Calyptorhynchus funereus

I used to think that a black cockie was a black cockie, it turns out that the name is a general descriptive term for several species of cockatoos with black colouring. The cockies that visit my yard are Yellow tailed black cockatoos. For the last few years they’ve been turning up for just 1 day, chowing down on Banksia flowers, gnawing off many small branches, and then flying out not to be seen for another year. Yellow tailed black cockatoos are big, noticeably bigger than the Sulphur-crested Cockatoos that are here year round. They have black feathers all over with a yellow patch on the cheek and the tail.

Neochmia temporalis

The Red-browed Finch is a spot on name for these guys, the other thing to add is they are small and they are fast! Red-browed finches enjoy hanging out in the garden near to the ground where there’s good cover from scrub and small trees. I’ve not seen them flying in the sky or anywhere in the open where there’s no cover. There’s a prunus tree in the backyard that they build a nest or 3 every year. Their nests are made from twigs, tightly woven into an enclosed ball shape with one small doorway. Red-browed Finches are a common bird that are found up the entire east coast of Australia. They are found in grassy areas interspersed with dense understorey vegetation, often along creek lines.

Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris

I’m pretty sure this is an Eastern Spinebill, it was sitting in the Macadamia tree in the front yard. I’d not head of this bird before and can’t say I remember ever seeing them around. The Eastern Spinebill is a small bird, about 13cm – 16cm, it can be recognized by it’s long fine down curved beak. The bird in the photo is a female, males have more distinctive and defined colourings of black, white and tan across their body. They are found on much of the east and southeast coast of Australia and also throughout Tasmania.

Anthochaera chrysoptera

You would think the Little Wattle Bird’s name comes from the abundant collection of wattle trees in it’s habitat. But I’m pretty sure it comes from it’s cousin species, the red and yellow Wattle birds. The Red Wattle Bird and Yellow Wattle Bird have prominent coloured wattles on their cheeks. The Little Wattle bird doesn’t have wattles itself, but the name remains. Little Wattle birds are common in the back yard, they’re often seen eating the nectar from banksia flowers. I’ve not seen them on the bird feeder before, I guess they’re not fans of the native bird seed mix .

Macropygia amboinensis

The brow cuckoo-dove ( also known as the Slender-billed Cuckoo-Dove ) use to turn up from time to time but since installing the bird feeder out the back it’s one of the most common birds in the backyard! The species is found up the entire east coast and across Papua New Guinea and into Indonesia. Their specific habitat is rainforests and wet sclerophyll forest, particularly at the forest edges, along creeks and rivers. They are also found in regrowth areas and cleared land.

Cacophis squamulosus

My wife found this snake under a house brick while gardening in the back yard.  My 5 year old daughter identified it as a white crowned snake after reading a snake book that our neighbors had given her a few weeks earlier  She was pretty damn close! After more consultation with the book we were confident this is actually a golden crowned snake. The crown marking on it’s head is quite distinctive, unlike the white crowned snake the golden crowned’s crown has a gap at the back of the head near the neck. It’s quite small, it would have been about 30cm long and about 1cm thick in the body just behind the head. It hung around for a few minutes after it was disturbed then calmly slithered away to hide under a nearby wood pile. We don’t often see snakes near the house, we were happy to have seen it, and it was great to be able to identify it too.

A few days ago a pair of Kookaburras started attacking an old steel air conditioner on the side of the house. They sit on a branch and take turns flying right at the thing, hitting it hard with their beaks. It makes a loud clang, sometimes they get their beaks stuck between the slats.

These are the 2 kookaburras that have been attacking the side of the house for the past few days. Don’t know why they’re doing it. They’re hitting an old steel air conditioner really hard with their beaks, sometimes their beaks get stuck between the slats

Opodiphthera helena

Jess spotted this huge moth on the rock ledge out the back one evening. It was just sitting there slowly beating it’s wings. It didn’t look injured, I wondered if it had recently emerged from it cocoon and was drying or stretching it’s wings.

Check out the match stick for some scale, it’s body was just monstrous.

I’ve been trying to work out what species this is. CSIRO’s what bug it that site looks comprehensive, but it is soooo slooow it’s excruciating. I’d usually click about quickly and explore but it takes over a full minute for a page to load, the site is unusable.

These ants have turned up at a few different places around the garden, they seem to occupy a nest for a few months and then move on. They are semi-aggressive and will swarm on you if you stand on their nest or get in their path. They don’t seem to bite though.

The photos are from the 3rd location I’ve seen them, and the first time I’ve seen them swarm in such a dense cluster. There was a lot of movement going on but it seemed ordered, like they were going about a task, some of the ants were carrying white sacks around. I dropped a matchstick next to them to give a bit of scale in the photos and all hell broke loose. The ants swarmed so aggressively that it made a sound, like a soft crunching. The matchstick was swamped. With all the new movement I got a better look deeper into the mound and could see many more white sacks underneath.