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.

Hungry mouths

A pair of Lewin Honeyeaters found a suitable branch for a nest on a shrub that is growing under our verandah and as it is out of the sun and rain(if we had any) so seems ideal. I notice a couple of days ago that there were young chicks in the nest and today I manage to get photos (most have too much movement and are blurred or branches in the way) at feeding time. 

 This photo was taken just as the adult arrived at the nest and the three chicks were very  vocal demanding to be fed.

I will keep an eye on their progress and hopefully they will make it to being able to take flight rather than dinner for a Lace Monitor or a Diamond Python (they are welcome to feed on the rats that are around the chook yard).

Gigantic Lily's first diner

About twenty years ago we planted what we thought was a Gymea Lily, Doryanthes excelsa but as it grew larger we thought that maybe it was the cousin Doryanthes palmeri Gigantic Lily. The range of this plant is north-east NSW and south-east Queensland where as the Gymea Lily is south-east NSW

 We have been waiting for a flower spike to to appear and this year our first flowering has occurred with a spike about 4m long and the individual flowers are just starting to open. The first to try the  nectar of the flowers was a Lewin Honeyeater.

We also have Gymea lilies in the garden and after only about five years we have a flower spike developing and expect it to be in full bloom in the next month or so.

After Lewin

After seeing a wonderful exhibition of the works of J W Lewin in the National Library and then reading a book on his fascinating life, I was struck by how lucky we are to have had his works to give an insight into the nature of the early years in the colony of New South Wales.

Emigrating from London arriving in Sydney in 1800 he was the first professional naturalist, collector and artist  in the 12 year old colony.

He painted flora, insects, shells, birds, animals, aboriginals and landscapes of Sydney and the countryside visited with explorers.

He was the first print maker with commissions from many wealthy patrons in Sydney and back in England, where the fascinating nature of the colony was much in demand.

In 1813 he became the first person to print an illustrated book in Australia and that book " Birds of New South Wales" - if you have a copy will bring in the vicinity of $500,000. 

Unfortunately he became seriously ill and died at the age of 49 after only 19 years in Australia.

 I thought I should again feature one of the two Australian birds that are named in his honour.

On the nest

The pair of Lewin Honeyeaters have finished their nest and are now regularly visiting to spend some time sitting, but they are also absent for a lot of the time, so I don't know whether they have eggs in the nest as yet. We will keep monitoring their progress, whilst taking care not to disturb them, which is a bit difficult as they are right outside our front door . 

Lewins' nest building

21/10/2011

 Recently a pair of  resident Lewin Honeyeaters Meliphaga lewinii, started working on a nest in the clump of bamboo palm that we have in the garden at our front entrance. We have a window directly opposite, so we are looking forward to seeing the development of the nest and hoping we are going to be lucky enough to see a family reared.

24/10/2011

The nest was commenced using spiderweb to attach to the stem and since they have been adding grasses and downy seed materia,l interwoven with more spiderweb.

Amongst the foliage

Lewin Honeyeaters are one of our larger resident honeyeater species and the photo is typical of how they like to be; amongst the foliage. They are quite territorial and chase the Yellow Face honeyeaters and Eastern Spinebills out of the bush or tree where they decide there is only room for one.