Christmas Bells

Christmas Bells
Christmas Bells - Blandfordia nobilis
Showing posts with label Ducks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ducks. Show all posts

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Its "Wood Duck" duckling season in Robertson

I have just been sent this wonderful Dutch video.
Thanks to George for sending it on.
It is linked here - you can download it for free.

There are some words in Dutch, but you hardly need words.
Original title seems to refer to "Spring cleaning".
The French caption (in the linked title) says "Never remove the dead leaves at the base of a tree"

  • It is simply beautiful imagery.
  • Mother Duck encourages kids to jump out of tree hollow, to join her on the ground.
  • one by one, they jump.
  • And when they're all down, whole new world opens up before them.
Seeing baby ducks always makes me feel optimistic.

There are some "Australian Wood Duck" (Chenonetta jubata) family groups around Robertson at present - but the parents always guide them away from the road, as soon as my car slows down. By the time I get the camera out - they are always well away.

Wood Duck family - Dad - on left - being "protective" (always closest to me)

Mother Duck leading the kids away
Wood Duck family - Safe distance, we can all start feeding again.
My Blogging colleague David, has a much better photograph of a Wood Duck family swimming in a local pond somewhere on the Far South Coast of NSW. His post was dated 2 August, but he's on the coast - so life starts earlier - in every sense - on the Coast.

Enjoy Springtime - how could you not?

My birding colleague and fellow Blogger, Martin, has queried if (i.e., suggested that - possibly) the female Duck might be an American Wood Duck?
I cannot be sure.
I had assumed it was European, but on doing a bit of a search, it looks right for a Female American Wood Duck (the eye marking is distinctive, it seems) and they do nest in trees.
Martin has also posted about our Aussie Wood Ducks hanging around in a tree. It certainly looks to me that they are "lurking with intent"

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Photos from Bermagui and environs

Here are the first photos from my weekend away, at Bermagui. Readers of the Aussie Nature Blogs may already have seen my smiling visage on David's Blog, "Focus on Nature". Today it is my turn to show the first of my images.

There is a very interesting pond across the road from David's house, which is well populated with Ducks, and other water birds and waders.
The first up is the ubiquitous Black Duck
Next is a pair of Chestnut Teal.
This is the only duck I know of to have popular brand of Sherry named after it.
The male is very handsome. The female looks very similar to the Grey Teal.
At one of the estuaries in the area, we stopped to watch Pelicans and Swans. While David was photographing the Pelicans and gulls fighting over a bucket of fish scraps. I happened to spot this Caspian Tern flying over. I haven't seen one of these birds in many years. In truth, I was suspicious that this tern was something other than a Crested Tern, because of its large size, and slow flapping flight. But I was not sure until I developed the image. Apart from its size, the dark red beak is diagnostic. In my limited experience with this species, whenever I have seen a Caspian Tern, it has been as a solitary bird, whereas Crested Terns tend to hang out in groups - frequently over the ocean, or on sand dunes. This bird was circling high over the river estuary.
Having left the estuarty and coast, we headed into the bush. This is a Bell Miner.
Here is the casing of the Lerp insect (Cardiaspina sp). Bell Miners love these insect casings, which are a sugary exudate, made by the tiny insect which lives underneath the shell. It chews the Eucalypt leaves, and secretes this lattice-like casing. The insect starts out small (tiny), and then grows, and as it does, so does the casing which it secretes from the sugary substances which it extracts from the Eucalyptus leaves. These hard sugary coatings were eaten as "bush tucker" by Aboriginal people. One would have needed to eat hundreds of these Lerps to get a snack. Each of these Lerps is about the size of my fingernail.

These "lerps" are the favourite food of the Bell Miners, which vigorously defend (as their "territory") the trees on which these lerps are found. David has described what happened when I made a squeaking noise, with my lips, to see if I could attract the Bell Miners from high in the trees. They appeared out of "nowhere", ready to drive away any "intruders".

