after sunrise I came across a flock of Red-collared Lorikeets taking baths among the Ironwood’s Erythrophleum chlorostachys many small and wet leaves.
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Red-Collared Lorikeet Trichoglossus rubritorquis
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The Leanyer environs is still the best teacher I could have asked for regarding an education about the Australian bush.
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