Round the Traps 2024

Some sightings here at Carapooee West over December 2023 and the start of the New Year

Old palm trees have their use- female Mistletoebird collecting the fluff from stem for her nest- several visits but I only managed one photo.

The male was escorting her and dangling off the end of the fronds, scolding me for being too close.

Clear winged fly of some sort on cactus flower Dec 2023- any entomologists about?

And on our main dam- we have always had Australasian (Little) Grebes on the dams but the only place they seem to breed is up on the wetland. However, this year, because the dam has been full to overflowing for months- here we are, just the one baby though, making heavy weather of the wake from its parents.

The Mallee has come to Carapooee West

This morning 7.25am at the bird feeder (for the magpies and white-winged choughs- and the crested pigeons and the magpie-larks!), a sole Pied Butcherbird, denizen of the Mallee.

I believe he or she has been around for a couple of days , observing.

It's not only humans who observe other species and their behaviour.

Having worked out the routine, the bird followed me to the next feeder, then the next but was a little overwhelmed by the numbers of other birds including belligerent and raucous cockies.

After 3 days of gale-force southerly winds, this bird is unlikly to have hitched a ride that way.

The last sighting of a Pied Butcherbird, 7 or 8 years ago, in the area was after several days of strong northerlies.

Will this bird stay? Will it be joined by others fleeing the no-food situation further north?

What will our resident Grey Butcherbirds think about this?

Busy Bee

My two bee hotels have been full of activity this summer season with 2 hatchings of Hylaeine bees already. This short video shows a female Hylaeus(Euprosopis) honestus bee finishing off the protective cover to a bamboo tube full of eggs. She seems to be licking the whole edge of the membrane to make sure it is sealed and tight- much as we used to put brown paper covered with vinegar over jam jars to seal them, before the advent of cellophane circles. Further up the hotel, we can see an emerging new Hylaeus bee.

So successful have these bees been this year that I have had to install a third hotel for them. Hylaeus honestus looks more like a wasp with its shiny body and an absence of pollen-carrying hairs. The pollen it collects is carried internally! These little hotels do not seem to attract any other bee species at the moment but then, there have been very few other native bee species around this summer. In fact, all insect activity is well down since mid-2018, few native bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, stick insects, ant lions, and cicadas have been recorded in my usual haunts. What are all the insectivorous birds eating then?