Golden Whistler

We are blessed in West Gippsland with numerous locations to see (and listen to) the wonderful Golden Whistler. Often, quite small patches of native forest or woodland will have a resident pair or two. It is not too unusual to find Golden Whistlers in urban parkland at times. Some people with large gardens are lucky enough to have them in their back yards!

The Golden Whistler has some interesting old common names – Guttural Thrush, White-throated Thickhead, Coachwhip Bird, White-throated Whistler, Thunderbird (for its apparent responses to loud noises?) – being just a few. A recent version, Australian Golden Whistler, reflects the plethora of races and sub-races of this bird, many of them being found in the islands to the north of the continent.

The scientific name is Pachycephala pectoralis, where Pachycephala = thick head and pectoralis = chest or breast – not a particularly endearing form of nomenclature for such a brilliant bird perhaps?

Golden Whistlers are considered a sedentary species but it seems that our West Gippsland birds may exhibit some nomadism or altitudinal migration at times. They breed from late winter to early summer, building an open cup nest of leaves, rootlets and grasses, bound together with cobweb, often quite low down in thick shrubbery.

Pairs mostly feed alone in the mid to upper levels of the woodland although there is some anecdotal evidence that the female can often be found in lower situations. They feed on insects, spiders and other invertebrates that are taken from the foliage and bark of trees. Some references state they also take some berries as part of their diet.

The strong, varied, and complex song is difficult to describe in onomatopoeic terms. Pairs might have a rising ‘seeep’ contact call.

Always a good day in the bush when you see a Golden Whistler.

My first sawfly

 

Guest Post by Geoff Leslie, Warragul

Most people are familiar with the larvae of the sawfly known as ‘spitfires’. These caterpillar-like creatures are found in writhing masses on eucalypts, usually exuding green excrement and waving their heads after defoliating whole branches.  Not very attractive.

But there are many types of sawfly (Brisbane Insects has an informative sawfly page - Ed). Spitfires are the larvae of the Spitfire Sawfly, Perga affinis, apparently but I have never been able to photograph an adult.  Another well-known type of sawfly larva is the cherry slug – a black leech-shaped slimy little critter that skeletonises the leaves of pear and cherry trees. This one is Caliroa Cerasi, an introduced pest that has followed the cultivated fruit trade around the world.

Yesterday, however, I found a cooperative sawfly who consented to being photographed. It lacks a common name, though some people call it the Dock Sawfly. It is Lophyrotoma analis.

The larvae look much like spitfires but are green and usually solitary, and the host plant is usually dock weed or some other broad-leaved softer plant not eucalyptus. I found it on a broad bean.

This is a female sawfly, the males of this species have antennae with large filaments making them look like feathers.  Females have a saw-like ovipositor (egg-laying tube) with which they cut a space in the middle of a leaf – between the top and bottom face of the leaf – to lay their eggs, though my picture does not reveal this. That is obviously the origin of the name ‘sawfly’; in fact they are a primitive type of harmless wasp.

I have a lot of dock weed (Rumex species) so I welcome this beautiful little creature. Help yourself to my dock.

Thanks for the contribution Geoff - Ed

Eastern Koel

Around about now, the familiar, persistent call ‘ko-ell, ko-ell…’ will begin to ring through the streets and parklands of Drouin, especially in the mornings and evenings, and sometimes at night.

The Eastern Koel is a summer migrant that arrives in spring and departs mid to late summer to return to northern Australia and Papua New Guinea. Some field guides may not have its distribution down the eastern seaboard reaching as far as Victoria, but the Eastern Koel has been known to visit these parts for some years now. Anecdotally, its numbers are increasing in southern Victoria. Its migratory patterns are not fully understood.

The Eastern Koel, Eudynamys orientalis, (Eudynamys = fine and power or strength – apparently referring to its call, and orientalis = from the east) has had numerous common names in the past: Pacific Koel, Common Koel, Indian Koel, Black Cuckoo, Cooee Bird, Stormbird, Flinders’ Cuckoo, et al.

The Eastern Koel is a member of the Cuculidae or cuckoo family. Like all cuckoos, it is a brood parasite that lays its eggs in other birds’ nests, relying on the unsuspecting host parents to rear the koel’s hatchlings. Eastern Koels like to lay their eggs in nests of wattlebirds and Magpie Larks in particular. While Drouin has a healthy population of wattlebirds and mudlarks, we will continue to be visited by koels.The female koel is able to time the laying of her eggs, one only in each nest, so that its hatches around the same time as that of the host birds’ eggs. The young koel chick grows quickly and soon outcompetes the hosts chicks for food or even sometimes ejecting the hosts chicks from the nest.

Male Eastern Koel. Image credit Australian Museum

The Eastern Koel is not always easy to spot, even when you seem to be standing under the tree it is calling from. The bird is particularly adept at remaining secluded in the canopy. Some say its call can have a ventriloqual effect making it harder to pin point. It is the male that does the calling and the female is mostly silent.

Adult Eastern Koels are mainly fruit-eaters. Nestlings generally take whatever food items the host parents bring them – insects, worms, etc. The male Eastern Koel is pretty much an all black bird with a red eye, about the size of a magpie. The female is a lighter coloured bird with barring on the tail and chest, and white spots on the back.

