Galahs love playing on the Powerlines.

Every now and then the Galahs of Robertson settle down on the power lines, to get into some serious preening. Galahs spend an enormous amount of time preening their feathers, and (as they are co-operative birds) preening eachother. Although these birds were part of larger flock, it is typical of Galahs that they sit closely, in pairs, even within a larger group.

A pair of Galahs, preening.

These photos are from several weeks back, taken on a particularly bright sunny afternoon, late in the afternoon (hence the bright, horizontal light).

One of the Galahs, suddenly decides it is time to "play"

Galahs are not "natural" to Robertson, which is a heavy rainforest area, originally. That makes us the natural habitat of Crimson Rosellas and King Parrots. However, humans moved in (in the 1860s), and cleared much of the forest. Then we put in a railway line, and then cart grain to Port Kembla (the port of Wollongong), for export overseas. Some of the grain inevitably drops off the train, and bingo, you have a permanent food source for Galahs.

For a Galah, "playing" includes chewing on the Power line.
This is safe for the Galah, as long as it only touches the one line, for the power runs safely through the bird (there is no "power differential"). It is only if it gets "earthed" or touches another line that it risks electrocution. Flying Foxes (Fruit Bats) get electrocuted, because they touch two lines at the one time, with their wings spread wide, whereas, Galahs land with their feet together on the one line.

The next thing is that people like to "feed the birds", and grain and food scraps are the normal food they leave out. That suits the Galahs too. In this particular case, there were in fact about 15 Galahs on the power lines along a country road, about 500 metres from the railway line, which tells me that the people along this road feed these Galahs. I am not a"purist", but I do not feed birds at my house. Instead, I try to provide a natural habitat for truly local (endemic) birds, not Galahs, nor Crested Pigeons, both of which are native birds, but not "natural" in Robertson.

And after a bit of "play", its back to serious preening.

Robertson - after the rain.

Here are some photos - taken in the gully behind George's place. This was several days after the rain.


We had to gingerly find our way down into the gully, as everything was unbelievably slippery, and there was debris everywhere.






When I got to the bottom of the gully, I crossed the creek (slipped, and got my shoes drenched of course).

Then I went up the creek about 300 metres to a tiny waterfall, about 1 metre high, or just a touch more, perhaps.







I took several shots, at different speeds to give the smooth flow impression, and another at fast speed to "freeze" the droplets of water in mid air.

*****

At the CTC in the afternoon, the weather had warmed up, and I found this drunken Common Mynah. How do I know? Well these birds are normally shy of my camera, this one had such a weird look in its eye, and was falling over.




But the real clue was that this bird was underneath the hedge of Cherry Laurels which the Flying Foxes had been feeding on earlier in the week, and the fruit are now over-ripe. When that happens, in warm weather the fruit naturally ferments. I have observed this with drunken bees and drunken Silvereyes, in the same circumstances, with normal fruiting plums.

The Cherry Laurels are a form of plum, and very fleshy fruit (although not sweet to my taste). But click on this inage, and look at its eye.
Then tell me - was it not away with the Pixies?

*****

Flying Foxes - the "eyes" have it.

FOUR EYES
For the sake of my pal, Miss Eagle, yes, I do know that the heading is a misquote of the oft-use Parliamentary saying - "The Ayes have it".
On Thursday evening, I went to the CTC's Music Night (the first without BJ and Boney running it). They have not left town yet, but they were at a "gig" in Wollongong, so they could not be at the CTC in Robbo.

Anyway, after the Music Night, I walked around the property, and down the back, near the Scout Hall, there were about 40 Flying Foxes coming and going into the large hedge of Cherry Laurels there. So I tried to photograph them flying in and out of these tall hedge plants (trees). They would fly in, squabble, fight, fly off and come back and crash-land again in the tops of the trees. Eventually I got a few photos of reflective eyes, at least.

SHADOWY FIGURE FLYING
Anyway, the evening was quieter than the usual (familiar) Music Night with Boney leading the show.

But Brendan and Royce and the new guard did a pretty fair job. Jenny was singing and jumping around, and John brought a new friend, David, along.


It turned out that David is a pretty good pianist. And Brian and some of the other Musos had a nice time.


WHO'S THAT
HANGING THERE?
Those of us, like Pip, John, Vivienne and myself, who are dedicated audience members had a nice time, and will probably be back next week, and the week after. Lets hope James and Dave and some of the other gang keep on coming along.

On Friday night I went to REPS, where the guest speaker was speaking on Climate Change. He presented the story very well, with amazing statistics on CO2 emissions, rainfall patterns, temperature charts, etc.



BRIGHT EYES
At the end of the meeting, I did a "show and tell" with a bunch of
Cherry Laurel leaves and fruit, and mentioned that these trees ripen their fruit at the appropriate season for Flying Foxes to come in on the warm summer evenings, which makes their potential as a weed far greater than I had realised before.

One of the members came up and said that she had just paid a large amount of money to have a large Cherry Laurel removed, because of the Flying Foxes. I think it was their noisy behaviour which triggered the move, but clearly, any removal of these huge and prolific weeds is a great move.

Clearly they were once a popular tall hedge plant in Robertson, before their potential as a weed was understood. As the oldest (largest) plants appear to be in Ranelagh House, it is not hard to work out who is responsible for this problem - the original owners/gardeners there. But they are long since gone - so that does not help our situation, does it?

For any local readers, please do not plant any more Cherry Laurels in this climate and soil.

