Antechinus or rat?

I was standing at my window looking out at the gathering dusk when a small mammal popped out of the shrubs and darted down the rock wall, and across our paved verandah. Antechinus!  I have lived in this house on a small bush block for 15 years and this is my second sighting of this little animal. The antechinus is a carnivorous marsupial, in the same family as the Tassie Devil, quolls and the rat-sized Brush-tailed Phascogale.

The last time I saw our resident antechinus was also at dusk, as he or she drank deeply from a bird bath that is set on the ground. But how do I know they are here all the time? Their scats!

Antechinus scats or droppings are the key to identifying whether your scuttling brown mammals are rats or native marsupials. In most bush houses and gardens around here we have a mix of introduced Black Rats, Agile Antechinus and possibly native Bush Rats.

A beautiful little critter, note the notched ears. Pic by Mel Williams

To tell the difference between a Black Rat and a native Bush Rat – look at the tail. The Black Rat’s tail is twice as long as its body and is nearly naked, almost segmented like a very skinny earthworm. The Bush Rat’s tail is shorter than its body and quite furry. Warning: the cuteness factor does not help you distinguish between these two species – some Black Rats are simply adorable with their fine whiskers, soulful eyes and little white chests. We had a visitor from Sydney taking pics of a Black Rat clambering around on our washing up – only later did I realise it was not an adorable Antechinus or native Bush Rat! Oops.

Black rat: left, Bush rat on the right: credit Taronga Zoo

 

Scat identification is a fun hobby – it is all about textures, and knowing a bit about the animal’s diet. Black Rats and Bush Rats are omnivorous – indeed Black Rats will eat nearly anything. Their scats are hard, cylindrical pellets that are pretty uniform in size and shape, often with a little point at one end. When you break them open they are compacted and simply break in half. Mouse scats are similar in texture, just smaller.

Agile Antechinus, on the other hand are insectivores – they eat mostly insects, with hard chitinous exoskeletons. The antechinus has long pointed jaws full of many sharp teeth which chew their insect prey up very finely. So when you pick up an antechinus scat and crumble it slightly between thumb and forefinger the whole thing breaks up into a zillion tiny brown fragments which may have a bit of iridescence. In scat parlance, they are known as ‘friable’.

Antechinus scats may be cylinders with rough broken off ends, or even curled “Mr Whippy” style scats. If the scats are friable and full of insect fragments but tiny and in great numbers – you could be looking at bat scats, as microbats also have an insect diet.

One would think that being able to identify the scats means I can confidently say whether it is Black Rats or Antechinus keeping us up at night in the roof. At our house, it seems these two species coexist – and both scats may be found under our roof.

The Antechinus leaves more scats in the shed and across the woodpile – seeming to drop them freely as they scamper about, whereas the Black Rats seems to save their scats for depositing in their creepy lairs, in secret dark places such as under tin sheets in the garden,  and notoriously in car engines!

Another way to tell these two animal groups apart is their two very distinctive gaits. Rodents, whether they are native or introduced, run in a smooth continuous motion, kind of like a horse in a gallop. Antechinus move in a very different way, it is staccato and super fast, a kind of coordinated hopping gait that moves across the ground or log like a horizontal hop. The only other animals I have seen move like this are possums and bandicoots – also marsupials.

 

The Agile Antechinus is one of the most common animals in the Wombat Forest, and the star of the Wombat Forest camera trapping program run by Wombat Forestcare and the VNPA. If you live in the drier parts of the Hepburn Shire, such as Yandoit or Clydesdale you would have the Agile’s Antechinus’ larger fluffier cousin, the very pretty Yellow-footed Antechinus.

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Beef: a book review

When trying to educate and inspire people to act you can take two routes: fact-based: a litany of facts that any sane person would want to change and then key actions to take- eg to stop pollution, ban the bag. As a wildlife advocate, my writing could consist of listing habitat destruction, new diseases, death by cars, fences, dogs and cats – in the hope of galvanising the reader to act.

