Asian house gecko population is breeding

 It was hot & sticky day yesterday, (Friday 2nd Feb 2024) and the temperature reached a typical summer time mid-30's.  It was still in the high twenties and very humid that night.  My wife & I decided to take the girls for a walk as it had cooled enough to be tolerable, and we all needed to stretch our legs. 

We walked past the same building I observed the Asian house gecko in the previous post.  Naturally I checked to see if it was out, and instead there was small, likely 12 month old juvenile in the same place.  This gecko was extremely shy, and rapidly scurried into a crevice as soon as my torch beam touched him, despite being ten feet off the ground. Unfortunately, neither of us had our phones, so couldn't get a voucher photo - but it was unmistakeably an Asian house gecko and this record indicates they are definitely breeding here in Belmont. 

I'll drop past again later in the week while the warm weather keeps up, and see if I can get a decent photo. 

Addendum - I was working in the backyard this afternoon (Saturday 3rd Feb 24) and heard the unmistakeable daytime chirp of another Asian house gecko.  Further evidence that they are well established here now !         

Observation of the Asian House gecko, (Hemidactylus frenatus) in Belmont

 

Four years ago I observed an Asian house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) on our home here in Belmont, Lake Macquarie NSW.  Uploaded the record to the Atlas of Living Australia as it had a bit of importance at the time to document the invasion wave of this introduced species of reptile.  I was quite familiar with Asian house geckos as I spent some years living in Darwin in the NT - where they are absolutely endemic. 

I had been sporadically hearing their characteristic day-time chirp, and thinking "Hey ! That sounded like a bloody Asian house gecko (!?!?!?!?!) but can't have been because there are no records of them around here".  I figured it had to have been the call of some little SJB bird ("Small-Brown-Jobby" for the non-twitchers) that I have not learned yet.  Well, surprise !  There are records of Asian house geckos here now.      

That was four years ago nearly to the damn day.  I was walking my dogs last night and noticed my second specimen for this neighbourhood.  I grabbed a quick image with my phone to prove my identification.  Because of the poor lighting, the photos are very poor - but it is unmistakeably an Asian house gecko with a regenerated tail-tip, hunting under the lights of a public building near my home.

Although they are an introduced species, and carry risks of parasites & exotic diseases, I don't see this as a huge big deal.  They are exploiting an environmental niche not filled by anything else locally.  It is not like there are Lesueur's velvet geckos, Robust velvet geckos or broad-tailed geckos taking insects under the lights of buildings anywhere near here.  Sure, there will be small numbers in leafy remote suburbs like Martinsville, but I have lived here most of my life and NEVER seen a single native gecko hunting under lights in the Lake Macquarie area.  Asian house geckos will have an impact - as all introduced species of plants or animals do.  But at least they are not poisonous to our native fauna like cane toads are.  In fact they might help reduce the insect loads a little.  I guess we'll have to watch and see - there is no possibility of getting rid of them now.                     

The Channel-billed cuckoos have arrived in Belmont North - 5th October 2023.

I was day-dreaming, enjoying the midday warmth as I took my lunchtime walk with the dogs. The unmistakable, raucously shrieking calls of a Channel-billed cuckoo intruded into our reverie.  His cries shrieked and echoed around the neighbourhood while four Australian ravens followed in hot pursuit around a metre behind his tail.  I chuckled to myself, wondering if the ravens nests were unguarded.  Last night we had a southerly change arrive, and it rained most of the night.    

Right on cue, the spring cycle of renewal continues like clockwork.  The both species of large migratory cuckoos are here now.  It will be interesting to compare relative abundances as we are very much headed for drought this year.  The last three or four years we have enjoyed very good winter rains.  This year, drought is making itself felt already.  

The Masked plovers who had four tiny little golf-ball sized chicks are down to two, but wow, they have grown.  The surviving chicks are very large now, 3/4's adult size and it appears it wont be long before they will be able to fly.  The other pair that had two chicks have vanished.  I expect they have lost their brood, and have moved elsewhere to try again.          

The Eastern koels have reached Belmont and breeding Masked plovers.

This clear Wednesday morning I found myself deep in thought, scratching my chin and savouring the stillness with a mug of black coffee.  The rest of the house slumbered.  Should I take my morning walk now or after coffee?  Hmmmm . . .  decisions.  It was a well before 5am as I dressed and started lacing my boots, sipping carefully.  The bantam next door had just starting to announce the day.  The distinctive call of a solo male Eastern koel began to interrupt my meditations.  The cuckoo vanguard has arrived at Casa da Ayre. 

