White-plumed honeyeater

White-plumed honeyeater, Maitland area, NSW 

I finally managed to catch a White-plumed honeyeater sitting out in the open for long enough to get a shot!  This fellow was being harrassed by a Willy-wagtail, and was distracted long enough for me to grab this image.  The simple sound of my camera's shutter was enough to make him depart immediately !

Osprey sighting - The Esplanade, Speers Point

Adult Osprey perched on a streetlight, The Esplanade, Speers Point 

It was a very unseasonably warm day, reaching 39 degrees in Maitland.  There was not a cloud in the sky, and it was intense.  I was driving home from work late this afternoon, mind wandering pleasantly, air-con at full-blast in the ute, heading south along the shores of beautiful Lake Macquarie.

With a start, my reverie was interrupted.  I jarred upright in the seat and rapidly pulled over, out of the angry home-bound traffic.  I had noticed one of our more interesting birds of prey - an Osprey - perched on a street lamp above The Esplanade, Speers Point, one of the busier areas of the Lake.  

The Osprey didn't care about the hundreds of cars roaring past only 20 metres below.  As happens so often with raptors, complete indifference changed into alert wariness as soon as I walked within 50 metres of the light pole.  The bird would have watched me with near total indifference if I'd been able to stay in the car, but there was no way I could pull over near the bird and reversing back to it was completely out of the question.   

Moments after the first image was taken, the bird took off, flying south east, hugging the water's edge around the next headland, disappearing towards Warners Bay.  I had hoped to walk past the osprey, and take a few images with the sun behind me.  But sometimes you just have to make do with what you can get.  This was one of those moments.  

     

Osprey heading towards Warners Bay, late in the afternoon 19/11/2015.  

Backyard Birds

Rainbow lorrikeet, Casa Da Ayre, Lake Macquarie, NSW.

One of the beautiful things about living in Lake Macquarie is the abundance of wildlife.  We regularly have 30 or more Rainbow lorrikeets & Scaley-breasted lorrikeets visit our gardens.  Both of these species are exceedingly common in peri-urban areas on the east coast.  I grabbed this shot yesterday afternoon while working in the backyard.  

Ever wonder how Spur-winged plovers got their name?

Spur-winged plover showing how they got their name

When Amanda & I visited Trial Bay Gaol in South West Rocks we were mobbed by a pair of Masked lapwings that were nesting within the grounds of the historic gaol.

When I was growing up they were always known as "Spur-winged plovers" which I think is a FAR more appropriate name.  It's like the way Superb blue wrens have had their "accepted common name" changed.  These days they are known as Superb blue fairy-wrens, which I think is ridiculous.

Normally, you can't see the spurs, but when you accidentally intrude on their breeding territory, they will quickly let you know, and the spurs come out.  There was a nest with four lovely speckled-brown eggs a few metres from where I took these quick snaps.  We very quickly left the vicinity ! 

Masked lapwing, Trial Bay Gaol, South West Rocks, NSW.  

Our Welcome swallows have advanced young - second breeding in Spring 2015

Welcome swallow on nest with food, 7th November 2015

I was on my way to do some shopping this morning and smiled as one of our Welcome swallows zipped off it's nest.  But I thought I saw movement on the edge of the nest a few moments after the adult bird left.  I stopped to watch for a few seconds.  A slight movement gave it away - there are now young in the nest again ! 

I quickly grabbed my camera and watched the nest for movement through the viewfinder.  Without warning, one of the adults zipped back to the nest, returning with food.  

Adult Welcome swallow feeding young, 7th November 2015 

 At least three bright yellow mouths appeared waving over the edge of the nest, and the adult promptly fed the closest mouth.  It paused for a few moments to look at me before zooming off again.  

This observation confirms second clutching in Welcome swallows nesting in Lake Macquarie, NSW in 2015.  It's nothing out of the ordinary or worth writing up; it's simply an interesting anecdote concerning this species.  They nested for the first time here last year.  They built their nest and successfully raised a single clutch of young.  The adults and (I suspect) the first years young, have roosted in the immediate vicinity most nights ever since.  They over-wintered here, using the nest as a refuge during the coldest nights of the year.  I am unable to identify the individual birds confidently.  However I could pick the original parents from the first year's offspring. 

The most interesting observation was the first year when the nest was built, they only had a single clutch of young.  By using the nest again, they have successfully raised one clutch and are well on the way to rearing a second clutch of young.  It will be interesting to see if they can successfully rear the second clutch, and maybe even start a third?  

This raises a few interesting points in my mind;

1.  Is the energy expended by building a nest equivalent to raising a clutch of young?

2.  How important is a nest to the long term survival of Welcome swallows in the Lake Macquarie area?  As mentioned above, we had Welcome swallows roost in the immediate vicinity of the nest most of the winter.  On the coldest nights they actually slept inside the "abandoned" nest.  Would they had fared less well over the winter if they didn't have a nest to retreat from the coldest nights?  Would they have survived the winter at all?  Would the metabolic energy saved by using the nest to keep warm on the coldest nights mean the difference between being able to raise a single clutch of young or multiple clutches in the coming breeding season?  Was the roosting behaviour merely territorial behaviour intended to ensure the adults would maintain their territory?     