Alternatively, you can take the route that aims to first create a connection to the very thing you are trying to save. This second route is what I try to do as a nature writer in my newspaper column, and here on this blog – I aim to help people notice the nature world, and then tell a story about the plants and animals we share our world with. Edgar’s Mission is a grand example of creating this connection – beautiful photos of rescued farm animals living safe, warm and happy lives; lives where their personalities are allowed to thrive.

Beef, by Mat Blackwell, also uses story to connect and capture the imagination. In this very probable near future, specially grown ‘vatmeat’ has enabled people to stop raising and killing animals. The idea of eating meat from a living animal is now culturally taboo, so much so that people get a kick out of watching ‘meatmovies’ which are old clips of people happily munching on the leg of a lamb, or a chicken’s wing!! To think!!

The invention of vatmeat has allowed people to continue to eat meat despite the known health effects. The author understands very well that people just want to keep doing what they have always been doing but without the slight, persistent guilt. So it is with a huge sigh of relief that the energy crisis is ‘solved’ by using the vatmeat byproducts as an endless energy source. Air conditioners, plasma TV’s: all still OK!

But Beef isn’t only a science fiction story exploring environment and ethics – it is a love story and a coming-of-age story for lead character Royston, the youngest of the Beef Corporation clan, the fantastically rich and powerful inventors of vatmeat and the subsequent energy crisis solution.

Royston is going through the motions of life in his eccentric family, and happy with his wife Lena and his daughter River. Until BAM! Gene enters his life. Royston falls head over heels for this luscious embodiment of womanhood and the two strike up a very close friendship that oozes with sexual tension and causes a fuckload of consternation for Royston. I say fuckload because if you don’t like swearing you are in for a challenging read. The language is colourful and expressive, perhaps borne from Mat’s years as a comedy writer for Good News Week and MANY other programs  ( The Glasshouse, The Sideshow, Room 101, Wednesday Night Fever).

Back to the story: there are deep secrets in the Beef dynasty, and there is also something going on with Royston’s best friend Luka. I don’t want to give anything away, but let’s just say the climax of the book is simply devastating!!!

The denouement was rather quick but I have to say that I was so moved by the revelations that I had to go and cry so a short wrap up worked for me.

Mixie, a dairy calf rescued from slaughter, now residing at Edgar’s Mission

The vegan worldview is really hard to understand until you give up all animals products for at least a month, and also research the realities of life for so many animals on the planet. Billions of them. We worry about our dogs and cats and horses being mistreated, but our modern civilisation’s dirty secret is the true cost of cheap meat. When an animal is simply an economic unit, its needs are irrelevant. Movies such as Earthlings explore these issues but they are usually so devastating that most people (me included) simply can’t watch them! They are like snuff films. In fact they are snuff films.

So being acutely aware of the suffering and the magnitude of this perfectly legal and socially acceptable suffering is extremely painful for vegans, and ever-present.

For example, most people look at a field of cows munching grass in the sunshine and they can’t see much wrong with the picture. A vegan sees a group of mothers, who are artificially impregnated year after year, through their stomachs without anaesthetic. Their terrified little calves are taken from them within days, trucked to slaughter and killed by a machine. The cow is then milked every day. This process is repeated every year until the cows are 4-6 years old and then they too are trucked to slaughter – instead of living until 14 or 15. I was a happy vegetarian for twenty years before I was made aware of this process – I still feel ripped off and lied to.

And now, as demand for meat and milk products rises worldwide, more intensive and more cruel methods are being trialled. One could write a very dark novel about this trend. One that would be very hard to read!

But Beef explores an alternate reality, the sort of world where the treatment of animals in this way is morally repugnant, and it reflects on the past in a very light-hearted and easy to read way. Without lecturing!

I am passionate about animal rights and transitioning from vegetarian to vegan slowly. I am also a nature writer who cares about advocating behaviour change for a kinder and more nature loving world. So this book really resonated with me, and really moved me. I would love to hear what a happy meat eater thought about the story and its conclusion.

