Native Raspberry Rubus rosifolius - flower, leaves and ripe fruit

A few shots of the Native Raspberry, Rubus rosifolius, flowering and fruiting in my yard. The PlantNET site is down for repair at present. Normally I would link to that.
Here is a photo from the Bega Valley Native Plants website.
It confirms my ID and naming of this species.

Flower of  Rubus rosifolius
The fruit is shown as forming.
The soft leaves do not have thorns.
There are some small thorns on the stems.

Ripe fruit of the Native Raspberry.
The fruit has a slightly musky taste, to my palate.
But the Bowerbirds like them greatly.

A friend of mine, Penny, makes a lovely Native Raspberry Paste from the fruits of this plant, "gathered on the misty mountain of Jamberoo". It is delicious served with cheese and biscuits.

Longevity of Australian Birds

This morning, I followed a few links on the Internet, and came across this story "The Oldest Northern Shrike in North America."
http://ebird.org/content/wi/news/the-oldest-northern-shrike-in-north-america

What immediately attracted my attention was the age "record": "at least 8.5 years old and the oldest Northern Shrike ever known in North America."
What - 8.5 years is a "record"?

So I put together the following notes, and sent them off to the Canberra Ornithologists Group Chatline.

"This confirms something I vividly remember my father, Steve Wilson, talking about with his American friend and colleague, Don Lamm - namely that the small Australian passerines such as Brown Thornbills and White-browed Scrubwrens easily outlive the "normal lifespans" of many Northern Hemisphere birds.

I hope that Bird Banders such as Mark Clayton or Anthony Overs, or other COG members, who keep up with the Literature, might be able to provide more details on longevity of small Australian passerines. But from memory, many of the birds we banded at New Chums Road, exceeded 12 years, and no doubt there are other heroic examples which have gone closer to 18 years."

I have included a link to a report of one of the Bird Banding trips to West Wyalong I have made with Mark Clayton. That report and the photos will give you a better idea of what Banding is all about, And how small these long-lived birds are.

Eastern Yellow Robin
A bird commonly banded by my father
at New Chums Road,
high in the Brindabella Ranges, ACT.
This one was at Charcoal Tank, West Wyalong, NSW

"I recall the theory for this was along the lines that our small birds did not have to undertake stressful migrations (either across to Mexico, or across the Mediterranean - to Africa, in the case of European migratory species). Whereas a "Scrubbie" once it survived its first year, and established a territory, more or less knew all about the threats which would face it for the rest of its life, except for catastrophic events such as severe bushfires which might totally destroy its entire habitat.
"As Dad used express it, once and "Old Scrubbie" woke up every morning, it knew how and where to find its Breakfast. That's more or less all it needed to know.

"Anyway, I found the article interesting - hope others do too.

Denis Wilson

*************
 
Shortly after I sent that note out, I got this reply:
 
"A selection of longevity records from the banding scheme's database for some of the local small passerines:

Grey Fantail  9 years, 8 months
Eastern Yellow Robin  14 years, 7 months
Striated Thornbill  23 years, 6 months
Brown Thornbill  17 years, 7 months
White-browed Scrubwren  17 years, 7 months
Superb Fairy-wren  10 years, 5 months
Spotted Pardalote  4 years
Striated Pardalote 6 years
Silvereye  18 years, 7 months
Eastern Spinebill  15 years, 5 months
Red-browed Finch  23 years, 5 months

Paul"

That confirmed my vague memory - and added a few years to known lifespans of small Australian birds.

John Rawsthorne then added this interesting "take" on the problem.

• Very interesting comment.  Certainly I’ve pondered this long survivorship of Australian birds before, and this applies as much in the tropical north as it does in temperate Aust.  Perhaps the best example that surprised me was from the Iron Range Cape York expeditions, where the 2008 banding trip turned up (I think) five birds which were banded on the first major expedition in 1990!  These were little shrike-thrushes, white-faced robins and yellow-spotted Honeyeaters, from memory.  All sedentary birds.  It seems that if these birds are able to survive the first year or so and then claim a territory, then they just keep ticking on.  The flipside of this situation, though, is that recruitment (ie addition of birds to the breeding population) must be quite low – I don’t know whether this is due to low breeding output, or subsequent high mortality of younger naïve birds. 
• Another observation I would add is that at the banding sites at Weddins and Charcoal Tank the number of old re-traps now is very low and there are very many young birds now being trapped (which indicates some form of recovery after the long drought).  Nonetheless there have been some very old birds in their late teens recorded at these sites.

