I have located the nest of a Little Wattlebird (LW) with attendant sitting female, although am not sure which. It's on the other side of the shed from the Cape Honeysuckle featured in last post and in a dense tangle of grevilleas planted there to hide the shed. The nest is surprisingly small and well out of the easy reach of larger birds, who would struggle to navigate all of those fine branches. I decided not to hang around or poke the camera lens in so she could get back to her egg-sitting. Speaking of large birds - there's a Malleefowl on the block - about 50 metres from the house in semi-open uncleared scrub. If there's a pair it should be fascinating to watch the mound-keeping duties of the father. I was rather shocked to discover that Mallefowl populations are in critical decline in many areas of Australia (likely to become extinct in Western Australia, for example) and they are listed as vulnerable here. I found the National Malleefowl Recovery Team website so I'll see if there's anything I can usefully do. Happily populations of both the Grey Shrike-thrush and White-browed Scrubwren are secure.
To end on a high note - quite impressive clouds ahead of the rain front that started to deliver yesterday.
1 Comment
Angel Beigesang
3/7/2019 08:37:26 pm
Superbly dynamic cloud study.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
December 2020
|