Beef is presently self-published, and I purchased it online without any fuss. I think it works equally well as a love story or as science fiction, or speculative fiction, indeed Beef reminds me very much of one of my favourite authors, Margaret Atwood, just with more swearing! I recommend this book whole-heartedly to vegan, vegetarian and omnivore alike!

To read a non-spoiler interview with the author go here

And to buy a hard copy go  here

Fallow Deer family

A few nights ago, I spotted a family group of deer on the roadside as I drove to Daylesford.  There was a female deer, a male with small horns, and a young deer. The adults crossed the road towards Leitches Creek Bushland Reserve while the young deer stared at me with some confusion. I followed my kangaroo protocol – turn high beams off, slow down or stop (if safe to do so) and the young one joined his family soon enough.

Deer were introduced to Australia as game animals with much enthusiasm by the Acclimitisation Societies of the 19^th Century. There are several species in Australia which are naturalised – that is, they have self-sustaining populations in our forests and farmlands.

The Grampians is the home of the mighty Red Deer – those huge, impressive deer of Scottish wildlife documentaries. Eastern Victoria and particularly East Gippsland is the home of the Sambar, another massive species of deer. In the Otways and here in the Wombat Forest, we have Fallow Deer and, to a lesser extent, Sambar. Coastal areas such as Wilsons Promontary and the Gippsland Lakes have Hog Deer.

This is a female Fallow Deer without spots (pixabay.com)

Fallow Deer are smaller than Red Deer or Sambar – the males weigh up to 90 kg, while a Sambar male can be up to 250kg! Like most deer, males are larger than females, with females being about half the weight of males.

Fallow Deer are your classic spotty deer – a rusty, reddish-brown colour with white spots, blending to a white underbelly and legs. A black stripe runs along the back and extends onto the tail. Some deer do not have spots, and some are very dark – and quite a few deer are white. A farmer in Muckleford has a group of deer living on and around his farm, with a big all-white stag!

The deer we see wild locally are from deer farms that have gone out of business, and then the owners have set them free into the nearby bush.  Fallow deer can’t survive in purely native habitats such as huge stretches of forest. They rely on a patchwork pattern; a modified landscape of paddocks with introduced grasses, farms and farmlets and patches of open forest or woodland.

During Winter, Spring and early summer, there is some degree of segregation between the sexes – males form small groups and roam across their home ranges, while the females, yearlings of both sexes and juveniles remain more sedentary.

With this in mind, the family I spotted the other night may have been mum, big brother and a young one. This little group will stick together until late Summer/ Autumn, when the rut begins.  The males return to their favourite rutting territories, and make grunting calls, paw the ground, spread their urine and scent, and flay bushes and tree trunks with their antlers. The females visit the males and mate.

About seven months later a little fawn is born. The mother and fawn pretty much keep to themselves until the fawn is about a month old, and then they rejoin the local herd.

–Wonderful male Fallow Deer, by Jiri Nederost

Most of the information I could find about Fallow Deer was about their value and qualities as a game animal. Deer hunting is hugely popular and growing each year – some 60,000 deer were killed by hunters last year.  I have to admit I am in two minds about this! Wherever there are large herds of deer the native plant species are diminished in number, orchids and wildflowers destroyed, and the wattles browsed to such an extent that small birds lose their cover for feeding and nesting.

Fallow Deer predators are listed as wolves, cougars, lynx, bears, mountain cougars, coyotes and bobcats – no wonder they are doing so well in Australia! From what I can see from the Australian Deer Association, deer hunting requires a lot of patience and skill, and precision, as the deer are so wary and intelligent. As hunting goes, it seems fairer than duck shooting, or kangaroo hunting – both of which are horribly cruel and very unfair.

Hunting aside,  my heart sings whenever I see our local Fallow Deer – they are so pretty and gentle! I have Dutch and Irish heritage, so I think some deep, ancestral part of me really loves these animals.

