South Coast bird photos from a few weeks ago, posted from locked down Sydney town.
Rainbow Lorikeet disease
Rainbow Lorikeets may be called rats of the sky by their detractors but no-one could deny that their beautiful colours and cheerful shrieks make them one of the brightest and very welcome visitors to our gardens.
On New South Wales’ South Coast we have seen an unusual number of sick and dead Rainbow Lorikeets over the past two months. The local Wires team report that the sick birds brought to their care have died quickly after arrival – no known treatment and no real diagnosis.
It may be a condition that has been seen up in Queensland? Bird expert Darryl Jones at Griffith University says that lorikeet paralysis syndrome (also called clenched-foot syndrome) is prevalent around Brisbane this year. Clenched-foot syndrome prevents birds from perching and flying, resulting in a rapid deterioration of the bird.
Beach-side survey sites
A bird survey by the sea last week had some unexpected visitors. A group of Australian Fur Seals basking close to the rocks and then Humpback Whales on their trip north.
How the Butcherbird got its name
Butcherbirds are known for their melodic song, the Pied Butcherbird has one of the most beautiful bird songs you will hear in the Australian bush. The Grey Butcherbird is not far behind with its distinctive song.
But Butcherbirds are named for their “very basic” behaviour. They feed on lizards, insects, and small birds, caught on the ground and sometimes on the wing. They eat, then store uneaten food, choosing a fork or branch to impale their prey, in the manner that butchers used to hang meat in the old time butcher shop.
Birdlife Shoalhaven Bushfire Research Report
Birdlife Shoalhaven is monitoring the after effects of the devastating Currawon bushfire on the New South Wales South Coast. They have just released their 2020 report.
The long-term aim of the project is to examine changes in bird species richness and abundance in the Shoalhaven in the post-fire period. The report analyses changes at 115 survey sites within the fire footprint and 52 sites outside the fire footprint as a comparison. They use BirdLife’s Birdata 20 minute, 2 hectare survey technique to survey bird species and numbers.
They found that bird numbers and species numbers increased on average during the year across lightly to heavily burnt sites and the recovery in numbers of birds was greater in lightly burnt areas. Outside of the fire footprint the number of species did not change significantly but bird numbers actually decreased through the year, perhaps as birds moved back into recovering burnt areas?
While the detailed picture is very complicated there is no doubt that the heavier rains of the last year have helped the recovery of the birds. And that more research on this critical issue is badly needed. If there had been better baseline data from before the fires this would have provided a better picture of the fires effect. Birdlife Shoalhaven are to be congratulated on undertaking this important project.
Winter visitors to the New South Wales South Coast
Winter brings big changes to the birds of the New South Wales South Coast. The Cuckoos have long left, in March and April, flying north to as far as Papua New Guinea. The migratory waders have left too, for their long journey to the northern hemisphere breeding grounds. Honeyeaters head north to warmer climes, forming large flocks that can be seen flying over Sydney and swooping through the passes of the Blue Mountains. Other birds arrive; Robins leave the mountains of the great divide and head to the more temperate coast. Other birds migrate north from as far south as Tasmania.
Sydney parks
Photos taken over the last few weeks in Sydney’s parks.
Raptors in the city
The sight and sound of over one hundred Little Corellas rising together as one is a sure sign that some danger is present. This time in Centennial Park, Sydney it is a Brown Goshawk that is stirring up the park’s inhabitants.
Taronga Zoo in Sydney
Taronga Zoo in Sydney enjoys a magnificent harbourside setting and provides a green haven for 350 species of animal. It is Australia’s largest zoo, established in 1906 on the 28 hectare site. For people interested in birds it is a chance to see rare species. The walk-through aviaries: the Australian Rainforest Aviary, Blue Mountain Bushwalk and Rainforest Trail, are all excellent places to take close up photos, although high ISO settings are needed for the often low light.
Musk Lorikeets
Musk Lorikeets range across the south-east corner of Australia and are regular Autumn visitors to Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. They are usually feeding high in flowering eucalypts or malaleucas and the height combined with their rapid movement makes them difficult subjects to photograph.
Australian birds and climate change
This week’s BirdingNSW club meeting featured a presentation on this subject by Janet Gardner from the Australian National University. Janet and her team have been studying the effect of increasing heat on a community of Jacky Winters in the arid Mallee country, north east of Adelaide, South Australia.
This study from 2019 – 2020 covered some of the hottest conditions ever recorded in the Mallee. Birds normally have a body temperature around 40 degrees Celsius. As the temperature rises they attempt to cool themselves, first by opening their wings and seeking out the breeze and other cool air. As the temperature rises further they begin to pant, cooling through evaporation of precious water. In the study some birds found shade amongst the roots of mature Mallee eucaplypts.
Jack Winters get all their moisture from their insect food and need to rehydrate as soon as the temperature goes down again. Sadly, temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius, with some as high as 49 degrees, took their toll on the young and a proportion of the adult birds. Alarmingly, the number of days with these high temperatures has risen rapidly over the past fifty year. Australian birds, living in one of the hottest and driest continents, face serious challenges as temperatures rise in coming years.
Wingham Brush Nature Reserve
Wingham Brush Nature Reserve is a spectacular 9 hectare sample of the subtropical lowland forest that once covered much of the Manning River valley. A tangle of towering Moreton Bay figs and vines the undergrowth features rarities like the giant stinging tree. Located on a town block in Wingham in the Manning Valley NSW, this well looked after reserve with its boardwalks is refuge for a large range of birds and home for Grey-headed Flying Foxes.
The reserve was at one time logged for red cedar and by 1980 was badly infested with weeds. Through the efforts of the Wingham Brush regeneration team the rainforest has returned to a natural state. The pioneering methods used to do this are now recognized internationally as the “The Wingham Brush method”.
