At the end of Dungowan St in Hawker there is an enormous eucalypt that
has been home to 6 species this spring: A. Magpie, Magpie Lark (2
broods), Tawny Frogmouth, Willie Wagtail, Crested Pigeon and Black-faced
Cuckoo-shrike. All have successfully raised young, except for the Willie
Wagtails who abandoned their completed nest when the cuckoo-shrikes
moved in on the next branch. (The went on to breed successfully in
another tree about 30 yards away.) Not all of these breeding events were
concurrent (the magpies were finished by the time the BFCS moved in),
but they were all pretty close together and seemingly mostly harmonious.
There were no currawongs, however.
John Brannan
Stephen Brand wrote:
Magpie Larks now with their second family.
First family of three successfully fledged and were fed around out
house in late October (one early chick fell or was ejected from the
nest which is high in a Eucalypt in the front of our house which upset
our 18 year old terribly).
I realised they were sitting again on the same nest only a few weeks
ago and now have two very healthy looking chicks looking close to
fledging. A feature of the second breeding event is that they are and
have been almost silent. I have not seen any begging behaviour that
produced a noise and I have definitely not heard any. The whole
breeding event has been low key compared to the first. I wondered if
the reason was, that, in a nearby tree we had a very successful
Currawong breeding event where three chicks fledged in early to mid
November (I will note dates in future). They are still around our
house and requiring huge attention from their parents. I saw at least
one small bird in the beak of a parent on our grass at the rear a few
weeks back. I guess the second brood of Magpie Lark chicks would have
been more vulnerable to predation from the Currawongs during the
furious feeding period of three large chicks than when the Magpie Lark
had their first brood. Hence the instruction to juniors to keep the
noise down.
Is two breeding events so close very common?
Stephen Brand
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