JANUARY '19

EARLY JANUARY

Pacific Baza, moulting feathers.

 By the way that many birds look now, like the Pacific Baza above and also by the increasing number of feathers that I can see around, it is obvious that moulting season has started. The summer solstice was only a few weeks ago, the amount of daylight has already started to diminish. Birds will look a bit scruffy for a while.

Pied Currawong's tail feather.

Crested Pigeon

Dusky Moorhen with chick.

 Banks Street Reserve is filled with nests, chicks and young birds. All photos of nests and young birds were taken quickly and from a fair distance on the walking tracks, never to stress the birds.

Young Spangled Drongo just out of the nest, on my way back, the nest was empty.

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike guarding its chick in the nest. Parents take turns so that the chick is never alone.

A curious young Kookaburra experiencing the outside world for the first time.

Another young Kookaburra (notice all-dark bill) that fledged a few weeks ago, still being fed by its nearby parent.

Australian Brush-turkey

The Sacred Kingfisher is mostly a breeding summer visitor to Banks Street Reserve, at the moment I can hear young kingfishers calling from inside two nests.

Australasian Figbird, male.

Male Variegated Fairy-wren

Common Myna

Tadpoles, Cane Toads?

The number of butterflies has recently increased a lot. Above is an Orange Grass Dart Suniana sunias.

Evening Brown, Melanitis leda - summer form.

Common Aeroplane Phaedyma shepherdi

Cabbage White Pieris rapae

Baby Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes grow fast, today (6/1/19) I saw the parent feeding them and I could count 3.

White-browed Scrub-wren can be seen throughout the year at Banks Street Reserve, sometimes if they don't show up they can still be heard in the low bushes and undergrowth.

Female or  juvenile Varigated Fairywren, today I saw the whole family group of 7 moving through the bushes with young birds still begging for food.

I have seen the Little Egret for the first time at Banks Street, it was last recorder here in 1989! I guess not many birders visit this park...

Australian Gull Cepora perimale

MID JANUARY 

  Young Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes are almost ready to fledge.

Speckled Lineblue

Mallotus Harlequin Bug

White-throated Needletail

Nyctemera secundiana

 Jouvenile Spangled Drongo

 Common Pencilled Blue

White-throated Needletail, a non-breeding summer visitor from the northern hemisphere and our largest swift, can be seen circling high above the reserve mostly from November to March.

 Common Lineblue

Adult Australian White Ibis (foreground) showing its offspring where to feed.

Olive-backed Oriole

Great Egret

 Straw-necked Ibises

 Great Egret

 Primary feather of a Tawny Frogmouth

 Orange Palm Dart

Tiny Grass Blue

The two young Brown Goshawks that fledged a few weeks ago are becoming more and more independent, I could see no adults and the siblings enjoyed flying together above the open area following each other and being chased by a crow.

A juvenile Scared Kingfisher (notice the scalloped breast feathers) is learning how to be independent.

 Lewin's Honeyeater

Grey Butcherbird

Blue Triangle

Juvenile Brown Goshawk

 I was very glad to be able to take this photo of this Rufous Night-heron, an immature (still retaining the spotted feathers on the wing and back). I had seen it a few times over the summer, quite a shy bird, only this time it allowed me to take a better photo.

Little Pied Cormorant

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

Lyell's Swift or a Common Swift?


LATE JANUARY

I have the feeling that Banks Street Reserve is becoming quieter and quieter at this time of the year, it has been very warm and dry in the last few weeks, no rain, the water-level in the creek is very low. All the newly fledged birds that were calling for food are now probably becoming more and more independent and silent, I continue to see feathers spread all over and some very scruffy-looking birds. On January 20th I was surprised to see a single Painted Button-quail from one of the main tracks, quickly walking away in the scrub, only giving me the time for a good look through my binoculars. On the same day I also heard a White-throated Gerygone singing for a while, I hadn't heard it since August last year.

For this month at Banks Street Reserve I visited the place 13 times, I saw and heard a total of 67 species of birds, on average 45 species per outing. Here is a link to the complete list for January on eBird

Male Red-backed Fairy-wren.

Asota plagiata Two-spotted Tiger Moth 

 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

Adult Brown Goshawk

 Juvenile Red-backed Fairy-wren

 This is a platelet, a saucer-sized depression created by Painted Button-quails while foraging, scraping litter with their foot while turning in a circle. I saw some exactly where I saw the bird last week.

 Nice to receive a visit from the Royal Spoonbill, looking for food in the now very shallow water.

The Quandong trees are flowering and all the Lorikeets are feasting on the nectar, here a Rainbow Lorikeet.

 Eastern Water Dragon

Silvereye

Joseph's Coat Moth

 Brush-tailed Possum recycled the home of the Kookaburra family that left in December.

 Female Golden whistler, probably the resident one, at least two birds live here all year round, numbers peak during migration and winter.

 Black-faced Monarch, an adult, visiting after a while. Will it stay a few weeks or just passing through?

 Common Crow

 Just after I took this photo, this juvenile Sacred Kingfisher flew to the ground at three meters from me, it caught an insect and flew back to the branch. It does not need its parent anymore, in fact they were nowhere to be seen, have they left Banks Street Reserve already? Sacred Kingfishers leave the reserve once the breeding season is over.

Here is the young Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike (on the left) that was a chick in the nest at the beginning of the month.

 Tree Martin

 White-face Heron

The immature Rufous Night-heron is still skulking around the now very shallow, smelly and spread-out water pools along the creek. It has been a very dry January this year.