Monday 5 September 2022

 An early afternoon walk with Yori in JKMP, in part to see if I could find a Blue Bonnet that for about a week has been see, most often in the company of Red-rumped Parrots (first eBird report on 31 August 2022). It is presumably an Eastern Blue Bonnet (listed as Greater Bluebonnet in eBird) The Red-rumped Parrots have been feeding on other ground in several places – often below Casuarina trees but some have also been feeding in the extensive grasslands. I did not find it but I saw 18 Red-rumps, always in pairs or threes and, today, most of them were near at the junction of several paths near the wooden jetty S of the beach in the basin.  The Australian Wood Duck brood is still 4 ducklings. The other purpose of my walk was to follow up on the sighting of a pair of Black Swans with 5 cygnets. Sandra Henderson had reported them (with photo) in an eBird list for yesterday but I find another earlier listing on eBird of 5 cygnets being seen on 3 September 2022. Unfortunately, this listing gives 3 adults and 5 cygnets failing to distinguish between the parental pair and brood and another adult  Black Swan. Another eBird listing from 4 September 2022 (Lindell Emerton) includes an image of 5 cygnets and one of the two parent Swans mentioned. I last saw CCL on 22 August when she was being chased by the cob from the nesting pair just north of JKMP with the pen not yet identified as a banded bird. Hatching therefore limited to sometime between 22 August and 3 September. I suspect nearer the August date – they seem robust for 's' sized cygnets today. 

Pair of Australian Wood Duck with 4 ducklings

Red-rumped Parrots

Australasian Little Grebe

Black Swan Cob BJB and Pen CCL with a new brood of five small cygnets

The sitting pair with the cob coming in rapidly because the sitting pen called loudly on spotting the pair BJB and CCL and brood of five approaching from the south

Frantic displacement nest building then occurred! Frustration or displaced aggression?

 

Finally, things settle down because the new brood did not continue northwards but turned south to go past the little island.

A little further up the shoreline on the east side of the eastern arm of Lake Ginninderra I came across another pair of Black Swans. they were too far off for me to detect bands so they remain a mystery pair.

The, as yet unidentified, pair of Black Swans further to the N on the Eastern arm of Lake Ginninderra. East shoreline and closer to the driveway bridge.

Pied Currawong in Fran and Graham's garden.