West Wyalong birding weekend

These are not Robertson birds. They are birds photographed on a trip with registered Bird Banders to Charcoal Tank Nature Reserve, just a few kilometres south-west from West Wyalong.

My excuse for this indulgence (going bush for the weekend and blogging about these birds), is that I grew up with Mark Clayton, a Regional Organiser for the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme who trained as a Bird Bander with my father, Steve Wilson. So there is an element of a sentimental journey in this trip for me. Mark went on to work at CSIRO, and has since retired and still bands birds as a volunteer, and helps train other banders. For me, it is a fascinating thought that I knew Mark as a fourteen year old schoolboy, and he is still banding birds in his retirement. As the French say "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose".

I also met up with Neville Schrader OAM, a very experienced naturalist and long-standing Bird Bander himself. Neville's wife Shaydeen was also helping out. I also met up again with Anthony Overs, a senior Bird Bander and fellow Blogger, who I had met previously at Charcoal Tank. With other banders Jen, Kim and Carole and Stewart, and his son Duncan, it was a very pleasant weekend.

There are so many photos, I shall simply name the birds, with little discussion.

Hotlinks take you to other websites with more information about each species.
The image files are all relatively small (to facilitate fast loading)
But you can enlarge the images by clicking on them, to see the finer details.

Inland Thornbill - note the reddish eye and throat markings (like Brown Thornbill)

Eastern Yellow Robin

Brown-headed Honeyeater - note the difference in markings.

A Southern Boobook Owl stayed well and truly out of reach.

Head of Chestnut-rumped Thornbill. Note the pale eye and scalloped head markings

Tail view of  Chestnut-rumped Thornbill

Silvereye

Juvenile Golden Whistler (note the rufous plumage)

Grey Fantail - a dark coloured specimen displaying its tail

Horsefield's Bronze-Cuckoo

Diagnostic markings on tail of Horsefield's Bronze-Cuckoo

Double-barred Finch

Yellow (Little) Thornbill - note the fine markings around the eye

Plain olive coloured tail of Yellow Thornbill. Note the short tail.

Painted Button-quail - head and chest. Probably a male bird.

Foot of Painted Button-quail

Red-capped Robin - male

Red-capped Robin - female

Rufous Whistler - male

Rufous Whistler - female

Spotted Pardalote - male

Striated Pardalote - broad wing striped form (6 white lines on wing)

Variegated Fairy-wren = male just reverting to breeding plumage

White-eared Honeyeater - adult with grey head

White-eared Honeyeater - immature bird with green head cap, and yellow gape mark.

White-plumed Honeyeater - head and eye markings

White-plumed Honeyeater note the diagnostic mark on its neck.

White-throated Treecreeper - male (no orange spot on throat)

White-throated Treecreeper - female (note orange spot below eye)

Huge hind toe of White-throated Treecreeper. No wonder they can climb trees so well.

Yellow-rumped Thornbill

The Nature of Emus

There are no Emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae) in Robertson, and there are no truly wild Emus in Canberra, but there were Emus there when the first settlers arrived. That fact is documented in a book by my father, Steve Wilson, called "Birds of the ACT - two centuries of change" (published by the Canberra Ornithologists Group).

When Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve was first established, sometime in the 1970s, Emus were re-introduced to the area, to recognise the fact that they were originally in the area. There were occasional reports of wild Emus in the high plains country, very high in the Alps, during the 1980s. Anyway, some of the Emus of the Tidbinbilla area survived the devastating bushfires of January 2003, and are still roaming the sheep paddocks below the main area of the Reserve.

Emus are said to be extremely primitive birds, and along with the Cassowary, Ostriches, Rheas and the diminutive New Zealand Kiwi they are grouped together in a Order of birds called Ratites. All are flightless birds, with coarse feathers. They do not have a deep bone on their sternum where normal birds have their strong wing-beating muscles attached. (- for contrast, have a look at the chest bone of the next Chicken you consume).

From my point of view, I consider that Emus and other Ratites are in fact highly evolved birds, which have abandoned the power of flight. They do have wings, just remnant wings which are totally useless for flight. To me, it makes sense to regard these as obsolescent organs, remnants of formerly useful structures, which they no longer need.

The left wing of this Emu is clearly visible in the photo at left, just in front of the leg. It is hanging down below the line of the body.

Female Emus lay their eggs in autumn and winter, and the male then sits on the eggs, and broods the young, and raises them. This apparent "family group" might be a female (the larger bird) and a male, in the middle with two chicks from two years ago. Alternatively, it might be a male. with three chicks. I cannot tell, but I favour the first explanation, as the middle bird is showing some of the adult blue colouring on its neck. The only problem is that Emus are not sentimental birds, and do not tend to hang around in "family groups". Partly this is explaimed by the need of the female to be able to reproduce by laying large clutches (up to 15 eggs) of huge eggs, which is a great reproductive burden. To do this, she needs to be in peak physical condition.

So the Nature of Emus is something of a mystery.