Season's colours

Very Best Wishes for the Festive Season

Long legs on a wire

Had the camera taking photos of Honeyeaters when I noticed a Daddy-long-legs moving along the balustrade wire and I found the contrast between the multi strand wire and the delicate spider a good subject.

 The Daddy-long-legs Spider, Pholcus phalangioides, is found throughout Australia. It is a cosmopolitan species that originates from Europe and was introduced accidentally into Australia.

They are a regular feature inside the house where they usually end their life in the vacuum cleaner but at times we find them like this one outside where they are welcome to stay. 

Twins out of the nest

The Lewin Honeyeater parents had been very busy bringing food to the youngsters in the nest but yesterday the pair were out of the nest and getting ready to enter the wide world.

There was only a light breeze in the morning when I took the photos but by the afternoon they were getting a buffeted by a very strong wind and ready to move to a more sheltered position.

For the Yellow-faced honey eater the story was not so good as I noticed that the nest was out of position and the adult was looking quite agitated, which led me to expect that the eggs had been eaten by our resident tree snake.

Pollinater portraits

Lots of flowers have brought lots of pollinators to the garden and one of the busiest groups at present are the Honeyeaters. Today the most active of all was a flock of White-cheeked Honeyeaters as the fed on the flowers of the Mistletoes, Grevilleas and Banksias. Food is not the only attraction at this time of year, as many are displaying lots of breeding activity display, calling as they fly up above the canopy then diving back to a prominent perch.

One of their favourite food and display spots is a  Coastal Banksia, Banksia integrifolia that is close to our verandah and they were happy to pose.

Lots of flowers on the spike to get the beak into.

   

A good spot to stand out.

 

Or a ripening pollinated spike to sing.

White-cheeked Honeyeaters range down the east coastal heaths and woodlands and a western race are found in south Western Australia.

Longhorn or longicorn

Which ever way this beetle is named  the long part is certainly true and I found this one on a wall in the house and it most likely came out of one of our firewood logs where it has changed from its larva to the adult beetle.

This species of the Longhorn group is the Large Brown Longhorn or Longicorn Beetle Xystrocera virescens and the larvae reportedly feed in various species of Acacia tunnelling through the wood.

nesting and out & about

Spring is in full swing and the warm weather has birds busy building nests and our reptile critters on the move looking for mates.

Two of our resident honeyeaters have chosen nest sites close to the house with the Lewin Honeyeater deciding under the deck was ideal as it is out of the weather and the dense foliage of the pittosporum bush hid the nest. 

The Yellow-faced Honeyeater chose suspend its nest towards the end of a bamboo palm stem where it should be safe from the lace monitor lizards but hope that the tree snakes don't find it.

 

A Blue-tongue Lizard was crossing the road at our driveway but had stopped to have a bit of a sunbathe before moving on so it needed a bit of encouragement to get off the road to avoid being run over.

Getting ready to mow the grass and I had to wait for an Eastern Long-necked turtle to continue on its way to where ever it was going.

Outside my window

Working on my computer this morning when I looked up to see a pair of Pardalotes just outside the window perched on the stem of the bamboo palm. They were quite happy to stay for some photos although through the window with not ideal light meant lots of focus and movement problems but a few shots were OK.

Pardalotes are flower peckers and spend most of the time in the tree tops but it is breeding time and they build their nests in tunnels in earth banks, tree hollows and even hanging flower baskets. There are a number of species in Australia but the two that I have seen here are the Spotted Pardalote or this one the Striated Pardalote this form being Pardalotus ornatus also called the Eastern Striated Pardalote ranging down the coastal forests from mid Queensland, NSW and Victoria. They are quite tiny birds and very attractive and I always look forward to this time of year when they are visiting. When they are in the trees one of the give aways to their presence is the pecking as they attack scale and lerp insects on the leaves of eucalyptus.

They spent some time during the day back and forth to the palm and at time some activity took place, stretching wings and fluttering which I expect was mating display.

 

Photo shy

Managed to get a photo today of a bird that we see quite often I have found very difficult to get close enough for a photo although I have posted a couple of photos of young birds that are not as shy.

