Multiplication
Those of a moderate age will immediately have started thinking of Bobby Darin and indeed that covers the subject matter of this post pretty well. Procreation.
The first element was Frances noticing some small birds flying into a densely vegetated bush carrying lengths of dry grass. This bush was where I have seen Red-browed Finches nesting in past years (and had seen that species hopping around a couple of days ago). I set up the scope'n'phone but no birds flew in. A little later we could see movement but this is all I got as a snap.
As I wrote - densely vegetated! The next day they were still gathering grass for the nest ...
.. but I still couldn't get an image of them carrying it back to the nest!
Shortly thereafter Frances saw a female Superb Fairywren flitting around with grass in her beak. No snap available.
I then trained the 'scope on an Australian Magpie nest about 100m away.
The image isn't great, as the birds seem not to have given photography much weight in choosing their nest site. I am reasonably sure that at one point I saw a young bird stand in the nest flapping its wings so matters are well advanced there.
On the 22nd there was great outburst of song in the Bald Hill paddock. This turned out to be Rufous Whistlers appearing to be doing display. The only problem is that all three birds I could see were colourful males: I guess they'd voted "YES"!
The final bit of breeding arose when Don, a neighbour visited, and said I should grab my camera to photograph some frolicking lizards. By the time we got there only one Blotched Blue-tongued Lizard was visible. It seemed a bit tired.
After Don and I had wandered about for a few minutes looking at some fencing (the catalyst for his visit) even this reptile had shot through. However, I look forward to a population explosion in this part of the biota.
Moving a bit away from the indigenous biota, the farm stock are also well into such matters.
The first element was Frances noticing some small birds flying into a densely vegetated bush carrying lengths of dry grass. This bush was where I have seen Red-browed Finches nesting in past years (and had seen that species hopping around a couple of days ago). I set up the scope'n'phone but no birds flew in. A little later we could see movement but this is all I got as a snap.
Shortly thereafter Frances saw a female Superb Fairywren flitting around with grass in her beak. No snap available.
I then trained the 'scope on an Australian Magpie nest about 100m away.
On the 22nd there was great outburst of song in the Bald Hill paddock. This turned out to be Rufous Whistlers appearing to be doing display. The only problem is that all three birds I could see were colourful males: I guess they'd voted "YES"!
The final bit of breeding arose when Don, a neighbour visited, and said I should grab my camera to photograph some frolicking lizards. By the time we got there only one Blotched Blue-tongued Lizard was visible. It seemed a bit tired.
Moving a bit away from the indigenous biota, the farm stock are also well into such matters.
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