22 July 2006

Chifley Chronicle #11


Hailie sleeps it out
A week at home with a few sessions working in the garden. I can now begin to see some progress with the alterations that have been necessary following the removal of the big tree at the back. I have been moving barrowloads of coarse mulch from the enormous pile left after chipping this tree. I am using these wood chips as cover where I intend to keep walkways. A huge Spiny-headed Mat-rush Lomandra longifolia has been moved today. It is a splendid specimen and I grow it in the garden only because it is a reminder for me of the major component of vegetation on the coastal islands off south-eastern Australia; places like Montagu Island where I go each year to study shearwaters. These shearwaters most frequently burrow under this plant! In the garden it was in the wrong place, too big and too close to my cluster of little ponds. It took some moving and was very heavy but it now looks very good in its new location. I am confident that it will endure this forced shift because it is a plant that is so tolerant on the islands where it is subjected to the activities of shearwaters and Little Penguin tunneling amongst its root. Also, it is remarkably tolerant during drought. On Montagu it is often subjected to long periods of very dry conditions when the sandy soils it grows in become alarmingly drained of all vestige of moisture.

First Dwarf Iris of the year
Most of the time I have been accompanied in the garden by large mob of Silvereye. I guess up to 40 of them have been present most days this week. Mixed in with them is a large group of Superb Fairy-wren with one splendidly bright plumaged male but at least another male in dull female-like plumage. This group of wrens is probably at least 8-10 strong but impossible to count most of the time with individuals scattering about and diving in and out of cover. I have about 20 House sparrow frequenting the garden. These sparrows have been around for some weeks now. They often come to the parrot feeding stations and search through the gleanings. Interesting word gleanings. Old country name for the act of collecting the fallen heads of wheat after the last sheaf had been hoisted (collected). The gleaning bell would sound and everyone in the village was from that moment entitled to enter the field and collect the spillage for their own use to grind to flour for breadmaking. An account of this traditional activity associated with harvest practices before the advent of mechanization and harvesters is given by C Henry Warren in Happy Countryman published in the late 1930s.
My copy is a second edition published in 1946 by Eyre and Spottiswoode, London (152pp) with a wonderful emblem on the reverse of the title page embracing the statement 'Book Production war economy Standard' with words below stating that 'this book is produced in complete conformity with the authorised economy standards'.

I bought this copy recently in Brighton UK mainly because it is illustrated with woodcuts created by C. F. Tunnicliffe. Chapter 4 deals with the art of gleaning.
Other birds in Chifley at the moment include my usual group of parrots; King Parrot, Crimson Rosella and Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. I have had noticeably fewer of the latter this week after numbers began to rise alarmingly a week or so ago. I cut back the regularity of the food supply with the intention, if possible, of breaking the routine of the local mob that seemed to have settled into something of a routine of visiting me. It seemed to work.

Crimson Rosella at kitchen window feeder
A pair of Gang-gang visited briefly this morning but I have not seen them often recently. I have an adult plumaged male Blackbird that I often see working over various areas in the garden but I have not seen any females or other sub-adult males. Two Spotted Pardalote were calling softly earlier in the week and at least two Red Wattlebird are commonly visible in the garden or nearby. They bathe in the main bird bath. Some Noisy Miner are often audible nearby and occasionally can be seen in the scrub to the west of the garden. However, Indian Myna have not been obvious lately. No calls and I cannot recall seeing any, even near the garden, this last week. A couple of Pied Currawong still patrol my plot and occasionally a larger party passes through. The resident pair seem to call just on dusk as they go to roost otherwise they are not very vocal during the day unless there is some sort of disturbance in which they often join in vocally.
The 40 year old wooden outside fence - now seriously dilapidated

