Swordgrass Brown butterfly

The Swordgrass Brown, Tisiphone Abeona, is a fairly common Gippsland butterfly. There are several sub-species up and down the eastern seaboard and all are endemic.

As the common name suggests, their host plant is swordgrass, in this district, mainly Red-fruit Saw-sedge. The caterpillars feed on the leaves mostly in the mornings and evenings and take refuge at other times in the leaf litter at the bottom of the sedge.

Swordgrass Browns are large, handsome butterflies with a wingspan of 5-6cm. They are slow, graceful fliers, usually flying in sunlit patches of woodland and swampy places, often only a metre or two above the ground. They are described as sedentary and when located they will not be far from their host plant.

This butterfly was first described and named by the Anglo-Irish ‘gentleman naturalist’ Edward Donovan, in1805: “There are few infects more ftriking in appearance then Papileo Abeona. This appears to be one of the more common fpecies of the Butterfly tribe in many parts of the Auftralafian regions: we receive it in this country not very unfrequently among infects from the vicinity of the Englifh fettlements at Port Jackfon.”  In 1819, the German entomologist Jacob Hübner renamed it Tisiphone abeona,  maintaining the strange use of Greek and Roman mythology to name species: Tisiphone was the avenger of murder, a Greek underworld goddess, and Abeona was the Roman goddess of departures. Go figure.

 

Wonga Pigeon

The father of Australian ornithology, the eminent naturalist John Gould, when describing this bird gave its first feature as: ‘a great delicacy for the table; its large size and the whiteness of its flesh rendering it in this respect second to no other member of its family’. Indeed, the genus name given the bird, Leucosarcia means white flesh. How things have changed! The species name, picata, means pied (usually black and white but in this case, grey and white?).

The far-carrying, repetitive ‘wonk-wonk-wonk…’ call is more often heard than the bird is seen.

Wongas are strictly ground feeders and often have dedicated pathways through the bush.

Their habitat is wet forest areas down the eastern seaboard, stopping abruptly about here in West Gippsland.

These two, or perhaps it was same bird twice, appeared recently at Rokeby. More information in an earlier post here.

Rufous Fantail

At Uralla Reserve in Trafalgar recently, the bush was dry as a bone and the bird life exceptionally quiet, except … a flash of orange-brown in the understory could only be the beautiful Rufous Fantail.

The Rufous Fantail is a spring-summer migrant in this district. The adults here now, after breeding, will shortly head back north to as far as Cape York and perhaps even New Guinea. Apparently, the juveniles follow some weeks later, a migratory pattern that amazes me.

Research indicates that the Rufous Fantail exhibits strong fidelity to its breeding territory, with ringed individuals returning consistently to the same areas. When they are on the move, it is not unusual to see a bird in a home garden or urban parkland. Migratory flights are taken early morning from just before sunrise and late afternoons to just aftersunset.

Rufous Fantails like to inhabit rainforests and wetter gullies in montane forests and woodlands. They feed on insects on the ground and in the understory and midstory, taken mostly on the wing. They are constantly on the move.

Rhipidura rufifrons: rhipis = fan, oura = tail, rufus = red, frons = forehead (strangely named for its rufous forehead and not the brilliant tail?)

Little Pied Cormorant

Posing at Alex Goudie Park in Drouin

The Little Pied Cormorant, Microcarbo melanoleucos (micro = small, carbo = charcoal (as in the Great Cormorant), melan = black and leucos = white) is distinguished by its pied plumage, dusky face and a yellow bill.

Little pieds are broadly distributed across Australia and are quite adaptable as they can be found on inland freshwater or coastal saltwater habitats – lakes and dams, wetlands, estuaries, etc. Although considered sedentary, Little Pied Cormorants may exhibit some local nomadism as water levels change or food availability alters.

A yabbie meal with a 'coot in pusuit for som scraps - Australian Garden Cranbourne

Essentially a fish eater, Little Pied Cormorants also take yabbies, shrimps and insects. They dive for their prey and can stay under for 30 seconds or so. Their fully webbed feet propel them strongly as they chase their prey and the bird will often surface from a dive quite a distance from where it started.

"Anyone got a hair dryer?"

Oddly for a diving bird, its plumage is not especially waterproof and much time is spent ‘drying out’ between food sorties.

Three of about ten birds at roost behind the sand dunes at Coronet Bay

Although it mostly hunts alone, the little pied is gregarious enough to roost and nest in small colonies.

While its numbers are thought to be stable, you can guess what threats to this species might include: degradation and alteration to waterways, urban development, agricultural practices, et al.

