• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

JadeCraven.Org

My Nature Blog

  • About
  • Trip Reports
  • Life List

Darters are breeding AGAIN!

February 29, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

I was at Balyang for my normal cormorant check. I’d just walked up to the bridge when I noticed new movement in the main darter nest.

They are breeding again? It had only been a couple of weeks since the chicks originally hatched! I may have actually gotten a bit confused. The chicks on January 17, just before leaving for Apollo Bay. The second darter family was observed around February 11 – hence the confusion.

I didn’t see any actually mating, although the female did seem to be moving closer. I just can’t believe how many nesting attempts are made in such a short time. How many of these chicks even survive? 10-20%? Where do they all go?

The other thing is… it’s the end of February. They are breeding into autumn now? And why did breeding seem to go into overdrive in the middle of Jan, which so many extra nests being created? I’m assuming it is because its the middle of summer.

Hopefully someone documents all these nests next season so I can compare 😉 Suspect I’ll be doing my once a week visit for a couple of months. Arguably, bi weekly or even once every 3-4 weeks would suffice. I have 6 months to figure it out.

IMG_3477

Curiously, the male stopped displaying when the sun went behind the clouds for 10 minutes. Started again as soon as it got sunny. No idea what that means.

The remaining photos show one of the chicks that was in the tree closest to the bridge. These seems to be the tree that the recently fledged chicks are ‘banished’ too. I did get photos of one swimming but they didn’t really turn out. 

IMG_3550

IMG_3546

IMG_3542

Filed Under: Barwon River, Geelong Tagged With: australian darter, princes bridge

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Scallop and Sponge At Point Henry
  • Quick Visit To Point Henry
  • Thysanozoon Broochi Flatworm at Apollo Bay Harbour
  • Multiple Terebellid Worm Species At Apollo Bay Harbour
  • Marine Life In Apollo Bay Harbour

Categories

  • Apollo Bay
  • Barwon River, Geelong
  • Bellarine Peninsula
  • Big Things
  • Brisbane Ranges
  • Chiltern
  • Eastern Beach
  • Geelong And Surrounds
  • Gold Coast
  • Goldfields
  • Great Ocean Road
  • Melbourne
  • My Backyard
  • Other
  • Otways
  • Port Phillip Bay
  • Shipwreck Coast
  • Surf Coast
  • Tasmania
  • The Property
  • Toolangi
  • Uncategorized
  • West Melbourne

Copyright © 2023 · Parallax Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in