I'd like to second Suzanne's vote of thanks to Jack for the excellent
"outgoing President's walk" to his special corner.
I also returned there to follow the fortunes of the about-to-fledge
Duskies and the Brown Treecreepers nesting. (Jack has a knack for
these things... "We'll sit here for morning tea ... oh look, there's
a pair of Brown Treecreepers nesting!" (right beside the morning tea
spot)). Kelly Road is pretty impressive for birders, it's not often
you can get great close views of two bush-bird species nesting
without getting out of the car.
Those on the walk might like to see some pics of what did happen to
the birds. Below is a couple of links but more can be found by
navigating around flickr. I still have a bunch of photos to come of
the behaviour that Stuart observed, of the Duskies ejecting and
carrying off faecal sacks. (PS -- now included). The nestling
behaviour was interesting - as far as I can make out nestlings can
communicate (at least) 2 things to adults. When a carer came to the
nest, the chicks signaled either or both:
- begging = feed me
- tail shimmy = I'm about to present you with a faecal sack so please
get ready. You could see that when there was no tail shimmy the
carer would depart immediately, but when one of the chicks shimmied,
the carer would wait, sometimes for measurable time like a minute,
just watching and waiting before manoeuvring to the back of the
chick, or wait for the chick to turn around. Sometimes a chick
would beg and shimmy simultaneously.
I watched the next day as one of the Duskies had fledged while the
other remained still restricted to the nest, unhappily alone. Also
noted camouflage behaviour when a Kestrel flew over -- following the
alarm call by carers, the fledged Dusky and the one still in the nest
instantly adopted a dead branch pose, looking like a miniature Tawny
Frogmouths for a couple of minutes.
Brown Treecreeper showing wing pattern pointed out by Jack -
http://flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/2092050135/
B Treecreeper passing food at nest -
http://flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/2092049887/
The D Woodswallow nest with both chicks -
http://flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/2085718961/
The last chick - http://flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/2090383235/
Chick in alarm posture - http://flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/2092049713/
First of a faecal sack sequence - http://flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/2105012748/
Pretty shot of preening - http://flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/2091114366/
Pretty shot of young D Firetail, showing exactly one diamond -
http://flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/2092831496/
Happy Christmas and happy Christmas party everyone - unfortunately I
won't be able to make it.
Julian
At 09:16 PM 9/12/2007, Suzanne Edgar wrote:
Returned to Kelly Rd area today and saw lotsa birds incl. willy
wagtail feeding a young one peeking over nest edge, fuscous
honeyeaters copulating; a pair of trillers (i went down Black Flat
Rd) swapping over shifts of the nest-sitting duty; a peewee's nest,
dusky woodswallow carrying nest material, Aust Raven carrying food,
3 diamond firetails, pallid cuckoo ... and on a dam off the rd
between Williamsdale and Burra an A'asian grebe slipping off a
beautiful green-reed ` floating island' nest, coot with adolescent young..
thanks to Jack for introducing me to this great area
Sz
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