Litoria junggay?
Since Snail has been writing about Litoria junggay I decided we should join in the discussion by adding a couple of photos of the frogs we used to know as Litoria lesueuri or Stony-Creek Frogs. As Snail has mentioned, this species is now described as L. jungguy and L. wilcoxii and according to my “Rainforest Frogs of the Wet Tropics” by Conrad Hoskin and Jean-Marc Hero this distinction is based on genetic data as the two species are morphologically very similar and cannot be reliably distinguished in the field. As we are in the Northern part of the range we should be seeing Litoria junggay so I’m staying with that. These males are pictured sitting on the edge of our fresh-water swimming pool – I thought the bricks gave a good indication of their size.
Inspired by Snail’s discussion I went out with a torch a couple of nights ago to see if I could find any female Stony-Creek frogs – we always have males sitting around the pool edge but the females are not as commonly seen. And I found one – the male had also found her and he wasn’t letting go even when she frog-leaped quite a distance into the garden. As you can see there is quite a difference in both the size and colour of the male and female of the species.
These frogs have one of the softest sounding calls of any of our frogs – more like a loud purr. They are commonly associated with rocky and sandy streams, the males often being found near water where as the females can be located some distance away. We are amused by the fact that they are attracted to our pool and breed in it quite successfully although they are described as ‘stream breeders’; we have water moving through an undergravel filter system and spraying over the surface of the pool for about 6 hours a day plus a small fountain which runs directly from a solar panel and is therefore dependent on the sunlight but this seems to be sufficient to keep quite a few different frog species happy as well as maintaining a lovely cooling off place for us.
The photo below (taken in Feb last year) is of another female showing how well she is able to blend into her surroundings
and this one was attempting to gain entry to our house in December last year. I have included the photo as it shows the colour variations between females as well as her inner thigh markings.
And just to finish off, when I was walking back to the house from the pool the other night I noticed a fluffy ball on the leaf of a Ginger plant – it wasn’t at all disturbed by the flash from the camera as its head was tucked so far out of sight and I was careful not to brush against the leaf as I walked past.
Click on photos to enlarge.
January highlights
The weather conditions have been as expected for this time of the year – hot and humid. Some days it seems more extreme than I remember but probably I’m just using the weather as an excuse to only work outside for a relatively short time in the morning.
Another update on Spotted Whistling Ducks: when we had some heavy rain for a few days the Wandering Whistling ducks departed along with the large flock of Magpie Geese which had descended upon us. Our resident Magpie Geese are still here and one suspects they may be rather relieved that peace has been restored. The Spotted Whistling Ducks stayed for a day or so longer but then for nearly a week we didn’t see them anywhere. However, they are now visiting again and have been trying out all our ponds, we can see where they’ve been by the remnant pieces of water weed, Vallisneria, and shredded water lily flowers! They actively feed through the heat of the day both on the water surface and diving, staying underwater for 15 – 20 seconds. After a period in the water individuals will fly to a suitable horizontal branch, or in some cases a perching post, where they busily preen and dry off before returning to the water for further feeding.
There have been flocks of Double-eyed Fig Parrots feeding on Glochidion, commonly known as Cheese Tree, and we have also observed them feeding in Melaleuca cajuputi. These paperbarks provide food and shelter for many birds, insects and fruit bats and we’re pleased that much of our swampy areas that were cleared of paperbarks in the early 1900′s are gradually returning to useful habitat.
This week the Melaleucas have started flowering, the event was announced by a loud humming sound accompanied by the sweet, nectar laden scent.
An Azure Kingfisher flew past Allen yesterday with a fish in its bill and two younger birds following behind; a Little Kingfisher used one of our perching posts as a take-off point for fishing and Black Bitterns are frequently disturbed at the spillways both here and at our neighbour’s place, we estimate at least three regulars are moving between the two properties. We suspect Shining Flycatchers are nesting again but haven’t yet confirmed this. They are quieter than a couple of weeks ago when we watched some amazing displays from two males competing for a female’s attention as they went through their repertoire of calls.
Spangled Drongos have, once again, successfully harassed a Great-billed Heron until it flew back to the creek. I confess it is a little disappointing as it would be rather fun to have more regular visits from this majestic bird but I can’t blame it for leaving as the Drongos are very persistent in their attacks.
So we’ve been enjoying the birds this month as we make the most of the sunny mornings and mostly fine ‘though cloudy afternoons - it looks like rain is heading our way.
Spotted Whistling Ducks update
We’ve had some fairly hot and humid weather which is usual for this time of the year but watching the storm clouds build yesterday afternoon was something of a relief. In the morning I could hear a lot of Magpie Geese honking – so I left the weeding job in the vegetable garden and walked down to the hide on Graham’s pond where one group of about 60 birds had our single resident Jacana skipping around the outskirts of the flock probably feeling overwhelmed by the noisy invasion. There were 4 Wandering Whistling Ducks tucked away in a quiet corner but no sign of the Spotted W.Ds, however I wasn’t too concerned as there are many out-of-site channels and ponds. Later in the day Allen, who has been working in a different part of the property, reported both Wandering and Spotted W.Ds in the same vicinity. Although they were near each other, Allen said that when disturbed, the 4 WWDs gathered close together and moved away.
The gathering storm clouds passed us by, the huge flock of visiting geese departed and sultry conditions persisted until a welcome 52 mm of rain during the night. A quick check of Graham’s pond this morning before we left for a day in Cairns resulted in a count of 10 Spotted W.Ds enjoying some peace and quiet. We’ll have a good look around tomorrow but we often find the Wandering Whistling Ducks will leave as soon as there is a decent shower of rain.