 Anthony Overs, another Bander, then added:

• Thanks Denis, and thanks Paul for the summary from the banding scheme database.
• Overseas visitors are often astounded by the fact that our birds are so long lived. Many years ago, during some banding work at Barren Grounds, I had immense pleasure in showing a recaptured Brown Thornbill to some foreign visitors; the bird was 15 years old, it weighed seven grams and had been retrapped a dozen times in the same spot, right by the warden's residence. In the same day I retrapped a 12 year old "scrubbie" and two 10 year old Eastern Spinebills. From memory (which is fading...) the birds were all adults when banded, so those ages are a minimum!! That Brown Thornbill could have been ten years old when it was initially banded. Known age birds such as juveniles and immatures are so important in banding studies as it gives you a baseline or starting point. As an example, that's how Bill Lane worked out that male Satin Bowerbirds got their black plumage in their sixth and seventh years, by banding juveniles and recapturing them repeatedly.

I hope you have found this as interesting as I did in pulling these memories together, and getting useful contributions from other Birders.
 

Quick trip to Gloucester

I visited Gloucester this last weekend, to participate in the "Groundswell Gloucester" Conference.
I have uploaded a series of images of the main speakers (not all, however, as the conference included a series of workshops, so inevitably no-one sees or hears everything).

I have also uploaded here a few images of some of the birds I saw in the grounds of the township of Gloucester.

As usual, you can click to enlarge the images to see the details better.

Sacred Kingfisher
which was nesting in this tree.

Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike flying over me.

Satin Bowerbird waiting near his Bower

Satin Bowerbird's bower is a display ground - not a nest.
Blue "toys" scattered on the far side of the Bower.
Mostly blue plastic - straws and bottle tops
Some Crimson Rosella tail feathers (blue ones).

Next door to my motel there was a clump of
"Wild Tobacco" plants where the local
Cattle Egrets assembled each night to roost.
Safety in numbers, presumably.

Several Helicopters were being used by the RFS
as there was a large fire burning to the north from Gloucester

Male Australian King-Parrot
This bird flew into the Motel grounds while I was watching.

Male Pied Butcherbird

Two adult Pied Butherbirds and a chick

It was the presence of the chick which
presumably triggered this and other similar
divebombing displays.

One the second morning, the air was clear of smoke
and this was the view from our Motel.

A massive rock face is a feature of the Buckets Range.

Full view of the Buckets Range.
Wild Country by any measure.

Talking of wild country
It seems this geography has inspired the locals
to "go feral" - at least in their slogans.
lets hope it is merely a "bluff"

Why my Magnolia never flowers.

I grow a lovely dark-flowered form of Magnolia x soulangeana. It might not be this exact form, but it is close in colour and form to "Mag x soulangeana var. "Lennei".

Trouble is, I selected this plant, and grew it on for a while, in Canberra. But in Canberra I did not have Satin Bowerbirds in my yard.

Now I live amongst an active flock of these birds, and they love my Magnolia flowers. They eat them at the tight bud stage, long before the flowers ever get to open fully.

This afternoon, in howling winds, the cunning Bowerbirds sat amongst the dense foliage of the Camellias (to get protection from the winds), but they can reach out and pick at the buds of the Magnolias in the next bush. I even saw one of the "green birds" feeding a choice tidbit to another "green bird".

Bowerbird hiding in Camellia
Bronze colours on wing visible
above spotted abdomen.

 

Gorgeous deep pink Magnolia flower bud
(one of the few buds not yet eaten)
Photo taken through Study window,
looking through another deciduous tree.

On another subject, it is my self-appointed duty as chronicler of weather and other natural phenomena of Robertson, to record that the "August Winds" have arrived in August this year. The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather alert, and fire fighters are attempting to control a bushfire on Bulli Tops, near Maddens Plains, south from Helensburgh (on the exposed top of the Woronora Plateau).

The strong winds are the main problem facing the Firies and the SES. Lets wish them the best in bringing this fire under control.

Satin Bowerbirds in all their Glory

The dominant male of the local Satin Bowerbird harem turned up on the Feeder table yesterday afternoon, in brilliant sunlight. He even felt sufficiently relaxed to allow me to take some images, from a lounge chair inside the back door (open just enough for us to see eachother).

What follows is largely a photo essay, because, the male bird is so magnificent, in itself, that words are largely superfluous.

Male Satin Bowerbird - on feeder, being "watchful".
The Scientific name is Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
That linked name takes you to the Birds in Backyards site, to tell you more.Getting down to it.

Beak on the side, to get a really good peck at the soft fruit.
Note the really fine feathers above the beak, and how they shine.

This shows the ivory-coloured beak
and the magnificent violet coloured eye, diffused with red veins.

Pausing for another good look at me.
And here he is swallowing a bit piece of Pear.
Slight movement blur, as he is very fast.

What I did not show was that there was a juvenile bird
waiting while the dominant male occupied the table.
As soon as he flew, the juvenile came up for its share.
That's called "pecking order" in action.

The youngster popped up, once the table was free.
Here is stops to make its growling call.
You can see the soft gape, typical of a young bird

I hope to display some photos soon of mature females, which have much finer plumage on the chest and abdomen than this bird, which has a cream base-colour with strong "lunette" (crescent) marked feathers.

Note the strong bronze colour on the wings of this "green bird".That colour shows up very clearly as these birds fly.