Some autumnal invertebrate finds

As the heat of summer fades and flowering finishes, the number of insects and other invertebrates to be found on the shrubs and grasses declines. There are, however, still quite a few things to find around the place.

I was quite puzzled to find a curious-looking winged insect on the side of our house at Strangways. Unlike most insects, its wings stood quite high above its body even at rest and it had 2 long antenna-like tails. I’d not seen one of these before – uploading my shot to iNaturalist revealed it to be a Mayfly. The AI identifier on iNaturalist seems to get better all the time and observations get uploaded to the Atlas of Living Australia to help map our flora and fauna.

A Mayfly on the side of our house. When I tried to encourage it onto a more photogenic perch it flew off.

According to Wikipedia, Mayflies’ wings and long tails are features of the earliest flying insects. Their juvenile stages live in clear, well-oxygenated water, which may explain why we never see them at our place which is on a ridge with a not very clear dam.

There seem to be very few beetles (except in the leaf litter) at present. I found one tiny specimen on a dried and shrunken Golden Wattle flower bud. Given that the bud was about 3mm long, it’s not hard to see how small this little cutie is.

A very small beetle.

While the middle and ground storeys of the woodland are a bit light on for invertebrates at present, there’s plenty to be found under rocks, fallen timber and throughout the leaf litter. Under a rock on our back yard I was pleased to meet some very beautiful Golden-tailed Bull Ants (Myrmecia piliventris)

Golden-tailed Bull Ant

These magnificent ladies are toothless Bull Ants. To me at first glance that seems a little odd given those mighty mandibles, but if you look closely you can see that the inner edge of their pincers are smooth – devoid of the teeth that other species have (compare to the Black-headed Bull Ant below, photographed a while back)

For comparison, the Black-headed Bull Ant has serrations or teeth on the insides of her mandibles.

This Golden-tailed Bull Ant shows the reason for her apt name.

Another angle on this impressive animal. The large eyes of Bull Ants give them very good vision.

Grass flower stems are often a good place to find insects and spiders. On one, I found Green Lacewing. This one very generously let me get some really up-close shots without flying off.

Green Lacewing on an old Wallaby Grass flower stem

Up close!

There are always plenty of spiders to find, most are very small or miniscule. At the other end of the size spectrum are the Huntsman spiders. I got a few shots of a Beautiful Badge Huntsman on a Golden Wattle. The view of the mouth parts from below can be quite spectacular.

Beautiful Badge Huntsman (Neosparrasus calligaster)

The front view is also pretty imposing, but it wasn’t until I saw the photos on my computer that I could see the red mites this one was infested with, one on a leg and the other very close to those menacing looking mouth parts.

Beautiful Badge Huntsman with mites.

I quite often find much smaller Huntsman spiders on our wattles. I’m never sure if they are just young ones or if they are different species. I’d quite appreciate any illumination here from someone who knows their arachnids!

A much smaller Huntsman on a small Golden Wattle leaf

Another view.

So many times, invertebrates leave interesting traces when they themselves can’t be found. I often notice intriguing marks in Golden Wattle leaves, but have no idea who is making them. Again, any information on this one would be greatly appreciated!

Some striking art work, but who is the artist?

Stubble burns and raptors … some observations

Stubble burning is a vexed subject, even in the farming community.

While numerous studies indicate that the economic benefits of stubble burning are short-lived and outweighed by longer-term financial and ecological costs, it continues across large areas of cropping country, albeit at lower levels than much of last century. While retention of stubble has increased in recent decades it is by no means the norm and autumn burning has seemingly become more popular during the recent run of wetter than average seasons.

It is not my intention here to delve further into what is a complex story …

Stubble fires are a magnet for raptors – the first whisps of smoke will attract a a variety of species, often in large numbers.

My observations on the Moolort Plains over many years suggest that four species are especially associated with stubble burns – Black Kite, Whistling Kite, Brown Falcon and the Black Falcon, the latter a threatened species in Victoria. While the kites and Brown Falcon profit from the many large insects (grasshoppers, crickets etc.) that are dislocated by the burn, Black Falcons are mainly focused on small to medium sized grassland birds such as pipits, quail and larks.

The burn shown in this sequence of images was dominated by Black Kites with smaller numbers of the other three raptors mentioned above. There were two Black Falcons, possibly three – not an insignificant number for such a rare (and beautiful) raptor.