This is the male Satin Bower-Bird Ptilinorhynchus violaceus and this was the only photo I could get as he moved around from tree to tree and generally keeping within the foliage.The males develop their full satin plumage after about 7 years and the iridescent blackish blue colouring gives the bird its common name where as the female has brown and green plumage as do the juvenile birds.
The Satin Bower-Bird male along with a number of others in the bower bird family builds a bower to impress the female, his consists of walls of sticks and grasses curving over an avenue which he decorates with berries, flowers and found objects. The Satin Bower Bird is partial to blue so blue clothes pegs, pen covers, bottle tops etc are often found in the bower.

Nesting is not in the bower but a cup shaped nest in the branches of a tree which the female tends. Where I have had difficulty getting close a number of our neighbours who feed birds have no trouble as the birds will come to the feeding tray for the fruit that is placed out for them. They are notorious for stripping the fruit trees and at present they are busy in our orchard picking strawberry guavas and cumquats, but we have plenty to share.


(on a recent trip to the Northern Territory I took photos of the Great Bower-Bird that favours white ornaments to decorate its large bower)

All the colours

My ears picked up a bird call that was not usual at our location so I grabbed the camera and went to see if I could locate the caller. My luck was in, as it did not take any time to find my photo subject. On our powerline a Rainbow Bee-eater Merops ornatus was perched ready to swoop on any insects flying by.

The tail streamer is an immediate indicator to it being a male and then I noticed the female a bit further away on a eucalyptus branch.

I have seen Rainbow Bee-eaters in our area occasionally but this pair was the first I have seen on our property.

Of the 24 species of Bee-eaters in the Merops Genus found worldwide, the Rainbow Bee-eater is the only one found in Australia. Found in all states other than Tasmania, they are migratory spending the winter months in the north and into New Guinea, Indonesia and as far as the Solomon Islands. 

As the name suggests they do have bees as a favourite food source but also wasps and other insects are taken on the wing.

Lacy Emerald

A small night visitor which I managed to bring inside for a photo before it was once more into the night.

This pretty moth is the Lacy Emerald (m) Eucyclodes insperata with a wingspan of about 2.5cm  and is one of the GEOMETRIDAE family, found throughout the Eastern States of Australia.There is quite a difference in colouring between the sexes with the female bot being as "lacy" but with some strong markings.
The caterpillar is a looper and  feeds of a variety of plant species such as Guava, Angophora and Exocarpus.

No barns around here

Picking grapefruit in the orchard this morning and disturbed a bird that was in the nearby macadamia tree and I caught a glimpse of white as it made off to a branch in a handy eucalyptus. Thought is was likely to be an owl or possibly a goshawk but didn't go for a closer look instead went for the camera.

Getting back and looking to the tree where it headed, I found it was indeed an owl, a Barn Owl Tyto alba. It was a bit concerned that its perch was a little exposed so moved off to a higher position in another eucalyptus where it stayed and watched me as I took its photo.

  

The Barn Owl is found throughout Australia as well as all other continents except Antarctica which makes it one of the world's most widespread bird.

We often sight them in the cars headlights at night sitting on fence posts or swooping in to catch something flushed out of the grass on the road edge, however this is when they are often hit by cars.  

Yellow on black

A moth attracted to the light last night and interesting one of the GEOMETRIDAE family one of the Nocophorini tribe species Melanodes Anthracitaria.
What is interesting is there are two forms one that is very black with jet black marking and the other which has yellow markings on the wings.

 
  As you can see this is the second form and the yellow markings are blotches where I have seen other photos with the yellow markings being thick lines across both wings.

They are widespread through Australia and the caterpillars feed on gum leaves. 

(Photo unfortunately a bit ordinary)

Foxtrot

An unusual call attracted my attention this morning,  as it was repeated at regular intervals and was moving around the area. It reminded me of dingoes when they are on the hunt but the call was wrong, then I caught a glimpse of an animal moving across the cleared area beyond the house but not enough to identify for certain.

It moved away and I could still hear it calling from the neighbours property and shortly after I saw it moving directly to our house, at a distance that enabled me to grab the camera.

As it got closer I could see it was a fox trotting along but not taking any notice of a wallaby that was nearby (it took off as soon as it saw the fox). My first shot must have alerted the fox as it propped for a second which gave me a better shot before it took off down through the scrub.