So, is it, “Welcome to Drouin, cruel koel”? ‘ko-ell, ko-ell…’ is certainly a harbinger of spring.

White-necked Heron

The White-necked Heron is a stately heron species that is an irregular visitor to these parts. It is highly nomadic and generally appears after good rain when the paddocks are wet and there are lots of ephemeral water bodies. Not much is known about any regular or seasonal movement patterns.

Unlike the more common White-faced Heron we have here permanently, the White-necked Heron, Ardea pacifica (Ardea = heron and pacifica = peaceful) is seldom seen close to the coast.

White-faced Herons feed on insects and aquatic animals that they locate in shallow pools or the wet grass by standing and waiting for prey to appear or by walking slowly and even stirring the water with their feet to disturb a tasty morsel.

Seasonal conditions determine when White-necked Herons breed. They build a stick platform-nest in a tree usually near water. The Murray-Darling Basin is their most favoured breeding ground.

The White-necked Heron (890-920mm) is a much larger bird than ‘our’ usual White-faced Herons (650-690mm).

Eastern Long-necked Turtle

At Alex Goudie Park Drouin

The Eastern Long-necked Turtle, Chelodina longicollis, belongs to the Chilidae sub-order of aquatic turtles that have a long fossil record dating back probably 200 million years. There are over 200 species worldwide and we have around 30 species in Australia. The Eastern Long-necked Turtle belongs to the group of turtles that withdraws its neck sideways into its shell.

At Moonlit Sanctuary Pearcedale

Eastern long-necks are found in creeks and wetlands, sometimes far inland. They seem often to prefer water bodies with murky bottoms. They spend most of their time in the water but will travel overland for some distance to discover new water holes or nesting sites.

Digging a nest hole

In summer, Eastern Long-necked Turtles dig a nest hole on the bank of a billabong or wetland and lay 10-20 eggs. The eggs and hatchlings are often prey for goannas, birds, and water rats, etc.

Egg laying at Heyfield

Aquatic turtles can hibernate or aestivate during cold or dry times. The Eastern Long-necked Turtle feeds on aquatic invertebrates, tadpoles, and small fish.

Nest protection at Coolart Homestead and Wetlands, Somers

 Sometimes called the snake-necked turtle or just long-necked turtle, the Eastern Long-necked Turtle can eject a smelly liquid from glands on its body, giving rise to another common name - the Stinky. By convention, the distinction between a turtle and a tortoise is that turtles are aquatic and tortoises are land-based – Australia has no tortoises.

 

Echidna

The Echidna, or more correctly, Short-beaked Echidna, Tachyglossus aculeatus, (‘tachy’ = fast, ‘glossus’ = tongue, ‘aculeatus’ = spiny) is such a special animal. Because it shows traits of being both a mammal and a reptile, it was named Echidna after the creature in Greek mythology that was half woman and half snake – the mother of all monsters.

At Drouin Waste Water Treatment Plant

First and foremost, the Echidna is a marsupial mammal that lays eggs – a monotreme – and the only other monotreme is the Platypus.

After laying her single egg, the female Echidna transfers it to her pouch where it remains for about 10 days before hatching. The hatchling remains in the pouch, suckling on the mother’s milk for 2-3 months. By this time, the young ‘puggle’ has started growing its spikes and the mother transfers it to a home burrow. The mother continues to suckle the baby by visiting the burrow every few days for the next 6 months.

At Lang Lang

The Echidna’s spines are made up of modified hairs of keratin. Fur in between the spines gives the animal some insulation. In hot climates, Echidnas are known to seek water in which to bathe. They are very good swimmers.

The powerful legs and strong claws of the Echidna are adapted for digging, breaking open logs, and rolling rocks to enable it to seek out its diet of ants, termites, and beetle larvae. Using its long, sticky, and fast tongue, the animal can consume many thousands of insects in a day.

At Longwarry North

The Echidna is widespread throughout mainland Australia and Tasmania, from the alps to the coast and from the barren outback to urban parks and gardens at times. In some climates, Echidnas can hibernate for short periods.

During courtship, several males will follow a female in a ‘mating train’, sometimes for days, before mating.

Recently, in the sand dunes at Corinella, a new species was discovered – Tachyglossus arboreous J!

At Corinella

We share this planet with some amazing creatures.

 

 

Golden Tip

Goodia lotifolia, or Golden Tip, is a tall, pea-flowering shrub endemic to s-e Australia. ‘Goodia’ after Peter Good, a gardener from Kew Gardens who assisted botanist Robert Brown during explorations by Matthew Flinders. ‘Lotifolia’ = lotus-like leaf.

In the wild, it often forms a thicket-like shrub to about 3-4m. There are one or two examples in flower at the moment in Golden Whistler Reserve in McGlone Rd.

The large, yellow, pea-shaped flowers with red markings contrast beautifully with the green clover-like foliage that is soft to touch. The flowers can last several weeks on the bush. Some references suggest the leaves may be toxic to stock.

In the garden, Golden Tip makes a good fence-screener. It is fast-growing and can be kept in shape with light pruning after flowering. The plant sets large amounts of seed after flowering and these can be fairly easily raised to new seedlings. Golden Tip is semi-deciduous in our district and dead branches might sometimes need removing to maintain appearance.