Hailie still asleep

posted by Ardenna at 5:24 PM 0 comments

15 July 2006

Chifley Chronicle #10

Tidbinbilla again!
To start with I am going to add a map showing the results of our Superb Lyrebird survey at Tidbinbilla last weekend. In fact, more than that, I have included results from the last two years of these 'walk surveys', as we call them. These are done with the assistance of an intrepid band of Canberra Ornithologists Group members. The ellipses figured on the map are only notional concepts of actual territory configuration. At this stage we have little data on which to base either a realistic shape or a sensible size for territory. All the same, these representations are probably about right for size going on what has been written on these matters for the lyrebirds of the area. The yellow ellipses (13 territories) represent this years observations whilst the blue ellipses (14 territories) represent observations last winter and finally the red ellipses (6 territories) represent results from our first survey in 2004. This first walk survey occurred 18 months after the horrendous wildfire that swept through the valley, and vast areas of the surrounding Brindabella ranges, in January 2003.

Superb Lyrebird territories, Tidbinbilla valley 2004-6
Now to add some pictures of the general area where we are studying these lyrebirds. The intensive study area is in the middle of the cluster of territories in the top left of the map. Here we have our sound recording equipment and the following picture will give some idea of what it is like to walk in to the site this winter. Incidentally, these pictures were all taken using a Sony DSCN1 compact digital.

The Camel Back trail climbing up the eastern slopes of Tidbinbilla Mountain

Dense vegetation within our study area

Waterproof box containing the automatic sound recording equipment

Omnidirectional microphone under its 'lampshade' rain deflector!
The following pictures, also taken with the Sony compact, show views of the artificial ponds set up to hold and attract waterbirds in the centre of the valley that is now the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.




Views along and beside the boardwalk

Boardwalk leading up to the sound recording site

Recording setup with minidisc. Well back from the edge and any chance to fall into the water!
Finally, some additional birds seen this week at Tidbinbilla. It seems that the Hardhead have returned with a small but nervous group present on the pond most favoured by the shoveler, who, incidentally, were spending some time on Friday on the lower of the two ponds I tend to concentrate upon. I have not seen them here before. The other species not seen for some time on any of the ponds was White Ibis. At least 11 birds maybe a few more were conspicuous today. They spent their time perched in the bare tops of trees, occasionally flying from one area to another, when they called loudly with their deep resonant honks. Otherwise much as normal with a little less obvious interaction between the Austalasian Shoveler despite the same situation of a pair and a seemingly unattached drake. All of the following pictures were taken with my trusty Canon Rebel using the lightweight EF 75-300 zoom IS USM autofocus lens.


Small party of Hardhead; three drakes and four ducks


Drake musk Duck

Australasian Shoveler
The light was not good on Friday with rain in the offing. It was dull and overcast making photography of white birds against the white sky almost impossible with so little margin for a sensible shutter speed.




White Ibis in the tree tops. Note the blood red underwing areas showing in the two lower pictures


White Ibis overhead
Driving home Friday - Bastille day - had the advantage of me being able to tune in to a full 10 minute long version of the Marseillaise broadcast on FM radio! Surely, no National Anthem come close to being as rousing as that of the French! Perhaps, on second thoughts only that of Germany. However, that tune was composed by none other than Joseph Haydn as the Emperor's hymn in 1797. In fact Haydn was specially commissioned to come up with something approaching in merit that of the English God save the King! It turns out that his composition was base on a Croatian tune he was familiar with in his childhood. I base this information on Scholes, Percy A. 1955 The Oxford Companion to Music - 9th Edition (OUP:London), 1195pp, just in case you should think I carry this sort of information in my head.

This last picture was taken with the Sony DSCN1.

