And Still They Come

On Saturday last, a quick trip north-west of town to Volcano Rd, Swanwater returned a swag of Crimson Chats, a handful of White- fronted Chats, numbers of Pipits, Songlarks, a nesting Brown Falcon and White-winged Trillers.

As I turned onto Volcano Rd from the Sunraysia Highway I had a momentary glimpse of what was possibly a White-breasted Woodswallow. The birds below were about 300ft (or 100m for the purists) away and over a slight rise so the photo isn't great.

Crimson Chats and Trillers.

Also in the photo is a Black-faced Woodswallow, unidentified until I looked at the next photo and sent it off to the expert for confirmation.

I can't get a positive identification on the top left bird on the fence. Any clues? Black-faced Woodswallow checking out something interesting in the stump.

The broad white band on the tail, the small black mask just taking in the eye and down under the chin, the pale grey head and front and darker grey back are descriptive.

I haven't seen this last species here before and it is not on the Club's Bird List. Another new bird for the St Arnaud district.

It's not over yet!

The hot dry spell we have just had has put paid to many of the our wildflowers, espcually the more showy plants. Heading east out of town on Monday to start the Mid-Spring Bird Surveys, the much improved L. Bray's Rd took me through the Hard Hills to the eponymous Nature Conservation Reserve(NCR) where the Club has two fenced enclosures. The oldest one, established in 1984 to protect the vulnerable Inland Pomaderris (Pomaderris paniculosa ssp. paniculosa) and Daddy Longlegs Orchid(Caladenia filamentosa) demonstrates the importance of controling grazing and browing animals. Outside the enclosure, there is little but mature Blue Mallee (Eucalyptus polybractea) whilst inside the fence, the entire shrub and ground layer of plants is present and flourishing. A few years ago, a count by Club members returned more than 400 plants of C. filamentosa! The newer enclosure was established to protect the newly named Hard Hills Spider orchid (Caladenia ampla) as well as Bristly Greenhood and Inland Pomaderris. However, most of these plants have finished flowering for the year but there is still much to interest keen photographers and naturalists. After climbing through the fence,a scramble through the regenerating Blue Mallee showed big beautiful plants of Scarlet Mintbush- Prostanthera aspalathoides, in every shade of red and orange. These plants despite their turpentiny smell seem attractive to browsing animals and are often browsed low to the ground.

withered rosettes of Bristly Greenhood with spikes soon to flower:

tall stems of Milkmaids(Burchardia umbellata),

drooping bee-infested heads of the mauve Totem Poles(Melaleuca decussata)

still flowering,the coconut-ice flowers of Grevillea alpina- Cat's Claw Grevillea... and meat an

the last flowers of the heath- myrtle,Micromyrtus ciliatus, turning red now:

seed capsules forming on the Hopbushes (Dodonea sp) with attendant beetles

And as a treat the delicate flowers of a Wallaby Grass (Rhytidosperma sp)

So get your boots on, and get out in the bush- the sights are no less impressive than the big Spring wildflower display, just rather more subtle.

New Arrivals

Over the last 4 decades I have never seen more than one White-winged Triller at a time and probably only one sighting a decade. Since early September, the Carapooee West area has been over-run with White-winged Trillers.

Below- male White-winged Trller

Using fencelines as lookout posts they have spent weeks pouncing on unwary grubs in the short grasses- so many grubs, probably army worms, that the birds would have to have a spell on the fence for half an hour at a time before looking for more. I counted 35 + birds one day and although numbers have fallen in the last couple of weeks, the remaining birds have taken up residence in the acacias in the top paddock (revegetation).Perhaps they will be so impressed with the conservation works and direct seeding that they will choose to nest. At the same time as the big influx occurred, there also appeared a pair of Crimson Chats, a first for our area and rejected by BIrdlife Australia's Atlas until I plugged the photos in. These brilliant little birds have been seen as far afield as Rupanyup and Newstead so the Central Desert species are coming to St Arnaud Below- making use of a new fence, male WW Triller, Crimson Chat and female WW Triller

Below- male Crimson Chat and female White-winged Triller in foreground

Last week, pandemonium in the chookyard was the result of a loafing Square-tailed Kite- not that he or she wanted a take-away poultry dinner but I didn't take any chances. Sorry about the bad photo but you don't get a second chance with this bird.

The same afternoon I was visited by a ferocious female Brown Goshawk who was not leaving until she had caught dinner( I put all the chooks away very smartly). I bet it was a honeyeater she got- wouldn't look at the sparrows, would she!( No geese!) This bird still has some of the juvenile's vertical chevron banding on her chest and on her collar as it gives way to the beautiful close horizontal bands

Today, Friday 25th Oct- a Cockatiel has turned up here- the first for many years so the drought is really biting further north and we can expect more unusual sightings in the weeks and months to come.

No photos of this one as yet.