For this year’s Words in Winter, I will be giving a  talk : “Hepburn Nature Diary: seven years and counting”, a behind the scenes look at my nature stories. Please come and say hello! Saturday, August 6, 6:30 – 7:20 at the Words in Winter Hub, 81 Vincent Street, Daylesford.

Male Fallow Deer picture:  via Wikimedia Commons and http://www.hvozd.eu/

For some information on ecology of Fallow Deer in Australia ( Tasmania) rather than hunting information, this paper is interesting Fallow-Deer-Species-Profile Tasmania

 

Flying Dinosaurs: a book review

“As you read this, an estimated 400 billion individual feathered dinosaurs, of 10,000 species, can be found on earth, in almost every habitable environment. You need only step outside and look up into the trees and the wide blue skies to find them”

John Pickrell is the editor of Australian Geographic and an accomplished journalist who has followed the last exciting decade or two in paleaontology very closely. Flying Dinosaurs is a culmination of this passion.

Since the first dinosaurs with feathers started coming out of China in the late 90’s, I have been aware of the thrilling notion that there are virtually no differences between today’s birds and the feathered therapod dinosaurs of millions of years ago, but this immensely readable book painted a picture for me like never before. The author describes birds as “simply small, specialised, mostly flight-capable forms of dinosaur”. Small feathered flying dinosaurs ( birds) were around at the same time as the huge predators like Tyrannosaurus rex. And these large dinosaurs were covered in feathers.

Their co-existence was long – for a period of some 85 million years there was a diverse assemblage of dinosaurs and birds. There are some fantastic artworks in the centre of the book illustrating all the new advances in what we know about feathered dinosaurs – and one of these depicts a large feathered carnivorous dinosaur with small feathered dinosaurs perched on his head – much like oxpeckers on a giraffe today.

In a warm and conversational tone, “Flying dinosaurs” covers a wide range of topics such as the evolution of feathers for flight and display, dinosaur sounds ( very unlike any bird!),  dinosaur sex, and more.

For a long period of time, feathered dinosaurs tried out the four-winged method of flying – dinosaurs such as Microraptor, a small raven-sized dinosaur, had winged forearms and winged legs – capable of flapping flight. The wings on the feathers were true wings, with the feathers aerodynamically shaped asymmetrically like modern feathers to provide lift.

The book detailed discoveries of pigments that show that Microraptor was black, an iridescent  blue – black similar to ravens – and this was 130 million years ago!

The four-winged Microraptor gui ( from Wikimedia Commons)

 

For a fantastic video from the American Museum of Natural History, explaining the discovery of black pigments ( and really realistic depictions!) See Microraptor gui .

The book is not all about the science and ecology of feathered dinosaurs – it also describes the burgeoning trade in fossils and fake fossils! Fossils can be faked in a number of ways: sometimes they are created by sticking together many disparate bones from separate individuals, or they may be combined from separate species to create what looks like a new species. Fossils are also manipulated or enhanced and sometimes even painstakingly created from scratch with excellent craftsmanship.

If you have any interest at all in dinosaurs or birds, this book is highly recommended – an easy read through a veritable tsunami of new discoveries; which still continue! In fact the Flying  Dinosaurs blog has a recent discovery which takes the cake for weirdness… Yi qi, meaning “strange wing” was discovered in 2015. Yi qi was a small pigeon-sized dinosaur with long tail feathers for display, a body covering of feathery fluff coupled with special long fingers and forearms covered with membraneous skin like a bat! And they believed it flew! Clearly dinosaur diversity is only just beginning to be grasped.

John Pickrell’s blog is at  http://flyingdinosaurs.net/blog/

A great review of the book can be found on Chris Watson’s fantastic blog The Grip http://www.chriswatson.com.au/blog/flying-dinosaurs

This book review was originally published in Wombat Forestcare’s wonderful newsletter. For a copy of the June 2016 issue:  Wombat Forestcare website

Mating swans at Lake Daylesford

I love how a nature moment can occur at any time – not necessarily when out in the forest with binoculars in hand. We were coming out of the Boathouse Cafe at Lake Daylesford after brunch when I noticed two swans very close together, right near the shoreline. The swans silently performed a beautiful series of synchronised movements – their necks bowing from side to side, arching over their partner’s body.

