The nest boxes I installed last January have been relatively under-used through the year, or at least I haven’t noticed signs of their use. However, over the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen a Bush Rat (Rattus fuscipes) emerge from one one evening. And yesterday, this little fellow had moved into another.
Australian Owlet-nightjars nest and roost during the day in hollow trees (and boxes). Normally, they shelter deep in the hollow. However, on cool mornings they often sit at the entrance to soak up the warm sun. Not that it was at all cold yesterday. They also often peer out of their hole when they hear a disturbance outside, just in case they need to quickly evacuate if a Lace Monitor, python or other predator is climbing up their tree. Yesterday was an extremely windy day, and I suspect the swaying of the trees and the rustling of leaves made it difficult to hear approaching predators, so the owlet-nightjar decided it was safest to keep an eye out, just in case. It would duck back down into the box each time we would pass by underneath, only to reappear a few minutes later.
Another bird that has decided to make itself at home over the past month is the Willie Wagtail. A pair has cleverly built its nest inside our carport, where they are sheltered from the rain, wind, hot sun and overhead predators. It has been fun to watch them build, incubate and now feed their newly hatched chicks. Even the comings and goings of cars and the tractor doesn’t seem to bother them.
They are, however, highly agitated by the presence of nearby Channel-billed Cuckoos, Scythrops novaehollandiae. These large birds would surely not hesitate eating nestling Willie Wagtails, not that they would ever find them in the carport! As the fig by the carport has been fruiting over the past two weeks, there are almost always one or more cuckoos hanging around, which means the Willie Wagtails have had their work cut out for them. These efforts are only in vain, however, as the Channel-billed Cuckoos are not particularly bothered by having a Willie Wagtail hanging off its back.
Other birds enjoying the fig crop include this Eastern Koel and a steady stream of Topknot Pigeons.
The October rains stimulated quite a bit of breeding activity among many of our local birds besides the Willie Wagtails. Our Double-barred Finches have broken up into pairs, and many other species, like these Variegated Fairywrens (Malurus lamberti), have been busily building nests.
November was a weird month weather-wise. After the wet October, we’ve only had scattered showers and it’s starting to get quite dry again. Coupled with our first 40 degree day of the summer (even though it is not yet summer!), and some very windy days this week, my young trees are looking a bit stressed. However, older trees with more developed root systems are growing just fine, and many species have been flowering and fruiting.
A fine example is this Sophora fraseri, which I planted two years ago. This very rare shrub is listed nationally as a vulnerable species. It grows naturally along the edges of drier rainforests, a habitat that has largely been swallowed up by introduced weeds such as lantana. I have only ever seen one wild one at Pine Mountain (in the Corbould Land Trust area at Sapling Pocket), but I’ve been planting many on our property. They grow very well, even if they are often browsed by wallabies. Being only 1-2 m tall, they would make a nice addition to the gardens of conservation-minded people.
Our Capparis arborea put on quite a show again this year, and were very popular among both exotic honey bees and native bees. I was surprised to see Blue-banded Bees (Amegilla sp.) enjoying the flowers, as I always thought they were exclusively “buzz-pollinators” of smaller rounded flowers like Senna, Hibbertia, Cassia and Commelina. Clearly they are much more opportunistic in their flower preferences than I had assumed.
Tabernaemontana pandacaqui also flowered strongly this year. It is a species that hasn’t fruited well at Pine Mountain over the past two years, so perhaps autumn 2019 will see a decent crop.
The large, spectacular fruits of Sterculia quadrifida ripened this month. This is a relatively common tree in the local vine scrubs, but rarely seems to produce large crops of seed. I have no idea what disperses the seed (I’d guess rodents), or the purpose of the large, leathery red pods.
The Proiphys cunninghamii (often known as the Brisbane Lily) I planted around the house put on quite a show this month. I’ve seen quite a few of these growing in the vine-scrub in Cameron’s Scrub, but they often disappear from places where Cat’s Claw Creeper (Dolichandra unguis-cati), Coral Berry (Rivina humilis) and other weeds smother the ground. They are very tough, and survive the long, dry winters by dying back to a bulb. Within a month of spring rain, they get a flush of new leaves and showy spikes of white flowers.
Finally fruiting in November were the Codonocarpus attenuatus growing along our driveway. I should point out that this is a species that does not do things slowly. They easily grow 4 m in their first year and start reproducing soon after. So it surprised me somewhat that the fruit were so slow to develop (they flowered way back in January, 11 months ago). After waiting so long for the fruit (and seed) to ripen, I was lucky not to miss it in the end. In little over a week, all the fruit on all seven trees exploded and scattered to the ground. The fallen seed was very popular with our local Bar-shouldered Doves, but I still managed to gather enough to hopefully supply future plantings.
Life has been a bit busy over the past month, and I haven’t been out at night as often as I would like. However, even just around the house, I have already seen the first Small-eyed Snake and Dwarf Crowned Snake for the summer. Hopefully, with more spotlighting opportunities, I’ll have more reptiles and other nocturnal critters to present next month.
Life at World's End 