We had WWs nest of the phone line insulator
just outside our dining room window. It was late in the breeding season and the
weather was very hot. The parent birds took it in turns standing over the eggs,then
the chicks, with wings outstretched and they panted heavily. I was so concerned
about the chicks that I put a cardboard awning over the nest which provided some
shade. Eventually all three young fledged successfully.
A pair of WWs nested in the yard the next
year - but in a shady shrub. I’m not sure if it was the same pair. They
were also successful.
Roy
-----Original
Message-----
From: John Layton
[
Sent: Thursday, 13 December 2007
8:56 PM
To: Canberra Birds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Willie
out in the weather
Today at Lake Ginninderra
I saw a Willie Wagtail sitting on its pristine nest in the dead portion of a
tree i.e. no cover or protection whatsoever except thinly interspersed, dead,
twiggy branches, so it was very much out in the open. And not two metres above
the ground, and seven metres from a bike path, and three metres from a
well-worn pedestrian track.
I wondered what made them
build in such a seemingly precarious position. I could only guess it may have
been a consequence of competition for nesting territory as I counted another
seven Willie Wagtails within a radius of about 70 metres.
Also, when the sun peeked
through the overcast at 10:45 AM, the Redeye Cicadas Psaltoda muerens struck up the band and
I found them on tree trunks. Not as many as a few years ago at Lake
Ginninderra, but this may be just the advance party. I noticed Black-faced
Cuckoo-shrikes, Red Wattle Birds and Noisy Friarbirds preying on the Redeyes.
