Pink tongue hidden

A change in the weather around midday brought a thunderstorm and put an end to the work that I was going to do outside, so instead I was working undercover on the verandah. Di came to have a look at my progress and chanced to look over the verandah rail and directly below and spotted what she initially thought was a sloughed snake skin but then realised was a live skink. Checking it out, I thought it was a young Blue-tongued Lizard and went to get the camera for a photo or two. I took a couple from the verandah, directly above the lizard, just to be sure I had a record in case it disappeared before I could get a shot from a better position. It was in a spot where I only had one other vantage point and fortunately it stayed for a couple more photos. By now I was thinking that it was possibly another species as it seemed too long and slender to be a Blue Tongue. Checking my lizard reference I was very pleased to find that we had a Pink-tongued Skink or Lizard Cyclodomorphus gerrardii, a first sighting for us and another reptile to add to the list for our property.

 

Not as common as its Blue-tongue relative, it is more slender with a slightly prehensile tail and grows to about 30cm, which was the size of this one. They are found from The Cape York Peninsular down the east coast to just north of Sydney, in bushland bordering rainforest and wet eucalypt forest. Like the Blue-tongue they are a positive critter to have around your garden, as snails and slugs are part of their diet. It is best not to handle these lizards as they have a very strong bite that can be very painful, as people also often find when they handle Blue-tongues.

A morning in the big backyard

A southerly change last night brought cool wet weather, which was a little unfortunate as we were scheduled to do a morning whale watch cruise to see Humpback Whales migrate back to Antarctica for summer. It is getting towards the end of the migration south and most of the pods consist of females with calves, as the males generally head south earlier in the season. Deciding we would go regardless of the weather, we were soon aboard the Whale watch catermaran Amaroo and heading offshore, however on the way out of Wallis Lake we were able to take in some of the birdlife. Wallis Lake is home to quite a number Osprey and I was pleased to see a few. The first was perched atop of a power pole, which is quite common as they regularly build their nests on the poles.

The power company is active in erecting alternative poles to relocate nests to reduce the chances of the birds being electrocuted. The birds are generally quite happy with this arrangement and readily take to the new nests.
The lake is one of the largest oyster farming areas in Australia so there are lots of posts and fences that form part of the farm structures and they make ideal perches. Other birds took to the air as we went past and gave me a coupe of aerial shots.

Pied Oyster Catcher

Australian Pelican

Cormorant

Pied Cormorant

Pair of Osprey

We were able to watch some dolphins that were moving up the lake with the incoming tide; the pass under the road bridge and up the channel, past birds on a sand bank and along the breakwall to the open sea.

Crested Terns

Crested Tern takes flight

 Once outside we were faced with a bit of a swell that built up with the southerly wind, but we were blocked from the worst of it by the Cape Hawke headland and the nearest pod was reported to be in the vicinity. On the horizon we could see that whales were breaching and in general being quite active, whereas we we not having much luck. Then a calf surfaced almost directly under the boat and things were looking much more promising. However although we managed to see whales surfacing and diving we did not get any real dramatic displays; such is the way with whale watching; maybe next time.

 

A "Tradie" Bee

Our Christmas Bush is now in flower, but the bracts that colour brilliant red will not develop their colouring until later next month to be on show for Christmas. However today the flowers were the main attraction for lots of insects; bees, beetles, flies and wasps that were very busy working over the flowers. Some that I couldn't miss were large metallic bees that were buzzing to and fro from the flower clusters.

  These bees which are at least twice the size of honey bees are probably Metallic Green Carpenter Bees, Xylocopa Areatus (although bombyylans is also a possibility) and are one of 8 native species of the Genus. They are sometimes referred to as Grass Tree bees, as they often bore the hole their nest in the trunks of the plants, but they will also utilise other soft barked trees. They have a sting, but are not aggressive and people being stung is not particularly known. They were not staying still and it was quite overcast so not a particularly good photo.

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.

Insect, reptile and bird

A beautiful day and on a wander through the garden notice a moth with large antennae on the underside of a branch on a grevillea and I took a couple of shots and then  moved the branch to try and get a better angle but no luck it was off. my attempt at identification from the Butterfly House website would seem to place it in the Noctuoidea with two possible species either Epicoma contristis (my best guess) or the similar Epicoma tristis.

 
Later in the morning I heard a slithering as I was walking past a shrub and looked up to see a Common Green Tree Snake that was startled by my presence but was now looking me very closely to see if I was any sort of threat.

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A harmless diurnal species the Common Tree Snake Dendrelaphis punctulatus is found in coastal regions of northern and eastern Australia. Being arboreal and hunting frogs, insects, small birds and mammals it relies substantially on its good binocular eyesight to give it accurate striking distance perception.
A bird nearby where I was working in the garden was in full song with lots of melodious whistling, chattering and being a bit of a mimic of other species. A distant glimpse suggested it was a Spectacled Flycatcher that I had been trying to get a good photo, but it was not going to come close enough. Then a chance would have it whilst we we having coffee on the verandah, I heard the same songs from the tree directly in front, but again couldn't get a good sight of the bird. It then flew to the next tree and sat on a clump of mistletoe long enough for me to get one quick photo.

 

I could see that it was not a Spectacled flycatcher but on checking identification found it to be a Black-faced Flycatcher Monarcha melanopsis that range right down the east coast of Australia and my first sighting of this species on our property so very pleased.