Sightings of foxes are infrequent and usually at night as they are caught in car lights on the district roads. I have seen a few on our property over the years but today was the first time I was able to get a photo.

Foxes were introduced to Australia around 1850 to provide hunting and a taste of "home" but by the 1870s they had gone feral and started decimating Australian wildlife. They are now found throughout Australia with the exception of some of the offshore islands and the tropical north. Shooting, trapping, poisoning are part of the control methods but eradication does not seem a likely prospect.
Hansom animals, but in the countries where they belong.

 

New camera zoom

My previous camera, a canon Powershot SX 30is did some very hard work of the past but finally the adverse conditions it has had to cope with on some of my excursions proved too much and the zoom feature packed up.
As cameras are super-ceded at a rapid rate the Sx30is is well in the past but I love the versatility of the compact zoom for the nature photography which I enjoy so decided to stay with Canon and go for the Powershot SX60hs that has even more features and has RAW capability, wireless and many other features that I probably won't use.

Just to see how it would perform from wide angle to full 65X optical zoom I took  some shots of a Red-necked Wallaby that was enjoying the morning sun just below the verandah.

Wide angle (spot the wallaby)

 

Full 65X zoom

All were hand held and at full zoom that is quite a test for the image stabiliser I have taken quite a few photos since and I am very pleased with the camera, just need more subjects..

Need a rename?

Investigating a fluffy white blob in a tree hollow and I found it to be a very hairy caterpillar which on a close look had quite striking colouring .

 Identifying the species did not take too long although there are a couple of similar looking caterpillars. It is the larvae of one of the moths in the ANTHELIDAE family Anthela varia and the poor moth which is quite attractive, has the common name of "Hairy Mary", obviously derived from the caterpillar. Why poor Mary gets lumbered with the description rather than Harry or Gary or any other I don't know.
The species is predominantly found in the coastal areas of Australia and the caterpillars which grow to about 90mm feed on eucalyptus leaves as well as other trees such as Macadamia and Pecan. 
 

Pre blog post

Before I commenced this blog we had a visit from a lizard that I have not seen since, so I thought I should revisit the two occasions when I managed photos of this visitor as a record of the visit.

The first was on the 9th of April 2010 when this lizard, which I was able to identify as a Tree Skink or Striated Skink Egernia striolata, was sunning on a rock next to our house.

It stayed around the area for months but tended to be quite wary and quickly going undercover between logs which is where my next photo was taken on 21st September 2010.

The skink is listed as reasonably common although the range seems to be more to the inland areas of Queensland, NSW and Victoria. The habitats are dry Eucalyptus forests through to rainforest where they are found under bark and logs or hollow stumps and fallen timber. Like other skinks the food sources are insects, frogs and spiders.

 

Velvet covered

Our feral deer population is getting ready for the next round of breeding and the bucks have just about finished growing their new antlers. They have started their destructive rubbing on young trees and saplings but it is certain to get worse in the near future as most antlers are still covered with velvet.
A group have been around our property of late and today five were in the area near the house.

The deer problem seems to be in the too hard basket for any of the government departments to come up with any effective control and their area of spread just gets bigger.

Wingspread

A pair of Wedge-tailed Eagles has been around the area over the past week or so and yesterday I was able to get a photo against an overcast sky, as they cruised across the front paddock.

With a wingspan of around 2m it is Australia's largest bird of prey with a wide range, including Tasmania and southern New Guinea.

Be a fly

Rescued a fly from the surface of the pool, one I have not seen before so worthy of a photo but only had my phone. However did manage a photo (not very good) but as soon as I came back with the camera, the fly had dried out and was not having another photo taken.

Tracked down the ID as a Black White-tipped Brown Bee Fly Comptosia apicalis one of the many species of this family. The white tips (the white near the body is light reflection not white marking) identify this one as a male as the females have brown wings.

They feed on pollen and nectar of flowers where as the larvae are parasites on other insect larvae.

Not much information on their range but sightings a shown down the east coast of Australia.

Making an appearance

Coming to the end of summer and we are seeing some of this year's new arrivals making an appearance. Today we had a young tree snake (likely to be the previous season's) make its way onto the deck then slide down  a post back into the garden. Later in the day looking out the office window I saw a very small tree snake exploring the bamboo palm, going up and down the stems.