Sheep paddock on the road to Tidbinbilla

posted by Ardenna at 4:20 PM 0 comments

Hailie the dog








A selection of pictures taken with the Sony DSCN1 camera. Much easier to sneak a shot of Hailie using this compact rather than the larger Canon SLR; although she is still very suspicious of that 'big eye' looking at her!

posted by Ardenna at 3:57 PM 0 comments

09 July 2006

Chifley Chronicle #9


Drake Australasian Shoveler
Another week!
On Monday I returned to Tidbinbilla for another try for some good shoveler calls and nearly lost my high gain directional microphone in the water when a gust of wind tipped over the tripod. Fortunately, the Rycote windshield with its cloth covering was water resistant long enough for me to rush in and retrieve it, tripod and all, before the assembly lost buoyancy and sank to the bottom!
A pair of vortexing Australasian Shoveler


Swamp Harrier soaring at Tidbinbilla



Australian Pelican at Tidbinbilla
At the end of the week I had an enjoyable morning outing with a few keen members of the Canberra Ornithologists Group seeing what we could make of the behviour of ducks. I had agreed to do this some months ago and at least I was able to show them how to distinguish drakes from ducks in Pacific Black Duck both by plumage and by behaviour, including their diagnostic calls. It was a very cold and foggy morning on Sunday when we assembled at Regatta Point on the northern shoreline of Lake Burley Griffin. From here we walked the short distance down to the nearby Nerang Pool. I had done a recce of the site (in colder and even foggier conditions!) the morning before and was reasonably happy that we would see some courtship activity. Sure enough we were able to watch the Pacific Black Duck perform some group displays amongst drakes and also some advertising displays brought on by inciting behaviour of ducks. We also observed some encounters where intruding drakes were seen challenging established pairs. We observed some activities suggesting that a few ducks might have already started egg laying. A large Water Rat Hydromys chrysogaster at one time swam across the pool and hauled out on a log close by a male Darter. The rat then began grooming almost within reach of the Darter providing us with a most unusual confrontation. Dusky Moorhens were abundant with many large groups present at this site but we saw lesser numbers of Swamphen, scattered pairs and a group of 20-30 Maned Duck, along with a few Black Swans, a Little Pied Cormorant, a White-faced Heron and one Australasian Grebe. All adding to the waterbirds listed during this morning.



Some loafing Pacific Black Duck and a drake giving the Preen-behind-wing signal

Pair of Pacific Black Duck
Not a lot has changed on the local scene at the house although larger numbers of Sulphur-crested Cockatoo are now arriving in the garden each morning. That is often the problem of putting out seed for the parrots; the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo soon catch-on and become a nuisance because they are dominant and keep the King Parrots, rosellas and others away from my feeding stations. Also, these big cockatoos quickly scoff most of the contents of my feeders or spill it from the hopper or dish!
I notice that larger numbers of House Sparrow seem to have been present lately. Usually, I have been seeing only 3-4 at a time but this week I have noticed a small flock of 10-20 birds in the garden. For some time past this species has been a scarce visitor to my part of Chifley. House Sparrows are generally not regarded with much enthusiasm by Australians being an introduction to the continent during the heyday of Acclimatization Societies. According to John Long, by far the best authority on these matters, the first liberations occurred in 1863 (Long, J. L. 1981. Introduced Birds of the World, Reed: Sydney 528pp).
Frogs have been calling a few times of late from near my small ponds in the back garden. I only seem to have a few individuals with, I reckon, at best 6 males. There has not been a lot of calling recently, and as far as I can tell only two individuals, but at least I know that they are still present. The species is Crinia signifera the Common Eastern Froglet. A stupidly long name for such a tiny frog! It always seems to me remarkable that these frogs should call at all at this time of the year. However, they often chirp up during overcast days or if it threatens to rain but sometimes they can be heard in the coldest of Canberra winter conditions.

Early morning and an Australian Magpie in the garden

posted by Ardenna at 12:00 PM 0 comments

01 July 2006

Chifley Chronicle #8

Last week in June 2006
Excitement continues over the Grey-headed Lapwing Vanellus cinereus seen recently at Burren Junction between Narrabri and Walgett in central northern NSW. Truckloads of the keenest twitchers have made the journey up to see it this week and as far as I can tell all have been successful though it is sometimes a very frustration bird to locate; seeming to disappear for hours on end and by all accounts it is rather 'flighty'. Few pictures of the bird have emerged on the net so far but I am sure they will soon be flooding in!

