White-fronted Honeyeater
Juvenile White-fronted Honeyeater
I apologise for the poor quality of the above photo. I only had a few seconds to take it before the bird flew away, not to return. If it does, and I get a better shot, I’ll replace it.
This morning was very hot. It reached 45C (113F) just before lunch time, with a strong, hot northerly wind blowing up dust everywhere. Not a pleasant day by any measure.
New Home Block species
Despite the atrocious conditions I was able to add a new bird species to my home block list, a juvenile White-fronted Honeyeater. I had previously seen this species less than a kilometre away on several occasions, so it seemed inevitable that I’d record it here someday. Today was that day. It brings my home list to 110 species; adding new species doesn’t happen often these days.
Distribution of White-fronted Honeyeaters
This species is widespread throughout inland Australia west of the Great Dividing Range. It is absent throughout the northern parts of Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland as well as the south-western tip of western Australia, southern Victoria and Tasmania. Here in Murray Bridge is near the southern-most part of South Australia it can be found. It can occur in the Coorong area and once I saw one bird near Lucindale in the south east of the state.
Habitat and breeding
The White-fronted Honeyeater prefers dry inland scrubs, mallee and eucalypt woodlands. It usually breeds in the latter half of the year but will also respond to rain and breed at other times. The one I saw was an independent juvenile. It probably fledged sometime in the last two months.
Normally they lay 2-3 eggs in a cup shaped nest comprised of bark, grass, or spider’s web and is usually located low in a bush or even on the ground.
Reference:
Pizzey, G and Knight, F, 1997, The field guide to the birds of Australia, Sydney, Angus and Robertson.
The River Murray is collapsing
Warning: This post has nothing to do with birds or birding. Since first posting this article one of my regular readers left a comment that spurred me on to add the last few paragraphs.
Many people acknowledge that the River Murray and the Lower Lakes are in desperate trouble. Levels are at the lowest in many decades, the flow is almost non existent and we have little idea of where the much needed water to keep it alive is coming from.
This desperate situation has been brought about by severe drought in the catchment area over the last three (or more) years plus decades of overuse and over allocation to irrigators upstream. The states upstream have almost totally ignored the needs of South Australia.
Something happened yesterday on the river bank right here in my home town of Murray Bridge that is symptomatic of this disaster happening in front of our eyes.
An 80 metre stretch of the river bank suddenly collapsed into the river, taking at least three cars with it. You can read about it and see a photo here. I can’t go down there and take my own photos because the area is now a restricted zone.
The bank collapse was at a local marina. The photo below was taken a few months ago at Swanport Reserve, about a kilometre south of the marina.
Without good, widespread above average rainfall right across the Murray-Darling basin over the next 2 years, plus well above rainfall in the Adelaide Hills this coming winter-spring, I fear Adelaide will run out of water sooner rather than later, possibly next summer. It is that serious from a human viewpoint. Economically many orchardists and dairy farmers are already going to the wall and many more are well on the way.
Beyond that, however, the long term environmental issues are potentially catastrophic – it may have already reached the point of no return. We may well be seeing the early death throes of the river and lower lakes. The implications for the bird life of the whole river system are frightening; they are threatened too.
Low river level at Swanport Reserve, Murray Bridge
A Starling in a hurry
2 Comments »19th January, 2009; Category: Bird Behaviour, Eagles Hawks and Kites, Murray Bridge, Raptors
Common Starling
Common Starlings are not my favourite birds.
In fact, here in Australia they are considered a pest, especially by fruit growers and people who have a few fruit trees in their back yard. A small flock can completely ruin a crop of apricots in a few hours, for example.
There is a wider environmental issue to also consider. Common Starlings are often found in flocks of hundreds and even number in the tens of thousands in fruit growing areas. Large flocks like this feed on the crops when they are ripe; for the rest of the year they are seriously depleting food sources of many of our native species. Even worse is the fact that they use tree hollows for their nests, thus denying native birds precious nesting sites. They are also very messy in their nesting habits, fouling the hollows to the point where only Starlings will reuse the hollow.
Last night I was at an outdoor function being conducted by our church. We hold this event on Sunday evenings every year in January in the town sound shell. Despite the very loudly amplified music the birding was spectacular. Not many species flew over, mind you, but one incident involving a Common Starling really caught my attention.
Two Australian Hobbies (Little Falcons) live around the CBD and I’ve seen them soaring around the area on a number of occasions. One of them zoomed past the sound shell at great speed heading for some trees in the park opposite. It did a few loops around a tall pine tree disturbing a Common Starling in the process which sped of in the opposite direction, hotly pursued by the falcon. Both disappeared behind a building. I hope that the falcon caught his supper.
Rainbow Bee-eaters
Rainbow Bee-eater
One of the Australian bird species I always enjoy seeing (or hearing) is the Rainbow Bee-eater. This bird is a seasonal visitor in the summer months here in Murray Bridge, South Australia. Small flocks (and sometimes only an individual) arrive in spring and depart on their way north in late summer (about February) or early autumn (March).
Many years ago we had them nesting on our five acre block of land. From childhood I have been intrigued by this beautiful bird that makes its nest at the end of a small tunnel in the sand or in the sandy bank of a road or railway cutting.
I suspect that they currently nest in the banks of an ephemeral creek about hlaf a kilometre from our home. They may also nest up the hill from our place.
This summer they arrived here a little later than usual. Over the last month I don’t know if they have visited our garden as we have been away interstate. Since returning last Friday, however, they have been hanging around almost every day, coming for a short while and then moving elsewhere. I haven’t been able to get close enough for a new photo, so I’ve used one taken several years ago.
Adelaide Rosella comes to visit
Adelaide Rosella
Yesterday we had a glorious spring morning. We spent a few hours chatting with our daughter who has been visiting over the last few days. We were enjoying being able to sit on the front verandah enjoying the beautiful day.
While chatting – and having a lovely cup of chai tea – my attention was suddenly drawn by the call of an unusual bird in the tree across the driveway. On investigation I found it was a solitary Adelaide Rosella.
This species is common throughout the Adelaide Hills some 50km to the west of Murray Bridge but not at all common around here. We do have the occasional visitor, but this only happens maybe several times a year.
As I moved towards the tree, camera at the ready, an aggressive Red Wattlebird chased the Rosella away. Can’t blame the Wattlebird; it has a nest only a few metres away – not that the Rosella was about to take and egg or chick from the nest.
The photo above was taken elsewhere some time ago.
Read some related articles:
- Eastern Rosella
- Budgerigars
- King Parrot
- Cockatoo close encounter
- So that’s who’s been eating my flowers
- Musk Lorikeets
Read through some more of my articles about parrots and lorikeets here.