Bronzewings

This year the Bronzewing Pigeons have been coming into the garden more often, especially when the dog is inside and it's quiet. They like to check-out what's in the bird-feeding tray and waddle around on the driveway looking for things to eat.

Moths

Batwing Moth (Chelepteryx collesi)





























Bogong Moth (Agrotis infusa)
















Newcomers to Gippsland may sometimes be startled at night by a light tapping on their windows, especially in the autumn, only to find that the noise-maker isn’t a pesty neighbour or prankster, but a big fat moth. In some cases the would-be intruder might be the famous Bogong Moth (Agrotis infusa), but it could also be a member of some larger moth species that make their presence known in our region when the autumn nights begin to cool: the Emperor Gum Moth (Opodipthera eucalypti) and the Giant Anthelid or Batwing Moth (Chelepteryx collesi). The three species are easily distinguished. Bogong Moths have a mottled dark grey or brown and white pattern with some scalloped lines on their wings, which only measure 3 to 5.5cm when spread. Emperor Gum Moths are a dull red or orange colour with a single spot on each wing, which span between 8 and 13cm. And Batwing Moths have a more distinctive brown patterning that includes some pronounced scalloping, their wings spanning up to 16cm. The first are found in temperate regions of southern Australia, while the other two are found all over eastern Australia; and whereas Bogong Moths will feed on crops, their larger cousins prefer the foliage of trees, including eucalypts, pepper trees and silver birch. The Bogongs belong to a moth family called Noctuidae, which has more than 25,000 species spread across the globe, while the Emperors belong to the Saturniidae family, numbering over 1,000 species worldwide, and the Batwings are part of the Anthelidae, which has fewer than 100 species, all confined to Australia and New Guinea. One interesting fact about both of the bigger moths is that the tongues of the fully matured adults are greatly reduced, thereby preventing them from feeding. There are numerous other moth species around Mirboo North, which is not surprising given that Australia has a huge variety – 20-30 thousand species, compared, for example, to 11-12 thousand in North America and about 2400 in the UK.

Garden images from spring and summer 2010-11

Gang-Gang Cockatoo

The seed pods in some of the wattle trees have attracted parrots, rosellas and even Gang-Gang Cockatoos, a rare sight in the garden

Southern Brown Tree Frogs (Litoria ewingii)

These two are were clinging to the shed window one very rainy night a few weeks ago. A few smaller frogs also decided to investigate the shed.

New Holland Honeyeater

Not a great picture - I had to take it through the lounge-room window because the birds fly away if I open the front door - but I really wanted a pic of these regular visitors, so here it is. Hopefully I'll get a better one in the future.

New nesting boxes installed

We've just installed two new nesting boxes on my uncle and aunt's property, which is over the road from ours. The larger one is for Powerful Owls (Ninox ninox), which are endangered because, at about 60cm in height, they have trouble finding old trees with hollows big enough for them to breed in. The other box is for Sugar Gliders, which I've only discovered recently in the garden after the dog brought a dead one to the back door ( a cat had killed it and then dropped the poor little bugger when the dog chased it up a tree.) It will probably take at least a year before they get used. Hopefully the presence of Sugar Gliders, which are common, will attract the owls that feed on them, and then the owls in turn will start breeding. I have heard a Powerful Owl one night in April (they make a conventional hooting noise). The boxes have dry mulch from wattle trees in them. We had to install them away from our garden because we already have boxes for rosellas, bats and tree creepers, and if owls start living nearby then the other animals won't nest there.