This is the smallest (about 300mm length and less than a pencil thick) one I have seen of the Common Tree Snake Dendrelaphis punctulatus  which can grow to 2m but usually around 1 to 1.5m. 

The female lays around 4 or 5 elongated eggs so we may yet see some more young ones.

Catching the last rays

Doing some work on the PC and noticed just outside the office window a Dwarf Tree Frog Litoria fallax getting the last rays of sun as it lay along a stem of a bamboo palm. As the name suggests this is one of the smaller frogs only growing to about 25mm and is one of the tree frog species.

Their range is along the eastern coastal regions from north Queensland through NSW to south of Sydney. They are quite happy being out in the sun which makes them one of the most often seen frogs and we have quite a few on the vegetation around our pond.

 

Jaws

Attracted by the light a large beetle crashed into a window and then landed on the deck giving me a chance for photos.

The beetle is about 60mm in length and looking for the Identity I found that it is one of the Longicorn family CERAMBYCIDAE also called Long Horn Beetles a reference to the long antennas  (not so long on this species but often much longer than the body on others) with some 1200 species in Australia..

This one is Agrianome spinicollis with a common name of Poinciana Longicorn as the grubs are often found in the dead wood of Poinciana trees (as well as figs).

They are quite common in New South Wales and Queensland as well as Lord Howe Island.

This species has quite large mandibles (as you can see in the shadow) and can give a painful nip if handled.

Inside or out

We have one little spider species that is seen almost on a daily basis, mostly when they come out from behind a picture on the wall where they spend quite some time hiding, when not about hunting dinner.

I have found them difficult to photograph as they are constantly on the move when in the open. Today I found one outside and managed to get it to stay still long enough for a couple of photos.

 It is one of the SALTICDAE family known as jumping spiders and in Australia there are some 76 genera and some 252 described species, this one being Astia hariola with a couple of common names Golden Tailed Jumper or Gypsy Jumper.

They are quite tiny at around 10mm and are fierce hunters and run down their prey rather than building a web.

It is cone of the most common jumpers and is found in Queensland and New South Wales.

Unexpected glider

I had a very unexpected find when I opened the spare parts box that was in our sailing clubs trailer cabinet, a tiny critter with big eyes was staring up at me having been disturbed in its nest.

Not a mouse but the world's smallest glider (marsupial or mammal) a Feathertail Glider Acrobates pygmaeus about 65mm to 80mm in body length, the same in tail length and weighing about 10 to15g.

They are found in Eucalyptus forests down the east coast of Australia where they feed on insects, pollen, seeds and nectar in the tree tops. They are social animals and quite large aggregations of up to 40 individuals have been found feeding in profusely flowering trees.

They nest in tree hollows often with many sharing the same nest, but have also been found nesting on post boxes, plastic bags and as in our case a handy cabinet.

Their tail resembles a feather with stiff hairs horizontally on each side of the tail. 

The gliding membrane extends form the elbow to the knee and enables them to glide up to 25m from tree to tree.

,

Not so drab

A flash of yellow as a moth I disturbed in the garden flew past but I noted where it dived to the ground and found it in a small hollow between some rocks.

It was still there when I came back with the camera and was able to get a couple of photos.

It flew off very quickly when I tried to move it for a different perspective so only this for Id purposes.

It took a bit of searching and only the markings on the wings provided the identity as the colouring in resource photos were very different. It is from the NOCTUIDAE family , sub family CALPINAE species Ophiusa tirhoca, Common name, Green Drab.

As you can see this one is quite yellow (wingspan about 5cm) where as the photos were of green through to brown colouring.

The species can be found over many parts of the world from Europe, Africa and Asia as well as most northern areas of Australian States. 

 Quite a varied plant diet for the caterpillars but known to feed on Eucalyptus.

From this to that

Found another caterpillar nibbling away on one of our plants, Grevillea "Honey Gem", but it is one that I know but haven't posted previously. It is the caterpillar of the Pink Bellied Moth Oenochroma vinaria one of the GEOMETROIDEA family.

Posted 31/3/2016

The species is found throughout most of Australia and the caterpillars feed on members of the PROTEACEAE family such as Grevilleas, Hakeas and Banksias