nicole's blog

Remanant grasses

It was a beautiful sunny morning at the Trin Warren Tam-boore Wetland today. The two Black Swans were on the Storage Pond and with them was a White-faced Heron, who is an unusual visitor to the wetland.

Ruby Saltbush

European Greenfinch were feeding on the flowering grasses between the Storage Pond and the roadside and the grasses in the remnant grassland were also flowering. I also noticed a ruby saltbush in the garden between the Storage Pond and the freeway fruiting.

Many ducks were loafing on the exposed mud in the Treatment Pond. I checked the Hobbies nest, which is in one of the tallest gums on the south side of the Treatment Pond, but it seems the Hobbies have left the nest for the year.

Kookaburra on the Escarpment

I heard a soft gurgling cackling noise coming from the escarpment and guessed that Kookaburras were up there. I quickly climbed the stairs and walked up through the skink habitat to the escarpment and discovered three Kookaburras sitting in one of the gnarly old eucalypts. I have seen two in the area before but this is the first time I have ever seen three and it seems that one of the Kookaburras was an immature bird, it had a faint buffy brown colour on its face and was making the soft gurgling half laughing noises which appeared to be begging for food from its parents. It's great to discover that it appears the are Kookaburras breading in the area.

Today, when we managed to get out of bed and open the blinds, there was a nice surprise - instead of just the normal pair of Magpie Larks there were three in the tree - and one of them was a fledgling being fed by the adult Magpie Larks.

I can only guess that when the pair abandoned their nest earlier in the year that they sought out another nesting site and built another nest unbeknown to us. This time they have been successful in rearing a single chick.

The parents (mostly the female adult) continued to feed the chick throughout the day with the chick often sheltering on the balcony with the parent birds.

Mother and chick: Not a great photo as it was taken through the glass but here they are on the balcony.

Three days after the magpie larks started their new nest it rained steadily all day. After this day the magpie larks didn't return again to finish the nest. It's hard to say why they gave up it might have been the rain or perhaps the presence of a small family of magpies that seemed to have moved into the area.
On a good note though, as I walked across to the other side of the park today I watched another pair of magpie larks defending their new fledgling against the presence of a Red Wattlebird. It's nice to know it's not all bad news.

A bright sunny morning this morning and to my surprise the Magpie Larks have commenced building a new nest in exactly the same site as the old one.
Preening Magpie Lark at the nest site

When I awoke this morning I went to the window to check on the nest. It had been a rainy and windy night. Unfortunately the nest was no longer to be seen in the tree. I searched the ground underneath the tree and found the nest but could not find any sign of the chicks that should have been in the nest?
I find it sad that I can still hear the Starling chicks chirping safely in the crevice between the bricks and mortar on the other side of the flat but the magpie lark chicks are no longer.
Hopefully they will have better luck another year.