For me it has been the week for a return to Tidbinbilla to collect the sound samples from our automatic recording station (see posting last week). I did this job on Thursday and it was a calm sunny day following a hard overnight frost with temperatures again down to -8C in many places. Before collecting the tape recorder and the other gear from our study site I decided to have another try at sound recording the Australasian Shoveler that have been regularly present on the ponds in the waterfowl area at Tidbinbilla.

I found that the additional drake was back and interactions with the established pair were obviously constantly happening. The unattached male was persistently attempting to approach the pair. I say 'unattached drake' because I take it that this drake is unpaired. It is possible, but from his behaviour unlikely, that he has a female incubating on a nest nearby. I say unlikely, because he does not appear to be very aggressive and that is what I would expect if he was guarding his sitting duck. It would also be very early for nesting but not impossible. However, interactions took a predictable course. The unattached drake would approach and the paired drake would react by swimming towards him and pressing him away from his female with much hostile-pumping. This hostile-pumping action takes the form of raising the head and pumping it up and down, briefly, at a steady rate. The drakes called constantly while engaged in these interactions and would close on each other twisting and turning as they swam rapidly about with an eventual rush at the intruder by the paired drake causing him to take to the wing and fly off to land on the pond about 50 or 100 m away. His flight feathers would whistle loudly with that characteristic sound of shoveler in fast flight. There would be some preening-behind-the-wing behaviour by both drakes and some wing flapping accompanied by the typical sharp cracking sounds produced by the flight feathers as they are snapped in the air and then the paired drake would swim back quickly to his female.




Confrontations between the drakes
When not engaged in these jousts the pair of shoveler spent the time, at least while I was watching and sound recording, in almost constant feeding. For most of the time Shoveler suzzle at or just below the water surface. They will upend and occasionally even dive while feeding but surface suzzling is the most common practice. This action requires that they pump a large volume of water through the bill and expel it from the sides. In doing this they are filtering the food items from the water. The bill of the shoveler is particularly well endowed with filter ridges or lamellae, especially along the margins of the massive upper part of the bill. While not as elegant nor so well co-ordinated as the action of Pink-eared Duck Malacorhynchus membranaceus a pair of Australasian Shoveler, like all other shovelers, can and often do, perform a co-operative rotating feeding method. This behaviour, which, some years ago, my colleagues and I termed 'vortexing' when we described the similar method of feeding used by Pink-eared Duck. It takes the form of a swift rotation or spinning about a central point, usually by two birds. It is likely, in fact it must be so, that they are concentrating plankton in the swirling water created by this action and the bill is constantly working the area with a massive volume of water visibly pouring out from its base. Shoveler do not do this vortexing nearly so tightly as do Pink-eared Duck but, all the same, they are clearly performing a similar action in the gathering of planktonic food. They can do it for minutes on end within a very small area. Today, I think there was a good supply of food in a certain part of the pond because the pair of shoveler returned time and again to this particular area following each of the hostile encounters. I was able to get a good bit of sound not only of the males giving their characteristic "clubit" calls but also several sequences when the female called with a repeated but rather feeble double quacking. However, without the correct windshield I was getting annoying interference from an occasional very faint breeze. It was still very cold and I always have the impression that most microphones respond rather more seriously to wind when cold. Anyway, I got some material and must return soon with more appropriate gear if his opportunity to record shoveler in particularly good conditions is not to be missed.




A pair of vortexing Australasian Shoveler


Suzzling Australasian Shoveler
Other subjects photographed at Tidbinbilla on Thursday included the now much bigger Black Swan cygnets and the Magpie Geese. The Black Swan are the same birds photographed a month ago!





Magpie Geese