Meet Herb Featherfluffer. He and his mate are the cheeky local resident Yellow-throated Scrubwrens of Jersey Springs in Royal National Park. Note how Herb is snatching small seeds and invertebrates off the side of the trail. He very seldom flips any leaves but rather snatches his prey opportunistically. I have seen his mate Dorrie jump into the air to snatch a moth. I've seen them both eating from the figs on the ground after the Wonga Pigeons have pulled them apart and I've also seen Herb eat an entire small mushroom! Yellow-throated Scrubwrens often forage side by side, hopping along the more open parts of the forest floor, staying in touch with a "tak" contact call when close or with a high single note sibilant whistle when they're more distant. They tend to forage further apart in the colder months but soon they will start to forage side by side as Herb will begin to feed Dorrie so she will be in good condition to build a nest and produce her three small eggs.
The similar White-browed Scrubwren which shares the same habitat with the Featherfluffers spends its time turning over leaves and crawling beneath the ground cover almost like a small mouse. In this way these very similar species which enjoy very similar prey can live side by side without competing directly. This is called "resource partitioning" or "niche separation". This is part of the evolutionary story of speciation: finding a niche where you can adapt to, make your own and thrive. This is one way in which diversity is created. There are so many other fascinating stories about these scrubwrens. You can meet them and many more fascinating birds on my bird tours or workshops. Send me a direct message 📨 if you're up for it! . . . The sound track to this clip is provided by many Brown Gerygones (whichizit whichizit izit), a warbling White-throated Treecreeper, an Eastern Whipbird, a squeaky Grey Fantail and a vociferous Green Catbird!
Pairs of White-browed and Yellow-throated Scrubwrens collect any invertebrate spoils left by a female Superb Lyrebird foraging in Royal NP this morning. Behind me a male lyrebird practices some courtship song. He needn't bother, as this female has an egg in her nearby nest.
Increasing westerly winds and longer days are brining the Dharawal month of Burrugin to an end. This has been the month where the huge Gymea Lilly flowers light up the forests and the Forest Red Gums bloom, bringing providing nectar for many birds and animals. Wirrgan, the Noisy Miners are building their nests and Diruwun, the Australian Magpie begin to sing more and defend territories . . . Burrugin, the Echidna emerges to find a mate.
My next Bird Watching course starts on August 12. Get the binocular skills, trail skills, bird ecology know-how and ID skills to take your birding to the next level. 3 months, 6 Field Trips, 5 Ebooks, 4 Zoom meetings, 3 Assignments. Get more info and course prospectus here: https://aussiewild.com.au/bird-watching/
Take your birding to the next level! One of the rarest and most difficult birds to track down in the Sydney region is the Australian Logrunner. Finding this shy and secretive bird of the rainforest leaf litter demands excellent knowledge about how birds use their habitats, and pro level trail use and observation skills, ID skills and binocular skills. You can learn all these in my Bird Watching course which begins on August 12. Running for 3 months, it includes 6 Field Trips - 5 Ebooks - 4 zoom meetings - 3 engaging assignments. Get more info here: https://aussiewild.com.au/bird-watching/
Bird Watching course 1
How are you going to find, get your binoculars on and identify this little brown bird in a rainforest? . . . Coming on August 12 my next Bird Watching course! Get the pro level skills that will take your birding to the next level, to track down and find, identify and enjoy fabulous birds like the Large-billed Scrubwren. This 4 month course offers:
* Pro level binocular skills training
* Bird ID skills
* Trail walking know-how
* How birds use their environment . . . The beauty of this course is that it will take us through the best months of Sydney birding, right through the peak breeding season and arrival of the summer migrants from north Australia and beyond. Find out more on my website: https://aussiewild.com.au/bird-watching/
Sydney Bird Watching course
These bird watching courses can take a raw beginner through to a confident birder equipped with all the skills to enjoy a lifetime of birding and immersive experiences in nature! My next Bird Watching course kicks off on January 25 with the release of the Part 1 ebook then the Part 1 Zoom Meeting on February 1 and Part 1 Field Trip on Sunday, February 4. For more information about the course and a course prospectus visit https://aussiewild.com.au/bird-watching/
Whilst enjoying some amazing birding in Royal National Park yesterday, we spied this Echidna enjoying a tasty feast of ants. My guests from Oregon and Idaho were beside themselves at the mystery and cuteness of this little Aussie icon . . .
Earlier this week I joined Sutherland Shire Council's Bushcare team for some Shorebird Show and Tell at Taren Point Wetlands. It wasn't a huge cast but we did enjoy observing an Eastern Curlew who joined a number of Bar-tailed Godwits (including two juveniles). The stories of the epic migrations which these birds undertake and how the physiological or phenotypic changes take place in these birds in order to achieve them constitute some of the most wonderful stories in nature. Here's one of the local godwits enjoying a feed on the mudflats at this small but important reserve and now into recovery mode after more than 11 days of non-stop flight from Alaska to Australia, across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean . . .
