Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Nature Photographs

An Old Queen Parrot

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Since moving to the Blue Mountains late last year I’ve made some new friends including a King Parrot and a Magpie.   The young male King Parrot sits on my back landing and looks through the glass door into my study when the bird-feeder is empty.  Maggie, the Magpie, perches on a window sill and looks into the kitchen when she is hungry and notices I am feeding myself.

They are both rather bold birds.

There are usually three or four King Parrots in the trees in the vicinity of the bird-feeder that hangs in my backyard.  Over the last few days an old King Parrot, in fact a female so lets call her a Queen Parrot, has been mostly just resting on the back lawn.

Injured Cassowary

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About two months ago, this magnificent adult female cassowary (above) traversed alongside our house with a dreadful limp. At the time, cassowaries had been fighting, so I assumed this one had suffered an injury in such conflict.

However, the big bird was not seen again for about two months and this was remarkable for this well-known inhabitant. She re-emerged late last week with no improvement in her gait, but with a dramatic loss of weight and this has presented an awkward dilemma for the land-manager.

It is pretty obvious that the bird is suffering. Then again, being a declared endangered species under EPBC, different protocols are invoked for response and intervention. She is a dominant female of a population of perhaps fewer than one-hundred birds remaining in the Daintree Cape Tribulation rainforests. She is also a wild animal with really scary feet.

Queensland’s EPA has the delegated authority for such matters. яндекс. For the importance of the bird they are compelled to have the animal assessed by a veterinarian for diagnosis. If it is perceived that the animal is suffering from an infection, strategically placed fruit with antibiotics could be deployed. If the trauma was identified as a dislocation, the animal might be tranquilized or netted for manipulation. On the other hand, if the injury required resetting and immobilization for weeks, say for a broken bone, then the bird would be euthanased.

Trouble is, a vet with cassowary expertise cannot really expect to travel from Cairns or Ingham or wherever, to the Cooper Valley in the Daintree and the expectant arrival of a wild cassowary.

In a stroke of good fortune, a departing client rang through to the office from our entrance courtesy phone, that the injured cassowary was halfway along our driveway. I drove down and managed to get about ten minutes of video of the brid, limping and feeding and hopefully this will allow the vet to make the necessary determination.

Leseur’s Frog

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Leseur’s Frogs (Litoria lesueuri) emerge after dark from their diurnal concealment amongst leaf-litter on the dark-brown forest floor, where they elude the predatory appetites of a formidable avian oversight.

Like all members of the genus, Leseur’s have large finger and toe pads and horizontal pupils, however, males out-number females, perhaps as many as fifty-to-one. Adult Females, such as the one pictured, are three to four times the mass of males and much less gregarious and stream-bound (I get the impression that the greater mass of the female provides more liberty from running water).

It has been a tough year for wildlife sightings generally with the longest, coldest patch I have known since starting my nocturnal forays, fifteen years ago. The last couple of nights have been good for the primitive northern leaf-tailed and chameleon geckos, as well as the spectacular moth Lyssa Macleayi.

Green Tree Ants

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Green tree ants Oecophylla smaragdina farm aphids for their honeydew. They are occasionally referred to as weaver ants because they form large leafy nests bound with silk. Through amazing co-operative strength, they form strings of hundreds of ants anchored at each end only, to forcibly move small branches into position. Other ants glue the leaves together with silk produced by squeezing their larvae.

They aggressively protect their nests and livestock, willingly biting any intruder and projecting streams of ascorbic acid to excite the sensitivity of wounds established with their choppers. If bitten, humans can retaliate in-kind and enjoy the health benefits of an abundant source of vitamin C.

Whale Birds – A Note from Ann Novek

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Whale birds are a group of birds called this because,

1) They used to follow whaling ships and feed on the blubber and floating oil. (Any of several species of large Antarctic petrels).

2) Prions are a small group of Petrels which once were known as whale birds, because they feed on the same plankton baleen whale feed and were thus likely to be good indicators where the whales may be.

3) The Sooty tern (see photo) is as well called a whale bird.

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Photo courtesy BirdLife International/Simon Stirrup

“ We frequently observe humpback whales and birds feeding on the same patches , so it’s not surprising that occasionally birds might be engulfed by feeding humpback whales “.

“We observed three partially digested birds coated with whale feces floating in the water near adult whales”.

RESULTS OF HUMPBACK WHALE POPULATION MONITORING IN GLACIER BAY AND ADJACENT WATERS: 2005

Cheers,
Ann
Sweden

Lichen Spiders (Part II)

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In an earlier entry, Lichen Spiders (October 18, 2007), Jennifer described the images of the spiders as intriguing and asked how difficult/expensive it would be to develop the seven images as separate posters/pictures.

I have since accumulated a collection of eight high quality poster size images (30 x 45 cm @ 240 dpi), presented in the thumbnail mosaic below. Interested inquiries should be directed to neil@ccwild.com

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As can be seen within the collection, Lichen Spiders vary in conformity with their background occupancy. However, according to the Queensland Museum Inquiry Centre:

Spider colour is fixed at its previous moult. A slight exception being the abdomen with its much thinner walls which may change especially according to accumulated waste products or what it has eaten. So they can’t change colour like a frog, gecko or squid. Some species of spiders that camouflage on tree bark have multiple colour forms however.

So far as is known, a lichen spider would not be selecting a background according to colour as these are like most (but not all) spiders in having poor vision. It is expected that they would have other ways of detecting a nice lichen-covered background to sit against however.

Under closer scrutiny, the eight images (fully magnified), reveal variation to spider appearance through differential combing of hairs, which appear to have reflective qualities. In the eighth (bottom right) image, much of the blending is also complemented through the shared occupancy of its offspring (see enlargement).

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