I commented that they looked frisky, and my friend visiting from London crept forward to take a photo. Frisky indeed they were, as one swan, presumably the female, floated low in the water while the male mounted her as he gripped the base of her neck with his bill. Mating lasted for just a moment. As they parted, they raised their necks and heads to the sky and honked loudly in unison. It was a beautiful moment; this is called the “Triumph display”!

A pair of swans – from Wikimedia Commons…

 

After separating the swans swam apart and rearranged their feathers a bit, acting very casual. My friend recorded the mating, and the lovely honking calls, and this can be viewed on my blog.

Male swans can be distinguished from females by being slightly larger – males 6-9 kilograms and females 4-7 kilograms. The male swan is called a cob due to the knob on his bill. This comes from the old German term “Knopf” meaning knob. The female is called the pen because of the way she holds her wings back in a penned manner from the old English term “Penne”. Although I think they both hold their wings in a similar manner!

Mating season for swans is anywhere from June to September, so this amorous pair got in early on May 28. The pairs mate for life, although, as in many so-called monogamous birds, extra-pair matings ( or sneaky affairs) are very common. In fact, studies at Albert Park Lake have revealed that 15 per cent of all cygnets are not sired by their social ‘father’, but by another cob in the population.

Black swans are the subject of intense study by researchers past and present at Melbourne University. One such researcher, Ken Kraaijaveld studied the social lives of the swans of Lake Wendouree very closely with the help of Ballarat Field Naturalists club members John Gregurke and Carol Hall.

Black Swans have very curly feathers on their backs, actually their wings, so when they are in the water, the back feathers look very curled. Both males and females have between 7 and 22 of these curly feathers. The curls develop throughout their youth, then remain fixed in number once they are sexually mature.

some free Black Swan wallpaper – showing the beautiful curled feathers

 

It turns out these curled feathers are actually a determinant of who mates with who, and the dominance of a pair in the flock. The swans with lots of curled feathers pair up togethe, and highly ornamented pairs select the best breeding areas for their cygnets. The cygnets raised by these “power couples” have the best chance of survival.

The study of the Lake Wendouree swans moved to Albert Park Lake when Lake Wendouree dried up in the big drought. You can read about the ongoing research of swans there at the website http://www.myswan.org.au/, and see a beautiful series of images of swans mating.

The pair at Lake Daylesford will probably have a nest ready to go nearby – one that was either built this season, or built upon from previous years. Once laid, the eggs will be incubated for about 40 days. If all goes well, we will be seeing four or five gorgeous fluffy grey cygnets at the lake in early July.

The biggest threats to breeding swans are foxes, which are rife around large lake systems and also very common locally. Another threat is both chasing and attack by off-lead dogs. Whether the dog actually “gets” the swan is not the point, as the chasing interrupts the swans’ feeding regimes, and stresses the birds out, raising their cortisol levels and lowering their resistance to disease.

More traditional predators include Australian Ravens, Native Water Rats and the bird of prey the Swamp Harrier. I have seen Native Water rats at the lake; they are lovely animals, however I do hope they stick to their usual diet of crustaceans and small fish!

An edited version of this was published in Hepburn Advocate 8/06/2015 xx

The Galaxias of Nolans Creek

I am writing this article under the pergola at Nolans Creek Picnic Ground, south of Bullarto, enjoying a much needed day of rain in the Wombat State Forest. The ferns look so happy, the lichens and mosses are revived. Small birds such as White-browed Scrubwrens forage among dripping shrubs, and a Victorian Smooth froglet calls from the dry creekbed. Their call is a very recognisable crr-r-rarck crarck pip pip pip-pip-pip pip, and I only hear it in these wetter higher parts of the Wombat.

