Bird activity: December
The chooks start cackling and crowing and then I hear the all the corellas, galahs and cockatoos in the vicinity of the chook yard begin. Knowing what that noise heralds, I run outside and sure enough a goanna is hauling itself slowly towards the nest box. I chase it off, but not far. It goes up the nearest tree and the raucous sqwarks of the corellas who are nesting in the tree grow louder.
Goannas - or to be specific, the sort we have here are Lace Monitors - are on the move at this time of the year. Climbing from tree to tree looking for the eggs of any bird they can find. Of course they also make regular trips to my chook yard each day. In fact I got interrupted writing this by frantic noises form the chook yard and raced outside to find a Lace Monitor prowling around under the mulberry tree, my nest box had already been raided.
On the 12th we had a rather exciting bird adventure. Late that evening we found a baby Satin Bowerbird. The little thing must have just left the nest (possibly not intentionally) and could not really fly. It fluttered around getting tangled in the long grass. We had set a cat trap earlier, because of yet another dumped cat sneaking around. The little bowerbird didn't stand much chance that night, what with cats, foxes and the fact that it seemed to be headed over towards the neighbors and therefor their dog. The Noisy Miners were also intent on dive bombing it. So we caught the young bird (after a few attempts) and put it in a cage for the night.
The mother bird hung around, always somewhere nearby. Then in the morning we let the baby bird out. I had also managed to catch a rather grumpy cat in the trap. The baby Satin Bowerbird sat in the back of the cage till we left and then it flew out to the ground and hoped along after its mother. I then chased the poor thing with my camera and as you can see got some photos. I chased it up into a big bush were it should stay safe especially since there is one less cat prowling around.
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| One less beautiful eye predator out there to get the birds. But just last night mummy heard another bird scream as something made it into a tasty meal. |
The Little Corellas like our Chinese Elm tree. I watched a flock of them settle down on it and the surrounding palm trees. They intently snipped at the leaves and twigs, breaking them off and sprinkling the ground with them. One of the corellas dangled upside-down holding on by only its claws. The bird hung there for a while, until another corella landed next to it and bent the branch further. The corella flapped wildly and plummeted to the ground, but rose almost straight up, just before it crashed into the grass.
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| Two Little Corellas (another sort of Corella is the Long-billed Corella) |
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