Home Guests

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Breakfast, early morning and we had a couple of strange guests join in the rituals we often take for granted.
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Grey Goshawk Accipiter novaehollandiae white morph
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Red-collared Lorikeet Trichoglossus rubritorquis
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The Next Day

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I assumed yesterday that the insects I saw hovering about the Billy Goat Plum flowers were being preyed upon by birds. How wrong can I get? After identifying the insects as belonging to the family Lycidae, it seems they are not preyed on by any predator because of the awful taste or effect their chemical makeup has on those who mistakenly eat them. They are so successful that other insects have mimicked their coloration to avoid being eaten as well. It seems they not only visit the flowers for food but also use the flowers attraction to find suitable mates for reproduction.
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Net-winged Beetle Calopteron terminale
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As I strolled through a Paperbark and Pandanas lowland I saw Pandanas leaves repeatedly falling down from a tree which made me just a bit curious. I was even more curious when I saw that they were still green. Pandanas are usually very noisy plants when the wind makes the more dried leaves rustle and crack. I have occasionally seen piles of Pandanas leaves directly below the naked stem. I always thought it was shedding it leaves. Now I know different. Atop the Pandanas branch was a cocky quite happily surgically cutting down every green branch of the Pandanas until it got to the last frond whereby it sat quietly and munched the soft inner shoot. Another cocky was waiting in a branch not far away and it didn't take much imagination to work out that soon the pair would be on the ground gnawing away at the tender shoots.
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Sulpher-crested Cockatoo Cacatua galerita eating Pandanus spiralis
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Sulpher-crested Cockatoo Cacatua galerita eating Pandanus spiralis
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We have heard and watched the Fig Birds during their courtship, its now time to see their offspring.
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Figbird Sphecotheres viridis
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Figbird Sphecotheres viridis
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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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Like Night And day

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An afternoon walk near Leanyer, little wind,
a Fig Tree full of Red-winged Parrots and a female Common Koel.

She was very shy but ready to put up with me longer than her Parrot friends. The male Common Koel I caught at Florence Falls several weeks ago. The old adage that once you see something you start to see it everywhere seems to be true again.
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Common Koel Eudynamys scolopacea Female
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Common Koel Eudynamys scolopacea Male
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Mary River Plain Environs

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Another long hot walk around the Mary River Flood Plains. Most of the flowering has finished among the Cocky Apple and I saw no Masked Finches. The Red-backed Fairy Wrens seem to be paired up although I did see several unattached females with possible juvenile males roaming around. The paired males are getting very quiet and I think I was lucky to see them at all.
Around any standing water the story is very different
with insects and flowering plants in abundance .
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Red-backed Fairy Wren Malurus melanocephalus
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Masked Finch Poephila acuticauda
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Brush Cuckoo Cuculus variolosus juv.
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Brush Cuckoo Cuculus variolosus juv.
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Magpie Geese Anseranas semipalmate
Mary River Plain Billabong
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Northern Fantail Rhipidura rufiventris
Age: approx. nine days
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Closer To Home

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In the early evening, close to Leanyer, a lot of activity amongst the Double-barred Finches was followed by some intense activity by a number of species who seemed to use the Finches as advanced warning devices.
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Rufous Whistler Pachycephala rufiventris female
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Red-winged Parrot Aprosmictus erythropterus male
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Red-backed Fairy Wren Malurus melanocephalus male
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Northern Fantail Rhipidura rufiventris Fourth Day
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Adelaide River Flood Plains

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On the Adelaide Rive Flood Plains
small water holes along mostly dried up river beds still exist,
as well as, more open swamps and wetlands. When the sun shines through a bird flying overhead it is almost possible to see an xray-picture of his wing limbs.
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Rufous Night Herron Nycticorax caledonicus
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Freshwater Crocodile Crocodylus johnstoni
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Black-necked Stork Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus
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