Banks' legacy

When Joseph Banks collected specimens of flora at Botany Bay in 1770 on James Cook's voyage of discovery one genus of plants would forever recognise his significance by bearing his name; Banksias.
Together with Solander he collected four of the some 76 species that occur naturally in Australia and of those only one is found elsewhere. The vast majority of the species are found in Western Australia and those are generally rather difficult to grow in the east due to the climatic and soil variations. They are favourite plants for their fantastic flower spikes that birds love, the seed cones that all Australian kids know as Banksia men from the May Gibbs' childrens' stories and their sculptural forms. Some of our examples are coming into flower at present so I snapped a few today.

Banksia ericifolia  Flowers unopened

Banksia spinulosa var. collina

Banksia spinulosa Banksia Golden candles cultivar

Banksia integrifolia  Coast Banksia

Banksia plagiocarpa with Lewin honeyeater

Banksia aemula  Seed cone unopened follicles

Web of gold

The golden silk of this Orb weaver gives it the common name, Golden Orb Weaver Nephila plumipes which is one of  three GOW  (Nephila maculata found in the tropical regions, is the largest and can be up to 45mm long) in Australia and is found throughout tropical and temperate regions. The female is the web builder and is a giant compared to the tiny male who spends most of his time on the outer edges of the web picking up the smaller insects snared and being ready to mate when he gets a chance without being eaten. The web once built is added to and constantly maintained. The web is often home to a number of smaller spider species such as the Quicksilver spiders and they probably benefit from the discarded husks of the orb weaver's prey that are kept hanging in the web.

Night visitor

 
Had a visit last night from a White Stem Wattle Moth Chelepteryx chalepteryx (f) which attracted by the light landed on a window screen and stayed there so I could lay the screen down to get a few photos. It is one of the larger moths with a wingspan of about 10cm with very attractive markings and the hind wings which were unfortunately fairly well hidden have rusty red colour markings. It is found over Eastern Australia where its caterpillars feed on mainly on wattle species.

New winter outfit

The blady grass and lomandra clumps that are the main vegetation of our front paddock are ideal habitat for one of the most unusual birds on the property, the Pheasant Coucal Centropus phasianinus.  Coucals are part of the cuckoo family but unlike their relatives they make their own nest and raise their young. The Pheasant Coucal is Australia's only Coucal and is found in coastal regions through northern Australia and down the east coast to about 200k south of Sydney. They are ungainly birds in the air taking short flapping and gliding flights and generally prefer to run through the long rank grass. They are seen often perched on a low vantage point above the grass taking the sun and quickly drop into the grass if disturbed. Through the summer breeding season they have black body plumage but as we have the first taste of winter weather it has been replaced by their winter finery. There were two enjoying the sun this morning as I was driving up the track and I managed to get a couple of photos to show off their winter fashion.

A day for the birds

Cool, showers and a fresh breeze not a great day for outside activities, but it seems to have been weather for the birds.The breeze was enjoyed by the raptores, with a visit from the wedge-tail eagle family spiraling around the hillside for a while, a pair of white-breasted  sea eagles sailed past as did a whistling kite, whilst a sparrow hawk swooped through the tree tops trying to flush out one of the small birds. Of these I only managed to snap a quick silloette of one of the wedge-tails overhead.

However the first of the birds to have me grab the camera today was a cuckoo whose unmistakable call kept being repeated from a tree nearby. This continual repeating of their call has a benefit of allowing you to find where they are with relative ease and then it is just a bit of luck if you can get close enough for a shot. When I got a look at the cuckoo I could see it was the Fan-tailed Cuckoo which I had expected from its call and the fact that I had seen one around lately, but had not been able to get a photo. Today I was lucky it flew from the tree where I tracked it to another where I had a much better position for the photo and was very pleased to get a few shots. At the same time out of the corner of my eye caught a glimpse of a Golden Whistler.
   

 Tried to keep an eye on it while photographing the cuckoo and hoping to get a shot of it next. However it moved off into trees further away and I lost sight of it. But as luck would have it, later on it I found it in a tree where I did get a shot albeit not ideal. It is of the male bird as the female is a rather plain olive-brown.