I have grown them in Canberra, where they simply do not become a weed. It is much colder there, and the soil is much poorer, so they do not seem to have such weed potential there.

But in Robbo, they grow like crazy, and fruit prolifically. They become a 10 metre high weed. That is pretty scary.

Rock in Robbo - fundraiser for the CTC

Rebecca as manager of the CTC, and Boney as the music
co-ordinator extra-ordinaire, put together the latest fundraiser for the CTC.
It was called "Rock in Robbo". Well the kids and the "middle-muddle aged" people like myself, turned out in some numbers.


As it happened, it was a full moon evening, which added to the atmosphere, of a high-summer evening.
Fruit Bats squabbled in the Cherry Laurel tree adjacent to the School of Arts hall.








The rock music was enthusiastic, but performed by local musicians. Here Brendan was doing a bit of head banging.






The rock music was loud enough for everyone to hear it from outside the hall.

Flying Foxes get electrocuted on wires.

The wave of Flying Foxes which has spread over the Southern Highlands in recent days has resulted in a spate of electrocutions on power lines.

Birds seldom get electrocuted on power lines. As they use only use their two feet for support, they can safely land on a single wire, without short-circuiting the power, and hence, they do not get "zapped".

Of course, in the case of bats, their front feet (what we call hands) act as wings. But as the silhouette photo of the wing (see below) shows, they really are shaped like hands, with long fingers.






But their "arms and fingers" (wings) are so extremely long, they easily can cross between different cables, and cause a short-circuit. Zap.


However, possums being four-footed creatures, tend to hold on with their back feet and reach out with their front feet simultaneously, and in so doing, tend to cross between different wires, and get themselves electrocuted. Smart possums learn to run along single wires, and they can do that quite safely.

Power-line workers know how to avoid electrocution. They can safely work on a single live power-line, as long as they are not earthed (in contact with the ground) or are not touching two different power lines. That is why they rely upon totally insulated frames, on the end of those "Cherry-pickers" on the back of special trucks, or else they work from fibre-glass ladders.



This dead Flying Fox was hung out on a wooden fence, to display the spread of its wings. The body is relatively small, but the neck and head is quite large. They obviously have great sight and sense of smell, for finding their foood at night.

Reports indicate that they are extremely smart animals. However, I do not know how that is assessed.


Here is a close-up of the very strong and short hind-legs of the Flying Fox, which they use for hanging upside down in trees. These toes are very strong, and have enormously powerful grasping "toe nails". When you think about it, these Bats hang upside down all day, so they need powerful grasping claws with which to hang on, while they sleep.

The Foxes are Flying - Look for them on Saturday

Photo: G.B. Baker
Flying Foxes (Grey-headed Fruit Bats) (Pteropus poliocephalus) seem to move out of their traditional areas in high summer. As a former resident of Canberra, I know that they would occasionally appear there - which is certainly not regular Flying Fox country.

I lived on Anzac Parade, in Reid, (in front of the War Memorial). The ceremonial avenue in front of the War Memorial is flanked on each side by 6 rows of Tasmanian Blue Gums. They flower in high summer. The scent of sweet Eucalyptus was overwhelming. Once a year, at the full moon in either late January, or early February, Flying Foxes would swarm around the tops of those Eucalypt trees, which for those few days were redolent with sweet-smelling nectar. It always seemed to me as if the plants planned their flowering to coincide with this warm summer evening invasion. However, as they were Tasmanian Eucalypts, that is unlikely, for that area (where those trees evolved) is outside of their natural range. So the explanation is probably more to do with pollination of their flowers by large moths.

My experience of the partiality of Flying Foxes for Eucalyptus blossom is confirmed in the following extract from a website on Flying Fox biology: The preferred food of flying-foxes is the blossom of eucalypts and some other native trees, and various bush fruits, like Moreton Bay Fig. The bats are beneficial to the trees because they act as pollinators and dispersers of their seeds. The great distances they can fly means they carry pollen and seeds far from the parent tree.
"Flying Foxes in Australia"

*****

Here in Robertson, I have noticed, in the last few days, that suddenly there are Flying Foxes around. They do not reside here all the time, but apparently they come in, on warm summer evenings. Significantly, the moon is waxing - towards a full moon. I do not know if this suits the Flying Foxes, or whether it simply makes them more apparent, when the night sky is quite bright. I figure both statements are likley to be true.

Last night, after the "No Borefield in the Southern Highlands" meeting, I was packing gear into my car, when suddenly there was a loud, shrill squabbling noise coming from the trees next door. I assumed it was Possums. I knew it was not the large Brush-tailed Possums, for I am familiar with their noises (both amorous and combative). So, I figured it was a noise made by the much smaller Ring-tailed Possums. Suddenly, the next moment, I heard a flapping sound as a large Flying Fox flew out from the dense cover of the neighbouring tree - then it flew silently away. Normally their wing flap is silent, but when they flap against branches as they drop out of the trees, they hit small branches, and make a noise.

So, according to the Melbourne Planetarium, we are one night short of the Full Moon. Tomorrow night, look out for those ghostly shapes flying around, especially if you have any fruit trees near your house, or other trees which might be in flower just now. If, like tonight, it is slightly misty, even better, as the moon light will illuminate the cloud or mist, and make it easier to see the Flying Foxes against the light grey sky.

Flying Foxes seem to love a high summer full moon, and it means they can explore new and fertile hunting grounds - such as Robertson.

Love your local Flying Fox - they will only be here for a few days, most probably.