The behaviour of the birds before, during and after a stubble burn are certainly interesting. Black Kites will happily fly close to and through the fire front, landing briefly to take insects on smoldering ground. The Whistling Kites tend to float above the fire, descending when conditions are calmer. Black Falcons likewise can be seen soaring, often dropping to a lower level when actively hunting. On a number of occasions during this burn I observed Black Falcons making fast, low level passes in pursuit of prey, one cameo involved two individuals with a second apparently chasing the other which had successfully snared a luckless bird.

Moolort Plains stubble burn with Black Kites, Picnic Point, 12th April 2024

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Brown Falcon over stubble burn

Black Kite

Black Falcon

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Black Kite with grasshopper prey

Brown Falcon on still burning stubble

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Black Falcon

Listening in on the Dawn Chorus – Andrew Skeoch’s presentation in Newstead, Tuesday 23rd April

Splendid Fairy-wren calling in early morning light, Hattah-Kulkyne NP

Each morning, primarily in the breeding season, there is a festival of birdsong in the half light before dawn. 

Why? And why specifically at dawn? What can we hear among song choice and repertoires? Why has this global phenomenon of avian life evolved, and what is its purpose? 

We are so excited that Strangways’ local sound recordist and author Andrew Skeoch will be presenting to our group again. Andrew’s talks unfold fascinating insights into how our ecosystems work and how we can relate to them. Drawing on his recordings and experience of dawn choruses from around the world, Andrew compares and contrasts how birds sing at daybreak, finding intriguing patterns of vocalising behaviour among even our most familiar songbirds. His conclusions integrate this phenomenon within wider understandings of the natural world, including ourselves. 

Over the last thirty years, he has documenting the sounds of environments around the planet, and through his label ‘Listening Earth’, published over one hundred recordings allowing listeners to immerse themselves in wild soundscapes from around the world. His recordings have been heard in documentaries, installations and feature films such as Peter Gabriel’s soundtrack to ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’. 

He has given presentations to audiences ranging from local community and school groups to university students, plus radio features, keynote addresses and a TEDx talk. He is the president of the Australian Wildlife Sound Recoding Group, and on the board of the Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology. 

The presentation will be on Tuesday April 23^rd at 7.30 pm at Newstead Community Centre. All are welcome to attend and gold coin donations would be appreciated. Andrew will have copies of his wonderful book “Deep Listening to Nature” available for sale.

Andrew Skeoch in the field.

Orioles and robins

The first calls heard were those from a small group of Olive-backed Orioles, a regular at this time of year at the Loddon River Reserve. Masters of mimicry, I thought at first it was a White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike. With only a handful of figs on offer this autumn I expect the orioles will head north soon.

Olive-backed Oriole, Loddon River Reserve, 14th April 2024

Suddenly I was surrounded by a small group of Eastern Yellow Robins, at least four different individuals. This species is a ‘perch and pounce’ insectivore, often using vertical perches such as tree trunks while scanning the forest floor in search of a meal. Over the next few minutes I followed one of the robins as it moved between a selection of perches. I was only quick enough to capture one pounce!

Eastern Yellow Robin

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Honeyeaters +

A nice selection of honeyeaters along with some familiar favourites.

This small pool in the Rise and Shine Bushland Reserve rarely fails to delight after rain.

Also observed – Black-chinned Honeyeater, Brown-headed Honeyeater, White-plumed Honeyeater, Red Wattlebird, Willie Wagtail, Restless Flycatcher, Crimson Rosella, Musk Lorikeet, White-browed Babbler.

Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Rise and Shine Bushland Reserve., 10th April 2024

Fuscous Honeyeater

White-naped Honeyeater

Eastern Rosella

Painted Button-quail

Golden Whistler

Three red robins

Our male ‘red robins’ are iconic and distinctive, but the female and immature birds can present some challenges, especially in certain profiles.

Yesterday afternoon I came across all three local species – Flame Robin, Scarlet Robin and Red-capped Robin, foraging within metres of each other in a recently burnt area of the Muckleford Nature Conservation Reserve.

A brilliant male Flame Robin and several male Scarlet Robins eluded the camera and then a male Red-capped Robin perched dutifully in front of me. This species is more confiding in my experience. Females and/or immatures of all three species were then observed in the same general area. Hopefully the images and notes below are useful in helping readers separate what can be, in some cases, confounding ‘little brown birds’.

Red-capped Robin (adult male), Muckleford NCR, 9th April 2024

The next image below is a female Scarlet Robin with the peach-red breast largely obscured. The females of this species typically have grey (rather than brown) upperparts compared to the Red-capped or Flame Robin, and always a prominent white forehead spot

Scarlet Robin (female)

Red-capped and Flame Robins lack a white forehead spot in all plumages. The next two images are of a Red-capped Robin – the rusty cap is obvious, as are the pale, almost white underparts. There is quite a bit of yellow at the base of the bill and gape – possibly indicating a young bird. Some female and immature Red-capped Robins lack the rusty cap, while those with this feature can have a coloured wash on the breast similar to that of the female Scarlet Robin, but much paler.