Another Spring begins in earnest.  It was completely predictable, as I observed a Koel calling at Maitland during my lunch break on Monday afternoon.

I'm back, and smile as several loitering pairs of Masked plovers (I struggle to call them Masked lapwings when I'm feeling recalcitrant) are teasing our dogs from the street. Both pairs of plovers currently have small golf-ball sized chicks scuttling about the neighbourhood.  One pair has four chicks, while the other pair are already down to two.

Like the arrival of the migratory cuckoos, the slaughter of the plover chicks has begun.                  

Eastern Koels are back - Monday 25th Sept 2023

They're b-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-c-k ! ! !

It has been a long time since I've had an observation worth recording.  I was enjoying my lunch on the banks of the Hunter river at Maitland yesterday, when the unmistakable call of an Eastern Koel echoed around me. 

It was my first sighting of the migratory cuckoos for Spring 2023.  The Channel-billed cuckoos won't be far away now, and the dollar birds not far behind them.  

The endless cycle repeats.  

The Channel-billed cuckoos have arrived !

Late last Saturday afternoon (2nd October 2022), a flicker of movement caught my eye whilst I was mowing the back lawn of Casa da Ayre.  A momentary glimpse of three large grey birds flying flat out, zooming at 5 - 6 m height between the neighbours trees.  Channel-bills?  Most likely.  But it was just a very, very brief glimpse and I'm expecting to see them any moment.  

At 11:50 AM today (Tuesday 4th October), the unmistakable raucous shrieks of  channel-billed cuckoos echoed around the backyard at Casa da Ayre.  One of the benefits of WTF (Working From Home) is that I was home today to hear them arrive.  I'm 99.9% certain I saw a trio of them last Saturday, but I am 100% certain of this morning's sighting. 

Both species of migratory cuckoo are here now.  Spring is here !  The dollarbirds won't be far behind, and the fishing (and herping) starts improving every day forwards.           

The Eastern koels have arrived for 2022 and random fishing notes

Every year I note the changing of the seasons via the arrival of the migratory cuckoos.  Typically I see or usually hear the channel-billed cuckoos in late September or early October, and the Eastern (aka Pacific) koels follow a few days later.  

Last Sunday morning, 25th September 2022 Amanda told me she was sure she had heard a koel calling at first light.  I was sound asleep and it had stopped calling by the time I stirred.  We didn't hear it call again that day. 

The next afternoon I was exercising our dogs, when a male Eastern koel began to call from a tree, just a few hundred metres from Casa da Ayre.  I didn't see him, but the call is truly unmistakable.    

Spring is definitely here. For once, the koels have arrived BEFORE the Channel-billed cuckoos.

An interesting anecdote is the fishing in Lake Macquarie - my usually extremely reliable shallow-water whiting & bream spot let me down badly last Sunday night.  

It was the night before the new moon and for the first time in my memory there were no yabbie burrows visible at all. "Squirt" worms were widespread, plenty of fiddler crabs on the waters edge, and small poddy mullet, and stacks of small "greasy back" prawns were foraging in the shallows. I stocked up on prawns for bait, though I was very tempted to eat nearly half of them.  They are a good size already and next month's new moon is likely to see a bountiful prawn "run" in Swansea channel.  Whilst hunting yabbies, I caught a few prawns and cast them back out whilst chasing more bait.  Usually this will quickly result in a fat sand whiting or yellow-finned bream.  Unfortunately the action was extremely pedestrian.  I eventually landed a large eel and a legal sized bream, but released both of them unharmed.  They were great sport on my light tackle, but not the plump fish I was seeking to invite home for dinner.  There were plenty of small-to-medium poddy mullet about, and I saw around a dozen, very much undersized whiting right up in the shallows.  I didn't see any legal sized fish.    

It was interesting to note that the water in the shallows was still quite cool, (~14 - 15 degrees) and I didn't see a single yabby burrow in the entire area - which is a first.  The obvious thing that springs to mind is we are in a very prolonged period of wet weather.

My hypothesis is the salinity level is much lower than normal and the yabbies can't tolerate the changed salinity for such a prolonged period.  It has been over a year of consistently very wet weather.  I'll check my other yabby beds in Swansea channel and see if the yabbies are still present nearer the ocean.  Normally I'd have quickly pumped a good number of yabbies, and caught three or four very solid whiting whilst collecting the bait.  I suspect that the total lack of yabbies resulted in no whiting being caught.  Hopefully things will have improved on my next trip.