Black Fronted Dotterels Julia Creek North West Queensland

Black Fronted Dotterel Julia Creek

At the end of the rains in Julia Creek a Black Fronted Dotterel busied itself on the footpath and in the gutters beside the school.  It would dart around on the road, stop abruptly, bob its head and then dart off.  This repeated action made photographing this little wader extremely difficult. 

This attractive bird is found all over Australia except for the waterless region on the Northern Territory/South Australian border of Western Australia.  It prefers freshwater and nests close to water.  It is rarely seen in saline water regions. 

Black Fronted Dotterel & Juvenile

 

The bird has a black tipped red bill, a red eye ring in a black mask and a deep black “V” shaped breast band that meets the mask on the bird’s shoulders.  White underparts and chestnut wings and cap and pink legs make the bird easy to recognise.

On my last trip east I saw some Black Fronted Dotterels with their young on the bank of the lake at Richmond.  These birds were darting around in the scanty grass that grows on the edge of the lake. 

The black fronted dotterel is small, only 16 cm from bill tip to wing tip, and is probably often overlooked by the casual observer as it goes about its busy life.

Claire Wood

Just Claire Wood

Email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com

Longlines In The Atmosphere

For more information about the Black Fronted Dotterel go to:

http://www.hbw.com/species/black-fronted-dotterel-elseyornis-melanops

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Elseyornis-melanops

Apostlebirds on the Byways of Queensland

Apostlebird with grasshopper Cloncurry Queensland

When I was a child I loved the name of apostlebirds, but thought they demeaned their name with their busy hectoring ways.   I mentioned this to my mother who suffered occasional severe bouts of anti-religious sentiment, understandable in one who had married into a self-satisfied strict catholic family.  She said, when you grow up, you’ll see just how well named they are.  And she was right.

In many of the public rest areas along the highways of Queensland flocks of apostlebirds have established themselves.  They are entertaining to watch, and seem never content to just sit and be in the moment like many other birds.  With their brown wings, so like capes slung over their slate grey feathers, their stubby beaks curved in disapproval, their bossy behaviour and their loyalty to the rest of their small flock, they could well be a reincarnation of that group of men from ancient Galilee.

I have heard southerners call the Apostlebird “Happy Families”, but that name we always used for the White Winged Chough.  This bird looks nothing like an apostlebird, but shares many of its endearing ways e.g. loyalty to flock, sharing food, nest building, etc.    

Apostlebird on Nest Cania Gorge Queensland

The Apostlebird (Struthidea cinerea) is 33 centimetres (13 inches) from bill tip to tail tip and is an eastern Australian bird.  It is found in most of Queensland (except the tip of Cape York and the far west) and New South Wales.  In Victoria it is listed as a threatened species.  Apostlebirds also inhabit a small area of the Northern Territory.

So when next you are bleary eyed from following the white line, pull into a rest area with shade trees, a bit of open space and water nearby and you will be sure to be entertained by these busy sociable creatures.  If it is the right time of the year you will witness their cooperative nest building - a worthy sight.

Claire Wood

Just Claire Wood

Email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com

Longlines In The Atmosphere

A few websites that mention Apostle Birds:

 http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Struthidea-cinerea

http://www.graemechapman.com.au/library/viewphotos.php?c=1

http://ibc.lynxeds.com/species/apostlebird-struthidea-cinerea

Intermediate Egret: Julia Creek, North West Queensland

Intermediate Egret Julia Creek Qld

A few weeks ago when category 5 Cyclone Marcia was bearing down on the Central Queensland coast, and all was still and dry in the west, I went to investigate a guttural croak from the other side of the bulrushes in the creek at the RV rest area at Julia Creek and disturbed an Intermediate Egret (Egreta intermedia).  

He flew up into a dead tree and I was able to see that he was in partial breeding plumage.  He seemed to be alone and I wondered whether there was, somewhere out of sight, a colony of these birds, or even a nest.  It seems unlikely, but on my return to the area I will do a little more investigating.  

Intermediate Egret Julia Creek Qld

 The long fine courtship plumes and the apple green facial skin during the breeding season enhance the graceful appearance of this normally quiet and placid bird.  The Intermediate egret is common in the east and north of Australia. 

Although all the reference maps show the bird is present in this area  I have only seen the occasional Intermediate Egret, usually standing on the edge of a bore drain, during my travels along the Flinders Highway.  Perhaps he had fled the extreme weather in the upper atmosphere further to the east  and ended up in Julia Creek, perhaps not.  Whatever the reason the bird was there, I hope that the permanent water at the RV rest area will encourage others to come and continue to entrance me.

Claire Wood

Email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com

longlines, In The Atmosphere

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/forum/Egrets-cattle-and-intermediate

Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher Mackay Queensland Australia

By Jim Bendon (Flickr: buff breasted paradise kingfisher) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I am back in Mackay for a week or so to while attempting to dispose of part of the detritus of a lifetime On Sunday I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to watch a buff breasted paradise kingfisher (Tanysiptera sylvia) feeding its young.  

The bird had burrowed a nest into a low termite mound on the side of a hill in rainforest above a creek.  They are fussy about where they place their nests, only choosing mounds where the termites are active and the mound is between 350 and 500 cm high, no higher, no lower.  

When it flew back to the nest with food for the nestlings, the calls of the birds inside the nest were like sounds in a kettle – their cries seemed to be amplified by the shape of the nest.  However, maybe they were muffled, and would have been deafening in the open – I would not know.

As my camera’s shutter sounds like a door being slammed whenever I use it I took no photos, just sat and enjoyed the 20 minutes or so I watched the bird as it brought food (which looked like crickets or small grasshoppers) to its young.  So I thank Wiki Commons for the use of the photo which accompanies this blog.

To call this bird buff breasted, or white tailed, gives no idea of the splendour of its colouring.  Its beak and feet are scarlet, its chest is golden-orange, it crown and back rich deep blue with black highlights, and the colour of the long white tail plumes is echoed on its rump.  Black eye stripes divide and emphasize the contrasting chest and crown colouring.

The bird spends the winters in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and migrates south each year from late October onwards to the rainforests of Northern Queensland.  Like many other birds the Paradise- Kingfisher forms “long term pair-bonds” and they usually return to the same area each year.  They return to PNG in late March/early April.

I am very grateful to those who made it possible for me to fulfil what has been a three year long wish and allowed me to sit alone in the tranquillity of a hide in the rainforest and be totally captivated by the antics of the bird. 

Claire Wood

Just Claire Wood 

Email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com

longlines, In The Atmosphere

Good links to information about the bird:

http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/ZO00090.htm
http://www-public.jcu.edu.au/discovernature/animals/birds/JCUDEV_005202

 Below is a link to a good You Tube video but the bird seems to have lost its long tailfeathers - maybe it was at the end of the nesting season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJUyza2kFx0

Below is a link to a page with several pictures of the bird.
http://www.bushpea.com/bd/pg/all/b/buff-breasted%20paradise-kingfisher%2001.html