3.  There are many confounding factors; the most obvious one that I cannot uniquely identify each individual.  Their plumage is not uniquely marked between individuals and they are not leg-banded.  This means that nothing I note about them can be considered scientifically valid.  For example, I do not know if these are even the same birds that built the nest!  For all I know they could be another pair of adult birds, or even the young from last year.  

4.  I don't know how old the birds were that originally built the nest.  Were they young birds and this was their first attempt at nesting?  Were they older birds, that built their nest here because their last nest was destroyed elsewhere? 

5.  There are many other points to consider such as rainfall and insect abundance.

It's a fascinating thing to watch the seasons pass and the local wildlife as they share our homes and lives, so often unseen.        

        

White-headed pigeons at Teralba

On the way home from work yesterday, I observed a pair of White-headed pigeons, Columba leucomela foraging under a very large Camphor laurel tree.  The location was somewhat unexpected, being right on the edge of suburban Teralba, Lake Macquarie.  I grabbed my camera to record the moment, and was incredibly annoyed to realise that I'd left the CF card in the reader at home.  By the time I sourced another CF card from deep within the camera bag, they were gone.

I was ready today - the CF card was loaded and I had a full battery on the camera.  I was pleasantly surprised to see FOUR adult White-headed pigeons foraging under the Camphor laurel tree.  I grabbed a few dodgy photos to confirm the observation and left.  See the images below.  

Adult male (left) and adult female White-headed pigeons, foraging beneath
a very large Camphor laurel tree, Teralba, northern Lake Macquarie NSW. 

Two x adult male White-headed pigeons, Teralba, northern Lake Macquarie, NSW.   

The Australian bass are biting and we are NOT made of sugar.

My best mate and I had a trip to our favourite bass stream on Saturday 31st October 2015.

It was sprinkling rain the entire afternoon most of the evening, but as Bruce says, "We are not made of sugar!"  We ended up landing 16 fish between us, (I landed 6), and hooked probably twice that number.  All fish were carefully released to fight another day.  Our hooks are barbless, for easy release and to ensure minimal damage is inflicted on the fish.  You tend to lose a few that way, but it doesn't matter - we would never keep an Australian bass.  We were surprised and a bit sad to see two or three European carp cruising about.  They looked like massive bass at first sight.

Australian bass are FANTASTIC sport, and require structure and depth.  I have been chasing trout for so long that I was out of touch on where to cast at first, but it all came quickly back.  There is truly nothing like the sound of a strike of a surface lure at night.  You cast the lure out into the darkness, hopefully landing in the middle of the stream away from overhanging trees.  Let it sit there for twenty seconds or so; a stunned creature that has just accidentally ended up in the water.  Engage the bail arm and start the retrieve. Plip, plop, plip, plop, plip, plop S-M-A-S-H !

We were wading in the middle of the little stream, because the banks were private property and way too overgrown to walk.  It was surprisingly warm for the end of October and I was very comfortable in T-shirt and footy shorts.  I stepped on something in the late afternoon that wriggled like mad and then clawed at my bare legs.  I jumped a metre in the air at the time, as there should be NOTHING like that in our fresh water streams around Newcastle.  I'd just teased Bruce about Bull sharks in the long chest-deep sections we'd had to wade not long before.  There is no weir on this river and theoretically there was nothing to stop a Bull shark from swimming up this little tributary.  I'd guessed it was just karma and a very large long necked tortoise, and thought nothing more about it.

On the way back to the car, the likely culprit was revealed in my headtorch beam!  I was very surprised to almost step on a large adult Eastern water dragon sound asleep on the bottom in waist deep water.  I think that he got the bigger surprise when I leant down and grabbed him to show Bruce.  We had a good laugh and quickly returned him to the water.  What a story he'd have to tell his mates about the dark and storm night when the bright lights came !      

Storm fronts and bird sightings

Yesterday my wife emailed me a video clip of an intense rain shower falling in Belmont, complete with marble sized hail.  I have been driving a slightly different way home from work recently just to break up the monotony.  Yesterday noticed a couple of unusual birds, not long after the rain had passed.

The first sighting was at 18:12 when an Australian Brush-turkey, ran across the road in front of my car.  I was travelling on Rhonnda road Teralba, just east of the quarry at the time.  A few minutes later I observed a pair of White-headed pigeons feeding on a grassed area under a huge camphor laurel tree.  This was in the suburban area of Teralba, just east of the intersection between Rhonnda road and Railway street.  Of course, as soon as I stopped the birds took off, so I have no photographic evidence.

It's not unusual to see either of these species, just unexpected as I typically associate both species with wet sclerophyll or littoral rainforest, neither of which I have seen in this area.  It would be worth going for a walk through the bushland around Teralba soon.  Never know what might turn up !

I entered both sightings into the Atlas of Living Australia.  

Welcome swallows are nesting again

I found a discarded egg shell directly under the Welcome swallows nest on Sunday morning.  There is an adult sitting constantly on the nest once again.  It looks like "our" Welcome swallows have young again !