Yes, Nolans Creek is bone dry.  Part of the reason for the morning expedition is to see whether I can spot any of the native fish that live in this creek, a smooth, cigar-shaped little beauty called a galaxias. But not even the deep pools have water.

I remember coming here in summer in past years and seeing galaxia in the deep pools, along with the large tadpoles of Pobblebonks. These big taddies require pretty permanent water, as their slow growing young take over a year to mature into frogs.

If you type native fish and Wombat Forest into your search engine, most of what comes up is information on trout fishing opportunities. Trout and their relatives are introduced fish that have a devastating impact on native fish. Trout eat the eggs and young of fish such as Galaxias. The trout and native fish also compete for the same food sources. The introduced Redfin which is also very common locally also eats the eggs and young of native fish.

According to the 1999 Lerderderg Park Management plan, there are Mountain Galaxias in the Lerderderg River. This particular species of galaxias is listed as Critically Endangered on the UCN Red List. That’s big – this little fish should be well known as we try to save its last little populations!

But fish are not as well known or considered as much as other groups of animals. For example, this is my first nature diary article on fish since my contributions began in 2009! The Wombat Forestcare website, the go-to place for local biodiversity knowledge has species lists for birds, mammals, frogs, reptiles, invertebrates, a fungi field guide – but no information on fish.

Adorable! Pic by  Julian Finn (!)  / Museum Victoria. License: CC BY Attribution 

While getting a coffee at Cliffys on the way out here, I was lucky to see a long term local who had some interesting fish knowledge to share. Steve began by emphasising that the creeks and rivers around here just aren’t the same as 20-30 years ago.

There were platypus in Jim Crow ( Jum cra) Creek, and Blackfish all through the upper Loddon. The platypus and blackfish ( a larger native fish also badly effected by trout) could persist because the dry summers still always had deep pools – drought refuges that are now dry. And one day, at the Glenyon General store many many years ago, a chap came to the store with a huge Murray Cod he had just caught, and everyone was like “where did you land that?!” And he said “oh under the bridge just here in Glenlyon”.

It is difficult for me to know what kind of Mountain Galaxias have lived in Nolans Creek. Recent work on this species by Dr Tarmo Raadik has shown that this group is actually a diverse “species complex” with maybe 15 species! I imagine they have fairly similar lifestyles, being so closely related.

The fish live in small groups, foraging and resting near boulders and rocky outcrops. They prefer crystal clear waters that are running gently over a sandy or rocky substrate.

The galaxias are usually 7 or 8 cm long, but can grow up to 14 cm. They are reproductively mature at about the end of their first year, and spawn in spring and summer – or sometimes autumn. The female lays 50 – 100 eggs on the underside of stones and boulders in riffles and at the head of pools.

This pic was also by Mr Finn on the excellent Fishes of Australia site – see below

These delicate treasures can live ONLY where there are no trout or redfin, and are endemic to Australia, meaning they are found nowhere else in the world. So I am praying for more rain – to fill the creeks for the Mountain Galaxias and Blackfish and other aquatic animals that must be struggling so in these drought times…

Martin F. Gomon & Dianne J. Bray, 2011, Mountain Galaxias, Galaxias olidus, in Fishes of Australia, accessed 29 Apr 2016, http://www.fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/3677

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyVg-P2BPhM A delightful video of closely related Ornate Galaxias – part of the Mountain Galaxias complex.

Nolans Creek, April 2016. Lovely habitat for fish and frogs – when there is water!!!!!!

I found this pic! The same creek in April 2011. Ooh – what a lovely wet year that was! This pic was taken about 100 metres from the bridge pictured above.

