My Nature Blog
I was at Princes bridge recently when I saw a young darter sitting on a log. It was then chased off by this darter, who was perhaps a month or two older then it.
It’s very competitive along the Barwon at the moment. It then started pecking and playing with anything it could find: leaves, branches, sticks etc. Not many photos turned out because it was directly below me. These are the photos that really stood out.
At last. We have reached the end of a breeding season and normality has been restored. I must admit, it is relaxing not having to note everything down and to be able to stay at home and bludge. There is still a lot I want to observe this season, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to see everything before the birds fly.
In the below photo, you can see a pied cormorant. But wait: isn’t this post about Princes Bridge? I had never seen one here before and have no idea if it is unusual behaviour. I know it’s only a couple of km from the ocean, but they are still a bird I associate with beaches.
I did manage to get a photo of it defecating, so now have the complete set of Australian cormorants pooping.
Towards the end of February, I noticed that a pair of darters apparently courting. On this visit, however, I was greeted by mostly empty nests. It was a bit of a shock, similar to when all the birds left the mating tree. There is still courtship behaviour going on elsewhere. I have no idea what makes them choose to abandon an area. It really does feel like they use a particular batch of trees to their full potential and then move away a little bit.
I was photographing the darters swimming when I noticed these turtles in the background. I managed to get Seth his first turtle lifer recently, he really wanted to see one along the river. Of course, my notes show that we both saw one along there when he was a little tacker but that doesn’t really count.
I took the below photo to show the differences in colour in the birds. One is clearly juvenile, you can still see that dangly bit of skin under its chin. The other doesn’t look like a full adult, unless it is moulting. Also seems to be some staining? Interesting.
The final set of photos show little black cormorants showing courtship behaviour. I think they may be making another genuine go at breeding. No idea if they always breed a bit later or if this is just a recent thing. I did get poor quality video of it though.
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And thus concludes a season of cormorant observing! I suspect there is a lot of useful data in these photos but I have no idea what to do with it. I need to come up with a better strategy for future seasons, especially with breeding data. There is just so much going on that it’s easier to avoid and rely on someone else to report.
Looking forward to going to Apollo Bay at the end of the month! Nice to have a change of scenery 🙂
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 11Â – 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.
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.Â
I know, I know. I’m meant to be backing off darter photos after my extensive efforts last breeding cycle. However, sometimes these guys were just too cute to ignore!
These photos are from two different sets of nests. The ones labelled ‘closer’ are of the ones in the tree closest to the bridge. These would be around 10-14 days younger. I’m not sure if any of these photos will help with the bird ID website I’m creating but I’m really going to miss taking photos of these guys.
