Blue-chequered Cuckoo Bee

Just as the familiar cuckoo birds (Fantailed Cuckoo, Shining bronze Cuckoo…) are brood parasites, there is a large family of bees that lay their eggs in the nests of other bees.

The Blue-chequered Cuckoo Bee, Thyreus caeruleopunctatus, parasitizes the nest of the Blue-banded Bee. ‘Thyreus’ in ancient Greek is ‘porter’, ‘caeruleus’ and ‘punctatus’ are Latin for ‘blue’ and ‘spotted’. It is a native, solitary bee.

The Thyreus family of bees is sometimes referred to as ‘cloak and dagger bees’, presumably for their deceptive behaviour.

The beautiful garden at Vue, Jindivick, was a buzz with these beauties on a recent visit.

Other links to explore this fascinating invertebrate:

iNaturalist: Blue-spotted Cloak and Dagger Bee

Bayside City Council: Bayside Native of the Day – Blue-chequered Cuckoo Bee.

 

Pink Cockatoo - what's in a name?

Sir Thomas Mitchell was a major of the British army who came to Australia in 1827. In 1828 major Mitchell was appointed Surveyor General and quickly commenced to survey routes out of Sydney Town that are basically the same as the main roads to Parramatta, Liverpool and Berrima today.

Image credit: Australian Musuem. Map Credit: 'Queensland Stories'

A little later, Mitchell conducted several explorations of inland NSW, Qld and Vic, during which he had several encounters with the indigenous inhabitants. In 1836, on the Murray River near Robinvale, Mitchell and 16 of his party drove a group of about 150 aboriginal people into the river and commenced firing on them for around five minutes as they tried to escape. A government enquiry of the incident resulted in little consequence. Mitchell later named the site of the massacre as Mt Dispersion.

During his expeditions, Mitchell waxed lyrical over, ‘a red-topped cockatoo of the interior’. The bird had been described earlier and had been given various local names: Desert Cockatoo, Leadbeater’s Cockatoo (after the London taxidermist and ornithologist) and until 1977, Pink Cockatoo.

In 1977, the Royal Australian Ornithologists Union (BirdLife Australia) voted to rename the bird Major Mitchell Cockatoo in honour of the explorer despite his misdeeds. This was later reversed in 2023 when the bird was given back its old, more descriptive name of Pink Cockatoo avoiding the contentious matter of naming a faunal beauty after a sometime colonial subjugator.

Pink Cockatoo at Moonlit Sanctuary

Pink Cockatoos inhabit the arid and semi-arid areas of central Australia. They are listed as ‘vulnerable’ in Victoria and probably their greatest threat is the loss of hollow-bearing trees in which they nest (I think we’ve heard that before). Moonlit Sanctuary at Pearcedale has a pair and it’s a bit closer than central Australia.

A recent study of the genetics of the Pink Cockatoo has shown that there are two sub-species of the bird; one to the north-west of the Lake Eyre Basin and one to the east. Researchers also found some marker genes that are proving useful in the forensic investigations of bird-trafficking crimes involving the species.

Black-fronted Dotterel

Elseyornis melanops, the Black-fronted Dotterel, is a diminutive native wader of freshwater wetlands. (Joseph Elsey was an English born naturalist who named several previously unknown birds during an expedition in 1855. ‘Elseynoris’ = Elsey’s bird. ‘Melanops’ = black face). The name ‘dotterel’ has origins that are confusingly ambiguous and to add misunderstanding, is sometimes used synonymously with ‘plover’.

BF Dotterel in unusually deep water

The Black-fronted Dotterel is a widespread bird found principally on the muddy, sandy or gravelly shorelines of dams, creeks, lakes and swamps, but rarely on tidal flats and estuaries. Much of its habitat is ephemeral and consequently many of the birds are quite nomadic.