 

A few recent Odes

Few insects can match Odonata, (Damselflies and Dragonflies) for speed, manoeuverability, and beauty. Add to that their partly aquatic, extraordinary 3-stage life cycle and further, their value to the environment (they play vital ecological roles) – what’s not to like? Their only problem – some can be challenging to photograph!

Common Flatwing (Picnic Point)

The Common Flatwing breaks the rule that 'Damselflies rest with their wings closed'. The Common Flatwing is mostly found near running streams, although sometimes I’ve seen them some distance from water. They can be locally common some seasons.

Blue Skimmer (Coronet Bay)

Blue Skimmers usually inhabit still water habitats: swamps, bogs, dams, etc. This eye-catching Dragonfly often makes photographing it a bit easier: it patrols its territory and rests often and frequently on the same stick, plant or rock.

Tau Emerald (Drouin)

Tau Emeralds are large Dragonflies and strangely will often allow photographers to approach quite close before zooming off. The tau (T) marking on the frons (forehead) that is a good identifier is very clear on this individual. It is not unusual to see this Dragonfly in home gardens, especially if you have a fish/frog pond.

Swamp Tigertail (Mt Baw Baw)

Swamp Tigertails tend to inhabit swampy, boggy seepages in alpine locations.

Bronze Needle (Robin Hood)

This Damselfly also prefers running water habitat for its larvae and is usually easy to find beside streams in this district. Bronze Needles are endemic to s-e Australia.

Yellow-striped Hunter (Garfield)

Yellow-striped Hunters are small to medium-sized Dragonflies. Their eyes are on the top of their heads and separated like Damselflies. They tend to inhabit streams and rivers mostly.

 

Buff-banded Rail

Coronet Bay

The Buff-banded Rail, Gallirallus philippensis, (Gallirallus = ‘cock-rail’, philippensis = ‘Philippines, the origin of type species’), is mostly described as a cautious and secretive bird seen singly or in pairs. A recent visit to Coronet Bay contradicted that description a little when six individuals continued to scuttle across some bare ground beside a small, marshy, coastal lagoon at the back of the sand dunes.

Coronet Bay

Buff-bandeds can inhabit a variety of wetland types: marshes, swamps, lakes, rivers, coastal lagoons, estuaries, sewage ponds, drainage channels, even temporary inundations in paddocks, etc. There needs to be some dense grasses, rushes or reeds nearby for them to seek shelter when disturbed.

Often secretive

There seems to be some seasonal movements because the bird is seen from time to time in some locations, but not consistently so – not a lot is known about their movements in our district. Unlike other rails, the buff-banded has a tendency to wander a fair distance from a water body at times, resulting in them sometimes being referred to as land rails.

Robin Hood Reserve

Buff-banded Rails have a varied diet that includes crustaceans, molluscs, insects, seeds, fruit, frogs, other birds’ eggs, carrion and often picnic ground refuse. Mornings and evenings are usually when they are seen seeking food out in the open.

They call with a squeaky, harsh, ‘kreeek’ note, especially during the breeding season.

 

Daddy Long Legs

The well-named Daddy Long Legs spider is a common, well-known spider because it likes to live with us – in our homes, sheds, cars, etc.

There was a myth that its venom was powerful enough to kill a human if only the spider could get its fangs to penetrate our skin. Not so. The myth probably arose from the fact that Daddy Long Legs can kill Red Back spiders, a spider that can harm humans with its bite, therefore the Daddy Long Legs venom must be as powerful or more powerful than Red Back venom. In fact the Daddy Long Legs uses a different technique to kill and eat Red Backs – its long legs enable it from a distance to tangle the Red Back in a web. Once restrained, the Daddy Long Legs can approach and bite the Red Back multiple times to finally render it deceased! Ain’t the spider world grand?

There are around 60 species of ‘Daddy Long Legs’ spiders in Australia, some are endemic, many have been introduced, and the number of described species is being enlarged as more study is done.

Daddy Long Legs, Pholcid sp, construct a messy, irregular-shaped web in which they hang upside down waiting for their prey. Usually, they choose an undisturbed corner of our homes, such as high corners of the ceiling, roof spaces or attics, cellars (sometimes called Cellar Spiders).

They eat insects and sometimes invade the web of other spiders to eat their captured prey. They are known to eat Red Backs, Huntsman and House Spiders.

All hail, Daddy Long Legs, welcome in my place!

PS: there are plenty of videos and articles online about this spider – worth exploring.