 

Jewels of the dry bush

I most often write about the flora and fauna of the wetter, more higher elevations of the Wombat Forest and surrounds. The forests around Daylesford, Porcupine Ridge, Glenlyon have tall messmates and candlebarks, silver wattles and blackwood, and birds such as White-eared Honeyeaters, Crescent Honeyeaters and Gang gang cockatoos. But as you head past Mount Franklin, and yours ears pop a little as you move onto the plains – a whole different world awaits. The flora and fauna of Shepherds Flat, Yandoit, and Clydesdale are remarkably different to the Daylesford area.

The trees are red box, grey box and yellow gum with black wattles, with river red gums along the watercourses. And the bird fauna is incredible: Fuscous Honeyeaters, White-plumed Honeyeaters, Brown Treecreepers and one of my very favourite birds – the Diamond Firetail.

A little stunner, photographed at Little Desert National Park by Francesco Veronesi via Wikimedia Commons.

A small bird of great beauty, the Diamond Firetail sports a neat black and grey suit with white spots, set off by a dashing crimson rump and a coral-coloured bill and eye ring.

Diamond Firetails feed on seeds of both grasses and native trees such as she-oak. One day at the Rise and Shine Bushland Reserve in Clydesdale, I chanced upon a lone Diamond Firetail foraging with a distinctive series of moves. He trundled along the ground, then leapt up to a grass seed head, grabbed it firmly in his bill, then stood on the grass head to eat the seeds. The process was repeated at the next grass tussock.

Living on seeds alone is thirsty work, and Diamond Firetails need a safe source of water in their bushland or woodland habitat. In dry times, one way to help firetails and other birds is through the provision of a bird bath or two. Bird baths are a wonderful way to enjoy your local birds, but do bear in mind they require daily maintenance to ensure the water is clean, and always topped up.

It is too hot and dry for breeding at the moment, but after the rains return and seeding grasses are available, nesting will occur anytime from August. To attract the female, the male Diamond Firetail selects a long piece of grass with a seed head, and holds it tightly in his bill. He then fluffs his spotted flank feathers and sings as he bobs up and down on the perch.

If the female approves, they will mate in the privacy of the nest. The nest is a domed affair, of grasses, seed heads and roots, and may be found in a mistletoe clump or a thick shrub such as Hedge Wattle. Very often, flowers are weaved into the entrance of the front of the nest. The inside of the nest is lined with very fine grasses and feathers weaved together.

A few years ago, I observed a Diamond Firetail nest built amongst the large sticks of the base of a Wedge-tailed Eagle nest! According to BirdLife Australia, this is a common practice, and the finches use many types of birds of prey nests such as such as a Whistling Kite, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Brown Falcon, Nankeen Kestrel and Square-tailed Kite. One nest of a Whistling Kite contained nine Diamond Firetail nests!

Diamond firetail in the bath. They readily use bird baths where they occur – I am jealous. I would love these birds here at Porcupine Ridge! Pic by Geoff Park, at Newstead.

Diamond Firetails forage in small flocks. In a fascinating study, bird ecologists discovered that it was actually the females in a flock that determine where a flock forages, and many females forage first for the choicest seeds. This dominant position of some females over the males and other females was indicated by the size and number of white spots along her flanks. A female with many and large spots was likely to always win over a contest over choice food items. It is very unusual in the bird world to have feather patterns playing such a big role in female – male food competition.

 

The spots are also distinctive enough that if you have Diamond firetails visiting your bird bath or garden, and you take photos of them, you can recognise individuals by their spot patterns.

The Diamond Firetail is less common than it once was, largely due to the removal or degradation of suitable habitat. Happily small populations are still being reported in areas such as Clydesdale, Muckleford and Fryerstown. If you have Diamond Firetails visiting your garden, or you see some out in the bush, I would love to hear from you!

Crowhurst, C. J., Zanollo, V., Griggio, M., Robertson, J. and Kleindorfer, S. (2012), White Flank Spots Signal Feeding Dominance in Female Diamond Firetails, Stagonopleura guttata. Ethology, 118: 63–75. doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2011.01986.x

Diamond firetail pics by Francesco Veronesi  and Geoff Park at Natural Newstead