Striated Pardalotes (Dickie Birds) update

Bloody Striated Pardalotes

So, you may recall me having a whinge about these dickie birds holding up progress on the mighty retaining wall. http://dicknewman.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/bloody-wildlife.htmlWell, here's what Professor Mate wrote:
  "Lucky buggers.  You have a pair of Striated Pardalotes nesting in your bank.  Since you saw one with a worm in its beak - it most certainly has young at the end of its tunnel.  Their nesting tunnel is about 1m long with a small chamber containing a nest at the end.  These birds always dig a tunnel in an earth bank for a nest.
        Last year this pair nested in a bank at the back of Paul's house.
They have done this for a couple of years now and I wondered where they were nesting this year.  When we had a load of soil delivered for our vege garden they dug their tunnel in the pile of dirt and we had to put off filling the vege garden until they raised their young.  I would guess that it is the same pair that is now nesting in your retaining wall.
        Since they are feeding young, it should not be too long before they will be finished with their nesting tunnel.  So take a break from building your retaining wall for a week or two and let these beautiful little birds complete their nesting."

 So there. I've been officially told by the Prof. to down tools and have a nice lay down.
 

King Parrot

Who's a pretty boy then?

So, you would know by now that often, when I look out the window, there's some dickie bird or other having a feed on my shrubs. Today it was a King Parrot. This particular King Parrot is a boy. I can tell it's a boy, because it's pretty. The girly King Parrots are a bit Plain Jane. So, King Parrots, like your Paddock Worker, mate for life. When it comes around to a bit of the old making Parrot babies, the boy King does a little dance, then the girl King opens her beak and the boy vomits in it. Getting turned on yet?

Some people like to keep these dickie birds as pets. At the Paddock, all creatures are welcome to come and go as they please except for Bandicoots, Brush Turkeys, the neighbours bloody dog and people who like Alan Jones.

Noisy Miner

No, they haven't started fracking the paddock, a Noisy Miner is a dicky bird.

These are very common around the paddock as they are a species that has benefited from human development. They like the types of plants humans tend to like and grow. They hang around in organised mobs, terrorising smaller dicky birds and ganging up on bigger dickies.
Don't be looking out for elaborate mating rituals - they're into occasional orgies for reproduction. There is also a very good and hopefully self explanatory reason they are called noisy. 

Bloody wildlife

So I am installing a Magnificent Retaining Wall at La Studio. Only about a quarter done and already my manly Paddock Worker biceps feel like steel. Anyway, as I was happily digging along, I saw a Dickie Bird dart into a hole in the dirt. A few seconds later, it was out again. A few minutes later it was back. So, I figure I have the rare spangled feathered timid tit wren or some bloody thing nesting where I want to excavate. 

What's a Paddock Worker to do? It was about then I started thinking on the old Builders Laborers Federation and immediately downed tools. I went straight up to the Responsible Adult and convinced her to have a couple of coldies with me. 

I have sent pics to Professor Mate who will hopefully identify this little bugger and let me know how to deal with the situation. I shall keep you posted.

The rear end of the Rough Faced Shag

The Front end of the Hoary Honeycreeper

  

Snakes Alive!

Frank the Carpet Python

Crikey! It's warmed up and I can't seem to step outside without tripping over a snake. The main species we get here are whip, tree, black and carpet. Occasionally we get brown and tiger snakes but I don't hang around for a positive ID on those. Frank is our generic name for large Carpet Pythons that hang around the house. They are pretty harmless for humans but nice and deadly for rats and (unfortunately) chooks. I lost my last two chooks to a fat old python. They can also be a bit annoying around your pot plants.

Bloody Frank mucking up my Orchid

 Anyway, apart from chook loss, it's handy to have a Python hanging around to tidy up the rodent population in an Eco-friendly, no mess manner. Frank has had family at the house paddock and raised a lovely bunch of baby snakes in recent years - so I guess there must be more than one Frank living here. Not sure - they all look the same to me.

Yellow Faced Whip Snake

About a year ago, the Responsible Adult started to tell me stories of seeing pink snakes around the vege patch. All sorts of snakes visit the paddock - pythons, tree snakes, black, brown, tiger, whip - and they are all welcome. Perhaps not the browns and tigers so much but generally I can outrun them. Anyway, I had never seen a pink snake so my immediate reaction was to check the Cognac (The Responsible Adult and her girlfriend have been known to knock back a few) But the Cognac levels were OK so I have been waiting to see these pink snakes.

As the weather starts to warm, so does the libido of male snakes. So as I was around the vege patch the other day, two "pink" snakes did the horizontal limbo. 

Yellow Faced Whip Snake

 After playing a fair bit of kiss-chasey, our lovers settled down to the business of making baby snakes which allowed plenty of time for a few happy snaps to mark the occasion. Getting a really good photo allowed me to positively identify these crazy kids as a particular type of whip snake that we haven't had before. 

If you want to know more about these, go here:

 http://australianmuseum.net.au/Yellow-faced-Whip-Snake

Rainbow Lorikeet

I was about to write a post on weeding - which has been going on for about 20 days - when this bloke turned up just outside the cubby house. Usually these parrots hang around in gangs or at least pairs, terrorising local flowering flowers and yelling at each other. Not sure why this one was on his own, but I hope he finds a nice lorikeet friend to hang around with.