Our resident pair of Grey Goshawks (Accipiter nocaehollandiae) decided to build a new nest in late July. The chosen site is a tall Rose Gum close to our house.
By late September they were incubating, and at the end of October, they were feeding a single hatchling.
Today it even had a go at a tree-kangaroo:
After an unsuccessful attempt, it often lands on a nearby perch (in this case right on top of the birdfeeder!),
and waiting for another opportunity.
Cassowary chicks often hatch in September (rainforest fruits usually are most bountiful in spring and summer). As there is not much food for them in the wet sclerophyll forest at that time, we normally get to see the family in June/July, when the chicks are much bigger, have lost their stripes and are almost ready for life on their own.
Yesterday, though, 5 year old “Goldfinger” came by very late in the day with two small striped chicks. They are probably about 2 months old and his first offspring. He mated with “Wattle”, the alpha female in the area, in June 2019 (once even just outside our kitchen window!), but didn’t have any chicks that year.
Notice his wet feet: they had a drink from the creek not far down the track.
Tree-kangaroo joeys normally leave the pouch around September, and this season our female Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroo has 2 joeys on foot: last year’s daughter and the new baby.
No sign, yet, of the wet season here. These Green-eyed Tree-frogs are patiently waiting for rain.
I am surprised that the female is tolerating the male. They’ve been hanging out like this on top of the cabin’s window sill for the last few days!
Our creek has almost dried up, so the bird baths are in high demand.
Here are a few of the visitors:
Scaly-breasted Lorikeets.
Many are here now that the Red Mahoganies (Eucalyptus resinifera) are flowering.
Rainbow and Little Lorikeets are part of that flock, too, and in the evenings Little Red Flying Foxes take over the canopy..
Treecreepers always walk into the water backwards!
High above the bird bath, a young male Victoria’s Riflebird is trying to attract attention:
Adult male:
:
If you thought a male Victoria’s Riflebird is a black bird with a few patches of metallic blue, have a closer look at the ‘black’ parts:
Just about all the smaller birds are breeding now, with many hungry mouths waiting to be fed:
A young Tooth-billed Bowerbird came to the birdfeeder:
What a wonderful forest, where you can see Tooth-billed Bowerbirds (a rainforest species) together with Little Lorikeets (a species of open woodlands)!
The riflebirds’ main breeding season is nearing its end, but it is peak time for the immature males to hone their dancing skills.
They display not only from the main perch near the cabin,
but on just about any suitable branch or post. This one is on a stump less than 2 metres from our computer, just outside the window:
that one on the other side of the house:
They are quite enthusiastic and energetic:
Sometimes more than 2 males display to each other:
The young males are quite impressive, but nothing beats the elegance of a mature male:
It is this time of the year again, when fruit in the rainforest becomes scarcer, but the wet sclerophyll forest produces many smaller berries, like Cissus grapes and Lilly Pillies, Mackinlaya and Acrotriche drupes.
Cassowaries frequent our forest almost daily in search of food and mates. May is usually the beginning of the mating season, and “Wattle”, the big female, has been hanging around lately, sometimes right outside our bedroom window, a disinterested bystander…
A few days ago, “Goldfinger”, the young male, with whom she mated last June, turned up at the same time, and ventured within 2 metres of her before becoming scared and running away.
Dad presented his 2 new chicks a couple of weeks ago. They are about 7 months old (he mated with Wattle in July) and are looking healthy and well-fed.
It is still difficult to tell them apart:
Their droppings look like a delicious dessert or off-colour pizza (to some). Brush-turkeys and pademelons like to pick through them.
Our male Victoria’s Riflebirds have been displaying daily (it is not really their breeding season, yet!). Another strange, and out of season observation: a female Scarlet Honeyeater collected nesting material.