The big questions are - will the Spotted Whistling Ducks remain in the local area?
- we know they rest on branches during the day, do they roost at night?
- and if they do, where do they roost?
Spotted Whistling Ducks
We first encountered these unusual ducks in Mungan Kundju National Park in 2009. At first we were totally baffled as to their identity but a quick study of our Field Guide, Pizzey & Knight, gave us the answer …….. Spotted Whistling Ducks are native to Philippines, East Indonesia, PNG and Bismarck Archipeligo. The first sightings in Australia were apparently at the Weipa sewerage farm in 1995. They are now regular and breeding at Weipa and also at Coen and Mungan Kundju N.P. is only just a little north of Coen. As the ducks were on the other side of a large lake we only had a distant view and a very poor photo but felt generally quite pleased about our sighting.
Last September 13 Spotted Whistling Ducks were observed on a pond at Wonga (about 10 km north of Mossman) and since then they appear to have been frequenting a variety of swamps and dams in our area. When we were returning from our weekly shopping expedition to Mossman yesterday we saw them in flight when we were about 10 minutes from home. We have been seeing them regularly on our ponds or perching in low branches overhanging water but when they flew in this morning I only counted 10 . They are quite approachable, although they will keep completely still while assessing a situation with normal behaviour resuming within a minute if all seems well. They are very well camouflaged when totally still!
There is a considerable amount of water weed in our ponds and we’re very happy to see the ducks enjoying it.
Although sometimes its nice to have a bit of variety!
And they also like to perch on branches overhanging the water.
Click on images to enlarge
Grey Whistler
Grey Whistlers don’t have any particular ’look-at-me’ traits but they are delightful little birds. I think of them as having a rather pleasant personality (perhaps a somewhat anthromomorphic description) as they quietly hunt for insects without any apparent aggressiveness towards other insect hunters. They have a sweet, almost tentative call that sounds to me like it is not quite complete. We see them on their own or in pairs and sometimes in mixed foraging groups.
Nesting activity
A pair of Large-billed Gerygone are once again taking advantage of a branch arching over the Spring-fed Ponds on which to construct their nest. They made a start about 4 days ago -
I noticed one of these delightful little birds busily pulling at some silken thread that was holding two leaves together (possibly a retreat constructed by one of our many Jumping Spiders)
and watched it making a start on the nest. A very clever design with a sloping verandah which shields the occupiers from our heavy tropical downpours, it looks remarkably like a bit of flood debris caught on a branch. The birds enter the nest by flying up under the sloping verandah. I’ve been watching the building progress over a few days – Read more »
Cool green theme for a hot day
Today the temperature rose dramatically but the humidity remained low, a breeze was blowing and it would have been enjoyable weather if it hadn’t been for the smoke haze from the extensive fires on the Atherton Tablelands. As an ex-resident of country Victoria I particularly dislike smoky, hot, dry days.
After spending a beautiful (and productive) morning in the garden I went looking for the Barred Cuckoo-shrikes I could hear – they were feeding out-of-sight in a large fig tree but I had a happy time observing the Double-eyed Fig-parrots that were much lower down in the same tree, along with Fig Birds and Yellow Orioles. The melodic calls of the Yellow Orioles seem to increase in frequency as the weather warms until they become a background to our summer days.
Mud, mud glorious mud ……….
The last few months of dry, windy weather has been quite a contrast to last year’s seemingly endless ‘wet’. The windy periods usually ease off later in the afternoon – a delightful time to be enjoying the outside.
Some of our shallow ponds are mere puddles and there are lots of exposed bank which can make for some interesting sightings – many not captured on camera owing to hands being full with other equipment!
This Keelback or Freshwater Snake (Tropidonophis mairii), one of many that we have recently sighted, is of the typical colouration that we see in our area. Read more »
Warming up
After a few months of dry and cool weather, including some nights that were actually quite cold, the air temperature is beginning to rise. Brown-backed Honeyeaters (Ramsayornis modestus) have returned to breed and some nest construction has already commenced with our stands of Paperbarks (various Melaleuca species) providing their favourite nest building material. Metallic Starlings (Aplonis metallica) are increasing in number as they also return from their northern wintering grounds with nest renovations already underway in their traditional nesting tree high on the ridge. Read more »
Rifling fruit
Fine weather, lots of time outdoors but hands full of gardening tools so not many opportunities recently to spend time with a camera.
There are however, many birds to enjoy while working outside – the Double-eyed Fig Parrots frequently call as they fly through the garden, they are quiet when feeding and only announce their presence as they take to the air. They seem to be mainly feeding on Cheese trees (Glochidion species) and there are plenty of them around. Metallic Starlings are increasing in number (early again this year) as they return to commence their nest renovations in the large Ficus species on the hill.
Mixed flocks foraging for insects include Rufous and Grey Fantails (winter birds for us) along with Little Shrike-thrush, Spectacled Monarch, Grey Whistler, Fairy and Large-billed Gerygone and Victoria’s Riflebird. There are also great numbers of Brown Cuckoo-Dove enjoying the fruit of Bleeding Hearts (Homolanthus populneus) and the pictured Victoria’s Riflebird was feeding with them. Although the Riflebird spends a lot of time probing under bark looking for insects and grubs with that tremendous bill it also enjoys fruit. In fact just prior to this photo it was sharing a ripe banana with a Macleays Honeyeater – one fruit had fallen on the ground when the bunch was picked and it took the birds only a few minutes to notice it.
Barbara
Allen
