Satin Bowerbird

Most field guides list about 8 species of Bowerbirds. They are all endemic to Australia and/or Papua New Guinea. The Satin Bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus, is widespread along the south-eastern seaboard where it can be found in rainforest, moist forest and woodland habitats. (Ptilonorhynchus = ‘feather-bill’ referring to how the forehead feathers extend onto the base of the bill. Violaceus = ‘violet-coloured’)

The adult male only attains his black sheen plumage in his 7^th or 8^th year. For his early years he sports the green-cream-buff, scalloped plumage of the female.

Satin Bowerbirds are described as ‘frugivorous’. Their diet consists mostly of raw fruits, roots and seeds, and some invertebrates. Most of their diet is taken from their natural forest surroundings but occasionally, Satin Bowerbirds will ‘raid’ orchards and vegetable gardens: in some localities they are a significant pest species.

The Satin Bowerbird is a noisy bird and often, in the bush, you are more likely to hear one before you see it. Its variety of calls are variously described as grinding, churring, wheezing, whistling, rattling, sometimes mixed with mimicry of other species.

The most extraordinary attribute of the bowerbird of course is its courtship and mating behaviour in which the male constructs a bower of sticks. Several species build a ‘maypole’-shaped bower. The Satin Bowerbird builds an ‘avenue’-shaped bower on a north-south orientation. He often ‘paints’ the sticks black with a mixture of charcoal and saliva. He spends a lot of time maintaining the neatness of his bower and decorating the platform approaches with flowers, feathers, berries and man-made strips of plastic, clothes pegs, bottle tops, etc. nearly always of a blue colour.

The male may have several bowers in the same vicinity. He is not beyond wrecking another male’s bower and pinching the sticks and blue decorations for his own. Young males are thought to spend several seasons building practice bowers before they reach maturity.

After attracting a female and mating, the male has nothing further to do with rearing his progeny. The female builds her nest some distance from the male’s bower and raises the young on her own.

The Satin Bowerbird is long-lived with an average age of nearly 10 years. One banded male was recorded as living for 26 years.

Isn’t nature grand?

 

Whip Spider

The long, thin, stick-like Whip Spider, Ariamnes colubrinus, is a common Australian spider that resembles a twig stuck in a spider’s web.

It specializes in feeding on other spiders and insects that get caught in its web. The Whip Spider captures its prey tangling it in a web of silk.

Whip Spiders are usually found in forest, woodland and garden habitats. I found this one in Lang Lang Bush Reserve recently.

The female grows to just over 20mm, the male is smaller. Both have abdomens barely 1mm wide.

Forest Boronia

Boronia Muelleri is a native shrub or small tree that grows mostly in south-east Victoria. There are some disjunct distributions in NSW south of Eden.

Credit vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au

Ferdinand von Mueller (1825–1896) was a German-born botanist. In 1853, Governor La Trobe appointed von Mueller government botanist for Victoria and later he became the first director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. Forest Borona was first properly described in 1863 from specimens collected from the vicinity of the source of the Bunyip River in what is now the Bunyip State Park.

The feather-like pinnate leaves are particularly aromatic, variously described as pine, cardamon, citrus or camphor – anyway, not unpleasant. The warty glands on the leaves contain the oils that give the smell.

The four-petalled, white-pink flowers occur mainly in spring and early summer but some seasons it is not unusual to see some flowers in autumn. Forest Boronia is in full flower at present in Nangara reserve at Jindivick.

Good native nurseries will sometimes have cultivars of Forest Boronia in stock.

A warty, smelly and beautiful Gippslander.

 

Garden Soldier Fly

The Garden Soldier Fly or Blue Soldier Fly, Exaireta spinigera, is a member of the Stratiomyidae family of invertebrates. World wide there is nearly 3000 species of Stratiomyidae. The Garden Soldier Fly is endemic to Australia (and NZ?).