BF Dotterel & E Coot

It seems to avoid dense vegetation and seldom wades in water more than a few millimetres deep. Black-fronted Dotterels are not particularly communal and most observations are of single birds or perhaps two or three.

The Black-fronted Dotterel feeds on seeds and aquatic insects and crustaceans it finds by dashing about in short sprints. The nest is generally just a small depression in the ground. On hot days, the parent bird will often shade the eggs by standing over them and sometimes wetting their feathers to help cool things down.

In our district, we also sometimes get the very similar Red-kneed Dotterel, Elseyornis cinctus. Red-kneed Dotterels tend to wade more deeply, and usually are present in small parties. It is a more ‘robust’ bird and has a longer bill. The broad breast band and all-black head help distinguish it. Oh, and the upper legs are a pinky red colour.

RK Dotterel

Blue-banded Bee

A recent visit to the stunning gardens at Vue/Jindivick, re-acquainted me with this favourite invert. The Blue-banded Bee is a native bee that belongs to the fairly-large Amegilla family. Some can be challenging to correctly identify – great photos page here on iNaturalist.

Amegilla is a ‘digger bee’: it nests in a burrow in some soft earth, clay, even mortar of a brick building. There’s plenty of online advice for building a home garden ‘bee hotel’.

Unlike the familiar and highly sociable Honeybee, Blue-banded Bees are pretty much solitary insects. The female digs her own nest, perhaps close to others of her species. The males sometimes roost together at night in small groups.

Blue-banded Bees are important buzz-pollinators. Many plants will only release their pollen when they are vibrated. Sometimes a wind will be enough. Buzz-pollinating bees have learned to grip the plant and vibrate it so they can collect the pollen.

Ain’t nature grand?

Barred Skipper

There are about 120 species of skippers in Australia, which is around one third of all butterfly species in the country. They are called skippers because of the jerky flight patterns that most of them have. In general, skippers have proportionately long and wide set antennae. Usually they are small and drab, but not always. 

The Barred Skipper, Dispar compacta, is fairly common in this district but is easily confused with several other skipper species. They are found flying low over grasslands, in urban parks and gardens, forests and sometimes in sub-alpine zones.

Compacta’s host plants are various tussock species, Weeping Grass, Matt Rush, Gahnia, Lomandra, etc. They lay their eggs on or at the base of the grass and the larvae construct shelters for protection by folding pieces of vegetation. 

Yellow Sand Wasp

Sand wasps are generally not aggressive toward humans – but don’t disturb their nests! They are solitary nesters but sometimes it is not unusual to find a number of nests in the one area. They dig a nest hole in the ground, often on the side of a sandy-gravelly walking track. The adults feed on nectar and are often encountered in a native garden.

After laying their eggs and the larvae hatch, the adult wasps prey on other insects, particularly flies, which they capture on the wing and immobilize with a venom and carry to the nest.

It is thought that sometimes the adults work in pairs, one catching the prey, the other guarding the nest burrow from predators.

Once the larvae are fed, the adult (female) exits the nest and fills the entrance in with sand to hide it from predators. When she returns with the next meal, she has to dig the burrow open again.

Bembix palmata (I think) belong to a genera of about 20 species.

I came across this wasp recently at the Frankston Conservation Reserve.   

Pelican

A recent excursion to McNeilly Park resulted in some nice views of a Pelican or more correctly, Australian Pelican, Pelecanus conspicillatus. 

Pelicans are highly mobile as they search for suitable water bodies on which to rest or feed. Their diet consists mostly of fish and other aquatic animals but a hungry Pelican is not beyond preying on ducklings, seagulls and other small water birds. 

They may feed alone (like this one) or they may work cooperatively as a group, ‘herding’ fish into a concentrated area for easy pickings. 

After a while, this lone bird decided it was time to move on and after taking off, circled continuously searching for a thermal of air to take it to a greater altitude. In this way, Pelicans can cover huge distances, sometimes staying aloft for 24 hours.