I observed platypuses in Royal NP again today at the same location I regularly find them. This time for 20 minutes with excellent views, often only about 5 metres distant. I shot this footage with an iPhone which in no way reflects the true quality of this encounter, in which I could often see every detail of these remarkable animals. I will be including platypuses on my tours in this location from here on. Limit of three guests per tour.
I love introducing visitors to the amazing birds of the Sydney region and for some it is their first encounter with Australian birds, as they fly in the night before the tour. Top of the list are the Laughing Kookaburra, Satin Bowerbird, Superb Lyrebird and Eastern Whipbird. However, every bird has an amazing story, including my favourite, the Yellow-throated Scrubwren. Sharing these stories and taking my fellow adventurers on a journey of discovery as we meet these birds is at the heart of what I do.
These feisty fellows play so many important roles in the tall wet forests along much of the east coast of Australia. Yesterday whilst taking Dirk Prop out on a tour on his last day before returning to the Netherlands we observed the fascinating interactions of the Yellow-throated Scrubwren and Superb Lyrebird. The Superb Lyrebird is an important 'eco engineer' in forests of the east coast and ranges of Australia, where each bird can turn over up to 60 tonne of leaf litter and soil a year in search of the worms and other large invertebrates which comprise their diet. In doing so, the keep the soil healthy and the micro rhizome or fungal filament layer beneath the soil healthy - without which the forests would disappear . . . The Yellow-throated Scrubwren assists the lyrebirds, by keeping watch for potential threats whilst enjoying a feed on the tiny invertebrates which the lyrebird overlooks . . . an important mutualism! The Yellow-throated Scrubwren has a number of other habits which also benefit other birds and mammals in the forest as well as being a mimic of other birds without equal. You can meet them on one of my tours of Royal National Park.
This morning's tour with Kate Wittenberg from Oregon got off to a wet start but this is often an excellent sign during September and October. This is because the Autumn rain triggers male Superb Lyrebirds to begin displaying as the rains bring the worms closer to the surface in the soil and this nutrition bonanza in turn triggers the females to breed. Of course it's far from Autumn, but most of the male birds have not yet gone into tail moult and are still in the mood to fancy their chances if they display. The result was not only that we had an excellent morning of birding in general, but we observed two males displaying beautifully for several minutes each just off the track and a few others performing song for us very nicely or simply just enjoying the feast of worms along the track like this immature male bird.
I arrived in the predawn at Fig Tree Flat in Royal National Park this morning and was greeted by the beautiful ringing/cooing staccato call of the White-throated Nightjar from across the Hacking River. This was part of a stunning growing dawn chorus which was dominated at first by the Superb and Variegated Fairy-wrens. The males do this in order to attract females to sneak out and enjoy a short pre-dawn tryst before their husbands rise (of course they're all in the game so . . .). Whipbirds were very vocal as were the Sacred Kingfishers and Leaden Flycatchers (both of whom have just arrived in the park in the last couple of days). The lyrebirds were awakening in the trees with their usual piercing defensive morning screams, which I managed to capture and will link to when I get around to setting up a Soundcloud account.
The birding was simply breathtaking this morning, but I was anxious to visit two of the Yellow-throated Scrubwrens who I have been following for the past couple of years. Herb and Dorrie Featherfluffer live at Jersey Springs, around 3km from the entrance of Lady Carrington Drive and are quite simply, my favourite birds in the world.
This highly engaging pair spend their days hopping around the leaf litter side by side, protecting their territorial boundaries and accepting any invertebrate snacks which the local Superb Lyrebirds, Bassian Thrushes or Eastern Whipbirds might turn over for them whilst they forage through the leaf litter. They also enjoy a little mushroom here and there and any figs on the forest floor which might have been broken open by a bowerbird or pigeon. They are some of the most splendid mimics in the forest and have a huge repertoire which vastly exceeds the Superb Lyrebird and indeed includes the calls of the lyrebird!
This year they used a nest which Dorrie built last year and from which they raised three boys. They have also used the same nest this year and, in a first, they have produced two boys and a girl! (I may post
A couple of quick glimpses of a Platypus I've been seeing regularly in Royal National Park . . .
I was returning from a survey at Boat Harbour today when I encountered a leucistic Australian Magpie. Here's a little footage. Leucism is the term for what we see when the colour genes get scrambled in a bird or animal. It's not incredibly rare in Australian Magpies, but apart from images and very minor cases, I've certainly never seen this much leucism personally in any Magpie and certainly never anything like this around the Shire. I'll drop a bunch of images I snapped on my phone shortly . . .