The adults are dark, wasp-like flies and they are good pollinators. They lay their eggs in decomposing vegetable matter: they love compost bins. (Check out Costa from Gardening Australia learning how to make a Soldier Fly farm on You Tube) You can actually purchase the larvae online and add them to your compost heap or feed them to the chooks!

Soldier Fly Larva. Credit gardeningknowhow.com

In some places around the world, Black Soldier Fly larvae, Hermetia illucens, are used to rapidly degrade organic biowaste that is produced by markets, food industries and restaurants.

Bulk Soldier Fly larvae for industrial use. Credit FAO United Nations

The adult fly only lives for a few days, most of which is spent finding a mate. After mating and laying eggs, the adults die. The larvae look very much like and are often mistaken for maggots. The larval stage can be several weeks long.

Soldier flies are harmless to people, and serve a beneficial role in helping decompose garbage and pollinate plants.

 

Lang Lang Bushland Reserve

Despite being surrounded by development and sand quarries, weed infested, a repository for household waste and an illegal  firewood source, the Lang Lang Bushland Reserve is also a little biodiversity hotspot.

Lang Lang Bushland Reserve

Some encounters on a recent visit included:

Mayfly Orchid - flowers July-October, coastal woodlands, shady situations

Wax Lip Orchid - flowers September-December, widespread in a variety of habitats

This tiger found a log in a sunny spot 

 

Pink Finger Orchid - a common, variable Caladenia

Mistletoebird - always a delight to encounter

Echidna - just strolled past with little concern

Just have to close your mind to some of the things going on around-about.

Rhubarb Bolete

Boletellus obscurecoccineus is a distinctive, brightly-coloured member of the bolete genus of fungi. Instead of gills on the fertile surface under the cap like ‘normal’ mushrooms, boletes have pores.

The bolete genus is quite large and very widespread. Rhubarb Boletes are found in Australia, New Guinea and many Asian countries. In Australia they are usually found growing in eucalyptus leaf litter. Some references describe them as uncommon.

In this district, I have recorded Rhubarb Boletes at Lawson Falls in Bunyip State Park, Nangara Reserve at Jindivick, Mt Worth State Park Allambee, Morwell National Park and Edward Hunter Reserve at Moe.

Bell Miner

Like the Eastern Whipbird and many others, the Bell Miner, Manorina melanophrys, is almost always heard before it is seen. ‘Manorina’ is from the Greek for ‘large nostril’ and ‘melanophrys’ is for ‘black eyebrow’. The diagnostic ‘ping’, bell-like call of the Bell Miner often resonates throughout patches of eucalypt bush in our district and has inspired lines of poetry, particularly by early settlers – Bellbirds by Henry Kendall, 1869.

The Bell Miner, or just Bellbird, is a common honeyeater that feeds on lerp, the sugary coating of a tiny sap-sucking insect called a psyllid. Psyllids are closely related to aphids, whiteflies and scale insects.

Lerp and psyllid

Bell Miner feeding on lerp

Some references suggest that the Bell Miners have learned to ‘farm’ the psyllids: they take only the sweet lerp and leave the insect to continue with its sap-sucking and lerp production lifestyle. Also, like many honeyeater species, the Bell Miner is an aggressive bird and chases away others, including the insect-eating small canopy birds like pardalotes and thornbills that could help keep the psyllid population under control.

In this way, the psyllid numbers can build until the trees begin to lose their foliage. This can sometime happen to the degree that the trees begin to die and the phenomenon is known as Bell Miner associated dieback. (video).

Possible/probable Bell Miner associated dieback - Bellbird Park Drouin

Bell Miners are gregarious birds and are often present in large colonies. They are sedentary provided the psyllid food source remains. The psyllid population declines as the dieback takes hold. The birds then seek another source further afield. This may then allow the trees to recover.

Most ecologists say there isn’t much that can be done to combat Bell Miner associated dieback. One suggestion being that dense understorey is promoted to provide cover for smaller birds that ultimately might help control the psyllid infestation in the canopy.

With its pleasant ringing call, and its association with eucalypt dieback, the Bell Miner is something of an enigma in the bird world.