Bell Miners live in colonies, and when they gather together, the Lerps are advantaged, because the Bell Miners vigorously chase away all other birds which also might like to eat the casings of the Lerps. Eventually, whole section of trees end up being defoliated by the insects, aided and abetted by the Bell Miners. That is a condition known as "die -back". Although die-back is not exclusively caused by these Lerps, they can contribute to death of mature trees, and, as such, they are of economic concern to State Forestry Departments, and Academics. Here is the tiny nymph-stage of the Lerp insect which lives under the exuded casing. It was exposed by me lifting (and eating the hard white casing). Eventually these insects turn into flying insects. But they are mostly identified only by their little "houses". This insect can be seen to have strong crawling legs, and it is developing its rudimentary wings (like little "Chicken wings"). As befits an insect living almost entirely under a shell, its eyes are very poorly developed at this stage. No doubt it will quickly create a new shell casing. Click to enlarge the image.Here is an environmental protest sign - an anti-logging protest. Apparently the State Forests wishes to permit logging of the Spotted Gum forest in this are, south from Bermagui. This sign was at Wapengo Creek. Unlike Lerps, people can apparently destroy forests, without having Academics paid to write papers about them. As such, it is left to the local environmentalists to put up old tin signs like this one, alerting people to the vandalism about to be caused by the State Forestry authorities, in the name of supposed economic development. I wish the protesters very best of luck.Here is David at work, photographing some of the creatures which live in the rock pools, near the famous Blue Pool at Bermagui.
Yesterday, David published an interesting image of Mosquito larvae living in a fresh water pool, within a few metres of the salt-water rock pools. Here is David taking that image. It was an interesting observation on his part, to even spot that these were "Wrigglers" and therefore, that the water was not a salt-water pool, but a rain-fed fresh water pool (albeit with some salt spray added, very likely). A mere 5 metres away, lower down is a true salt-water pool. The ocean is visible in the background, but in fact, this pool was only 20 metres from the crashing surges of each wave, as it ran up through the rocks. Clearly this position was above the normal high tide level, though.And here is the clearest image I managed to take all day.
There was a lot of lens changing going on, from Macro, to wide angle scenic shots, to the 300mm zoom lens. But this Great Black Cormorant was very co-operative, sitting on its lamp pole, at the harbour at Bermagui. There was another one, sound asleep, on an adjacent lamp, just a few feet away, but this fellow was very alert, and was checking me out. It shows the diagnostic yellow face markings, the white patch on the side, and also the oily sheen on the wings.
Click to enlarge the image.I shall publish more images from Bermagui, later on. It is a lovely spot for photography, and a nice spot to have friends, who are kind enough to invite you (me) to visit. Thanks David.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Spring Babies

I mentioned the other day that the Spring season has transitioned to a stage where birds are busy feeding their babies. Here is a family of Wood Ducks, with 6 ducklings going for a walk, a bit close to a main road, but the parents seem to know what they are doing.
I now know a bit more about the responsibilities of parenthood. I have adopted a baby Magpie.
I was aware of the nesting pair of Magpies at the back of the CTC building. Indeed I mentioned the presence of this Magpie's nest in the minutes of the CTC Management Committee, in case the parents got a bit "protective", and started swooping passers by. They didn't, as it turned out.

However, on Saturday, when we had huge winds here in Robertson, one of the chicks fell out of the nest. It was fully feathered, but not yet able to fly. Close, but not yet ready.

Anyway, I found this little chick on the ground, under the Pine Tree where the nest was located. The branch was a long, nearly horizontal branch, and the nest was flung around in the wind, and one of the chicks fell out. I found it, and tried to let the adult birds know the baby was "down". No success. I decided to throw it up and over a low flat branch of the Pine Tree - hoping the youngster could land on a platform of pine branches. That worked, eventually.

However, the next morning the chick was down on the ground again. As this area is popular with people walking their dogs, I figured the chick had no chance of survival, without intervention. So, I brought it home, and stuck it in foam box. As it is quite well feathered, it can self-regulate its temperature, and so has a pretty good chance of survival.

I have since added an old lamb's wool slipper, for it to sit on.
Feeding this bird has also been a learning experience for me. For some silly reason, I expected the bird to peck at the food in my hand. That's didn't work. Then I realised I needed to think like a Magpie chick. It is used to having food presented to it, from above. So I put some mince on my finger, and brought it down from above. Bingo! It opened its beak wide to receive the food. Not exactly a passive action, but it cannot "hunt" or even "peck" at food. But when food is presented from above (the position where Mum and Dad arrive and present it food) then it knows full well what to do.

So that's the arrangement we have at present. I provide food. It opens up, squawks a bit (which Lena the Schnauzer thinks is very interesting) and then it swallows the food.

In this next image, you can clearly see the tongue structure of a typical "perching bird", with the tongue being relatively hard (almost plastic-like), and triangular in shape, with two strong points pointing backwards. This helps the bird to swallow food. As much of the food which birds eat is "live", it helps ensure the prey does not escape. This linked article explains this, and mentions that some other birds have different specialised tongue shapes. I know that Cockatoos have a thick, rounded, blunt tongue, which allows them to position a seed against the tips of their bills, to "shell" the hard coatings.