Manning Valley Birds
Our stay in the Manning Valley was in a bungalow at “Mansefield on Manning” just west of Taree, NSW at Tinonee. The 18 hectare park-like grounds have tall gum trees, patches of denser trees, an orchard and large vegetable garden bounded by a small wetland on one side and the Manning River on the other. I counted over 50 bird species on the property itself ranging from Yellow Thornbills and Scarlet Honeyeaters to King Parrots, Brown Quail, Spangled Drongo, Wedge-tailed Eagles and Australian Pelican. The cabins are well separated around the property and there was a serenade from Pied Butcherbirds each morning.
O’Sullivans Gap in Myall Lakes National Park
Taking Wootton Way just north of Buladelah on NSW’s Mid North Coast, you come to a dirt road leading to the “The Grandis”. This Eucalpytus Grandis (or Flooded Gum), stands at over 70 metres tall and is reputedly New South Wales’ tallest tree. A bit further up the Wootton road is O’Sullivans Gap Picnic Area. Here among cathedral like “grandis” grow tall palm trees, ferns and areas of dense rainforest.
I was enticed to this spot by the description in Ted and Alex Wnorowski’s “Australian Good Birding Guide: NSW-ACT”, which promised Noisy Pitta, Pale-yellow Robins and Australian Logrunners. Although I did not see any of these this place is well worth a visit. If you take the bush track wear gumboots sprayed with copious Bushman Repellant to discourage the leeches!
Myall Lakes National Park
The Myall lakes wind through an ancient riverbed where the New England Fold belt meets and overthrusts the Sydney Basin rocks - bounded seaward by sandhills that were laid down 60,000 years ago and a coastal sand belt formed 6,000 years ago. The national park covers 44,000 hectare and is 50 km north of Newcastle in NSW. Its wetlands are Ramsar listed with 18 different wetland types. Black-necked Storks, Comb-crested Jacanas, and White-bellied Sea-Eagles are among the 280 species of bird reported here. And the park is home to 41 species of mammal, 15 amphibians and 16 reptiles.
Our accommodation for the weekend was a Tiny House on Bombah Point Road, set in spacious and bushy grounds. The visit started well with two Glossy Black-Cockatoos and a pair of Tawny Frogmouths roosting close by. Bird watching from the Tiny House deck added Blue-faced Honeyeaters, Lewin’s Honeyeaters, Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, Eastern Spinebills, Brown Cuckoo-Doves, and a Wonga Pigeon, with several endlessly busy Grey Butcherbirds feeding on the lawns.
Cowra woodland birds
A day wandering down farm lanes and exploring the remnant bush around Cowra in the NSW Wheatbelt is a pleasure rewarded with sights of many birds; larger birds that thrive in the open farmland, aggressive Noisy Miners and Rainbow Lorikeets expanding their territories, honeyeaters that have to travel further and further to feed, and small birds surviving in the remaining thickets of bush.
Restoring the woodlands
Pioneer farmers cleared forests, woodlands and grasslands from Queensland to Victoria to develop the eastern wheatbelt farmlands that have contributed so much to the prosperity of Australia. More than 90 per cent of the forest cover was removed and what remains is highly fragmented; many species, plants, animals and birds, are endangered. Now a reverse effort is underway to restore vegetation types so as to maintain the local flora and fauna for future generations.
In the Cowra district the forest cover has been largely removed. Only small pockets of the original grassy woodlands and dry sclerophyll forests remain – on inhospitable steep and rocky hills, on TSRs (Travelling Stock Reserves), and by the road-side. Small patches of riverine forest are seen on river banks. The Cowra Woodland Birds Program encourages re-vegetation and protection of existing woodlands and conducts quarterly surveys to monitor bird numbers.
Conimbla National Park
Access to Conimbla National Park in the NSW wheatbelt is 15 km from the Cowra to Grenfell highway. The 8,000 hectare park forms a bush island around Yambira mountain rising 500metres above the surrounding cultivated plains. The vegetation is mainly “Western Slopes Dry Sclerophyll Forest” consisting of ironbark eucalypt, other eucalypts and callitris (cypress pines). The park is home to Glossy Black-Cockatoos, Turquoise Parrots, and several species of honeyeaters and robins. It is known as a refuge for Painted Button-quail and for Spotted Quail-thrush.
On last week’s survey we saw both Brown and White-throated Treecreepers and three Speckled Warblers at the park entrance. On the Wallaby Walking Track we saw White-eared and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, Red-browed Finches, White-browed Scrubwrens, Superb Fairy-wren, Grey Fantails, whistlers and a flock of six Varied Sittellas.
Summer at Lake Wallace
Lake Wallace near Lithgow in NSW is a good place to see rare ducks and Great Crested Grebes. Over this summer there has been a deficit in duck numbers on the east coast of NSW and last week there were only a few ducks on Lake Wallace. But these included Blue-billed Ducks, Musk Ducks, Australian Wood Ducks and Hardheads, making my stopover there worthwhile as always.
One year and one month after the NSW bushfires
It was just over a year ago that the Currawon bushfire raged through Conjola National Park south of Sydney, burning most of the park. At the survey sites I monitor the rains of the last year have meant a faster recovery than expected, but progress varies greatly depending on the terrain. Where the hottest fires struck in tall eucalypt forest there is a mix of trees recovering through epicormic growth and other trees, usually the smaller ones, that appear to be dead at this stage. In coastal scrub there are large areas where all the trees are dead but the undergrowth is renewing.
Bird numbers are recovering but still not to the pre-fire levels. The most noticeable absence is the large honeyeaters, especially the Red Wattlebirds.