Red-capped Robin

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The final image is perhaps the trickiest. This bird is brown above and the cap is similar in colour to that of the Red-capped Robin pictured above. The lack of a white forehead spot and brown underparts confirm its identity, it’s a Flame Robin. Females and immatures of this species are, in my experience, not separable. An altitudinal migrant, the adult males we see locally are always in full regalia, suggesting that moulting into adult garb happens before the birds move onto the wintering grounds following breeding along the Great Divide. Both Scarlet and Red-capped Robins are locally resident, but largely inconspicuous over summer.

Flame Robin

Plains silhouettes

Observations of these two species have been few and far between in recent times. I’ve crossed paths with a handful of Spotted Harriers in the past year, but nary a single Black Falcon in that time.

Both are ‘plains country’ raptors with distinctive silhouettes that show off some useful diagnostic features.

The Spotted Harrier has deeply fingered wing-tips, more pronounced than the Swamp Harrier, while the general shape of the wings is squarer and broader. While hunting low over open country the wings are up-swept and the tail appears wedge-shaped, whereas that of the Swamp Harrier is squarer.

Spotted Harrier, Moolort Plains, 8th April 2024

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The Black Falcon in flight is hard to mistake for its close relative, the ‘pedestrian’ Brown Falcon. While not as rapid as the Peregrine Falcon, it is fast and powerful, especially in level flight in pursuit of small to mid-sized birds. In silhouette the Black Falcon has a long tail, typically ending in a point – the third image below shows a classic soaring profile – fanned tail with sharply pointed wings. The bird pictured below was seen hunting over recently burnt stubble, fending off a pair of Nankeen Kestrels upset at its presence.

Black Falcon

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Diamond Firetail ‘nest’?

I first heard the soft, mournful calls of a Diamond Firetail in the distance and went to investigate.

Three birds were spotted in the canopy of a sapling Grey Box, nearby to a White-browed Babbler nest. Almost on cue one of the firetails flew a short distance and disappeared inside the ‘babbler house’, an untidy mess of slender sticks lined with moss and grass. At least one of the other two individuals then flew to perch beside the nest.

Diamond Firetails, like White-browed Babblers, occupy roosting nests which they build for use during the cooler months. I’ve found these nests a number of times at the Rise and Shine and several other locations. While I’ve no definitive evidence, it would not surprise if the firetails are planning to use the babbler nest for winter roosting, although this visit might have just been an inspection by a prospective tenant. There is quite a collection of babbler nests in the general area so I’ll keep an eye out for ‘happenings’ over coming months.

Diamond Firetail at roosting nest, Rise & Shine Bushland Reserve, 4th April 2024

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Step by cautious step

The Southern Boobook was enjoying the post-dawn sunshine, perched at the darkened ‘entrance’ of an old tank stand. Not sure how my eye was drawn to the bird when I first spotted it, some fifty metres distant. It was scanning the ground intently, in front of its lookout – I suspect it was hoping for another mouse before ‘bed’.

The beautiful creature tolerated me as I made a careful approach until I was almost within touching distance.

Southern Boobook, Newstead, 30th March 2024

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I returned later in the day. The owl was gone, but had left behind a worn primary feather. A close up view of the feather shows fringes, like the teeth of a comb. This adaptation softens the flow of air over the feathers when the owl is in flight, helping absorb noise that might alert potential prey.

Southern Boobook – worn primary feather

Up close

Spider hunting

Following their usual pattern Scarlet Robins have reappeared in the local bush in fair numbers after being largely absent over summer.

In this sequence an adult male was being accompanied by a female, both birds using concealed perches to hunt for prey. A wolf spider fell victim to the male, pounced upon from a low hanging branch.

I was intrigued by the last image. A tiny bead of dew suspended from the bill of the male, a prelude to yesterdays ‘autumn break’ … 56mm in total.

Few other birds were around on a still, warm afternoon – White-eared Honeyeater, Grey Currawong, Brown Thornbill, Buff-rumped Thornbill and a calling Australian Owlet-nightjar.

Scarlet Robin (adult male), Spring Hill Track, 1st April 2024

Scarlet Robin (adult female)

Male with wolf spider

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… a bead of dew hangs from its bill.