It is worth watching a Cockatoo eating, if you get the chance. However, if you have a friend with a pet Corella, watch out. It will try to eat your fingers. My friend George has a Long-billed Corella, "Pierre", who is very keen on biting my fingers. But it means you can see his thick, blunt, grey tongue. It is very flexible. Quite unlike the Magpie's tongue.After every feeding session, the baby Magpie lifts its tail feathers, and delivers a "fecal sac". This is its "poo", but perching birds have evolved a system of packaging the excrement in a coating, which allows the parent birds to remove the sac without it fouling the nest. My baby Magpie is doing this for me, and it means there is less "mess", provided I get there quickly enough before the skin of the sac breaks down. If I am too slow, then I have to clean up the mess.
Interestingly, the Magpie also regurgitated a "pellet" which is made up of insect shells. I did not examined it in great detail, but I was surprised. It is well known that Currawongs and Owls both "throw up" indigestible material in this way. But I had not heard of Magpies doing this - but it makes sense. This is regurgitated through the mouth (beak), and is quite dry, and "clean".

I am not sure what thrills lie ahead for me with this baby Magpie. Can I teach it to fly? I hope I do not have to jump off the back deck to show it how to fly!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Water loving birds in Robertson

There is a small creek, Caalang Creek, which runs through the centre of the village of Robertson.
It is not very accessible, because the houses approach the creek, and one needs to find a laneway, or an undeveloped block of land, from which to approach the creek.

In one area, there is an old dam which was created by one of the old landholders, back in the day when potatoes were still being grown close to the village. The dam is now surrounded by houses, not potato farms. This is very good for the local birds, some of which have trained the local residents to give them the occasional feed. Other birds are just getting on with their natural lives in this reasonably natural environment.

I was sent an email a few days ago by Sandy, a friend who knows I am a keen birdwatcher, to report that she had seen a pair of Buff-banded Rails (Gallirallus philippensis), and some chicks, in the thick Lomandra vegetation beside the creek. Naturally I could not resist following up this lead.I did not see the chicks, but, as soon as I turned up, I saw a pair of rails chasing eachother around on the grassy edge of the reserve. Of course, they scarpered when they saw me coming, but eventually, after about half an hour, one of them came back out into the open (just). That at least allowed me to get one clearly identifiable shot.I returned the next day (today), and while I did not see the rails, I saw lots of other water birds. One which surprised me was a Sacred Kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus). The surprise was not because I saw it, but because it was behaving like a conventional Kingfisher - hanging out near the dam - which they do not often do). A pair of Little (Australasian) Grebes (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae) were very busy building their nest - a typical floating raft of reeds and other water plants.This shows a Grebe carrying some water weed with which to build the nest. Please forgive the low quality photo, but it was a distant shot, across the dam. But the activity is interesting to observe.And three Domestic Geese "sailed" across the pond when they saw me. Clearly they were coming across for their daily feed. I left without feeding them.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Wood Duck love

We bloggers are guilty of posting about the rare and the exotic, and overlooking the mundane.

In the centre of Robertson there is a park, Hampden Park, which has playing fields, and a creek "Caalang Creek", which runs through it. The combination of fresh green grass, and water is perfect for Australian Wood Ducks (Chenonetta jubata). These birds are dry country grazers, as distinct from "dabbling ducks" which often up-end themselves, when feeding (when swimming), to feed on water weeds. The phrase: "Dry country" is relative. I should say grass eaters. The grass of Robertson is pretty lush and green, as you can tell from the background colours. But they also hang out in mobs around "farm dams" in genuinely dry land areas.

Wood Ducks (or "Maned Geese" as I grew up calling them), are good walkers, even capable of getting up a pretty good pace on land, as opposed to Black Ducks, which are adapted to swimming, and have their legs positioned further down the body. Black Ducks are not good runners on dry land.

The male has a darker head, and very fine markings (which look uniformly grey) on his flanks and lower chest. The female has large spots on her chest, which markings tend to extend down the breast. She has a slight pale ring around her eye. His posture is nearly always more upright than hers, making him look taller, but it is probably his posture, rather than his size.

Although the male (on the left) has turned his head away, you can actually see the shape of the head, and the way the skull of these birds is shaped in such a way as to allow close to 300 degree vision - perfect for birds which are subject to predation, because they spend so much time on the ground. Although his head is facing away, he could still see me taking his photograph.

These photos are displayed in the same sequence as they were taken, to show the body language of these birds.
The males are always very watchful, especially when they have chicks. But when that happens, it is the females who do the "guarding", and the male does the "watching out". I saw the first "chicks" (ducklings) on 8 September last year - a mere 6 weeks away from this time. So, I would expect this pair to be actively breeding shortly.

Here the female walks back to the male, perhaps for protection, or reassurance.Seen below is a clear "bonding" posture. She has to be saying something privately to him - whether in words, or gesture. There is a definite communication going on here.
Now they set off together, walking back towards me, trying to get past my parked car.The female is making a quick move, now.I expect to see ducklings in 2 months.
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