Diary of a Magpie Lark nest

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.

Today we returned from holidays. It was a wet and windy day and it had been raining on and off for most of the day. When I got home I was pleased to see the Magpie Larks still sitting on the nest sheltering the nest with their wings. There was still no sign of the nestlings but I assumed they were there sheltering under their parents wings.

It was raining today. When I came home from work I went to see how the Magpie Larks where coping with the rain. I was interested to see that the female was sitting on the nest with her wings spread open a little to create an umbrella to cover the nest. When the male took over he did likewise.

I think the chicks have hatched today.

I noticed that when one of the adults would fly to the nest to take over nesting duty that the bird bought a small parcel of food in its beak. When arriving at the nest for change over the sitting bird would take off and the bird arriving either delivered a small parcel of food into the nest or pecked around in the nest as if to clean or arrange the nesting material. This bird would sit on the nest for a short while until its partner arrived to take over, repeating the process.

At this stage the chicks are too small to see or hear in the nest.

The hobbies have not returned to the nest since they were last there, although I have seen them hunting a couple of times from the kitchen window.
So for now the magpie larks are safe. They are still sitting on the nest. I am hoping the eggs hatch this week as I will be away next week and will not be around to see the chicks for at least a week.

The magpie larks have been sitting on the nest continuously since Monday. When I have been able to watch them during the day they make regular change overs with both birds seeming to share the incubation duties equally. When change over occurs the nesting bird will signal time for a change over by raising its wings and calling, shortly afterwards its mate will fly up to the nest and some times give the nesting bird a little shove with its beak as if to say 'move off'. Once the nest has been vacated the other bird does a little rearranging of the eggs, fluffs up its feathers and then nestles into the nest.
Australian Hobby
Around 12.30pm today I heard some excited bird chitterings outside the window, I quickly looked out to see the two Australian Hobbies, that had visited eleven days ago, in the tree. The hobbies continued to visit the tree throughout the day showing interest in the old raven nest with both of them taking turns to sit in the nest for a few minutes at a time. They also spent time sitting in the tree, metres above the magpie lark nest, just resting and preening.

When the hobbies first turned up the male magpie lark was just sitting tight in his nest and I wondered at which point he would give up the nest to flee for his own safety, however he continued to sit on the nest despite looking a little anxious and keeping a close eye on the hobbies.

After a while I heard both magpie larks calling and looked out to see the nest empty and unprotected. I briefly wondered why until I saw the larks dive bombing a hobby attempting to annoy it into flying from the tree. The hobby put up with this behavior for a few minutes until its mate swooped down from the sky towards the attacking Magpie Larks. A short chase took place fortunately the Magpie Larks escaped and after 30 minutes or so of the Magpie Larks harassing the hobbies things settled down and the the larks went back to looking after the nest.

A little later a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets (which I suspect have a nesting hollow in one of the trees in the row of eucalypts in the park) discovered the bird eating neighbors and proceeded to squawk at one of the hobbies sitting lower in the tree. This in turn upset the Magpie Larks who who again flew up to harass one of the hobbies. After about 5 minutes of this the hobbies seemed to have had enough and decided to pursue the Magpie larks again. With such seemingly reckless behavior by the Magpie larks I was beginning to wonder how long the Magpie Larks would be around for. I'm also worried about the length of time the Magpie Larks are leaving the nest unattended to harass the hobbies.

The hobbies left the tree at around 6pm and didn't return for the remainder of the day. I'm assuming they have gone to their roost tree for the night.

NestingI came home from work today to see the a magpie lark sitting on the nest and wondered if eggs have been laid. There was a still a bird on the nest in the evening so it seems that incubation has now begun.

In the short time I was able to watch today I saw the female carrying lining material up to the nest. Both the male and the female sat on the nest for short periods but the nest building seems to be complete.
Nest Day 19

I was away for the weekend but when I arrived home yesterday I could see the Magpie Lark nest has finally developed into a beautiful cup shape typical of Magpie Lark nests.
There wasn't much time to observe today, but as I watched the male Magpie Lark was pushing his breast into the nest and shaking his feathers around a bit, trying the nest out for size. After this both the female and the male flew to the mating branch (named this because it's the branch that the Rosellas most often choose to mate on) and the female crouched down as if to say 'I'm ready'. The male attempted to hop onto her back but she'd changed her mind at the last minute and flew off.
I then needed to go out so will have to wait until tomorrow to see more.
The Rosellas were also around today with the male feeding the female again. I'm looking forward to Rosella chicks, hopefully they'll be successful.