Chifley Chronicle #6

Second week of June 2006

A week of tree felling! First there was the huge but dead three stemmed Black Sally Euclyptus stellulata to remove from the back yard. It came down finally on Monday and the bole was enormous. It was chipped as far as possible but much had to be taken away because the logs were too big to go throught the chipper - especially because it was dry and very hard.

A few interesting birds have been in the garden this week. A couple of Weebill to start with. Dainty little gems with snub bills as their name implies and they have a cheerful call that to my ear mimics their name. I reckon they say "weebill-weebill"! The brightly coloured male Golden Whistler seen earlier is still around and has been present occasionally. The first two wintering Eastern Spinebill have appeared this week. This species is generally absent from the garden in summer months. At least 5 Gang-gang Cockatoo were briefly in the garden one day and I occasionally hear them in the neighbourhood but they are not at present coming down to the bird feeders. At least two Galah, several Crimson Rosella, and a pair of King Parrot have been seen at the feeders but most of the time it is Crimson Rosella that take advantage of the sunflower seed. The Crimson Rosella have been taking to the now leefless Tulip Tree. They have munched up most of the remaining seed cases from this past season. An interesting sighting late in the week was a male Blackbird back in the garden. Blackbird have not been very conspicuous, of late, and I have gone some time since I last saw one near the house. A small party of Silvereye was also in the garden at the end of the week and this species has not been seen very often of late, which is a little unusual. It might be interesting to note that in addition to these previously mentioned species the following have been noted in or near the garden this week: Crested Pigeon (2 but up to adozen or more locally); Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (only small numbers thankfully); Eastern Rosella (pair); Laughing Kookaburra (often heard calling but none seen by me in the garden this week); Superb Fairy-wren (at least 1 family party of about 5); Spotted Pardalote; Brown Thornbill (at least 1); Striated Thornbill (2); White-eared Honeyeater (1 regularly about); Red Wattlebird (details in recent accounts but still conspicuous and often noisy); Magpie-lark (2 birds but often only one of them seen); Australian Magpie (in the garden a confiding pair together with their youngster of last year but there are several other magpie groups nearby); Pied Currawong (pair with an occasional transient but no big groups this week); Australian Raven (a local pair nearby but others occasionally pass over); Common Myna.
By my reckoning this should acount for 23 species. I would expect to see occasionally, in addition, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Grey Fantail, Noisy Miner, White-winged Chough and House Sparrow. Less likely and often only seasonally would be Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo; Yellow-faced honeyeater, Noisy Friarbird and Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike. Another nine species. Most other species I would treat as rare although I have seen about 100 species in the garden all-told over the past 40 years!

I was pleased to find that my resident tortoise was still 'hibernating' in the largest pond. This beast is know as a Snake-necked Turtle Chelodina longicollis and has been present for at least 10 years growing to an impressive 20cm or more from quite a small individual when introduced.The other pleasing observation was to hear at least two Common Eastern Froglet Crinia signifera calling on Tuesday; the day I saw the tortoise. They are very small frogs and often difficult to find despite their loud calls. I was cleaning out the ponds and doing some clearing up after the tree felling and these frogs began calling briefly from beside my fence. At least I have not lost them from the garden during this recent prolonged dry period of the past two years.

The big surprise was to find on Wednesday that another tree felling team had arrived to remove the huge YellowBox Eucalyptus melliodora that has grown for almost 40 years on the nature strip next door. It bounds my entrance and overshadows my street tree, a similar looking but much less massive species - a White Box E. albens. It certainly was a massive tree but it was developing serious flaws and threatening to be unsafe.

Regrettably it had to come down because there was little that could be done to stabilize it. It took the best part of two days to remove with a skilled operation dropping it a piece at a time safely onto the roadway. Much was mulched but mostly it remains at the end of the week as a huge pile of sawn log on the side of the D'Arcy Place cul-de-sac. To be carted away next week, I hope.

That's about it for this week. It is Saturday afternoon and raining gently! We need more.