Friday, October 10, 2008

Two's porny, three's allowed!

Just to show how grownup I can be, here's Lyophyllum connatum as a threesome and not the prurient pairing commonly seen, in nature - and elsewhere. Though the field guide talks of dense clumps and colonies, two or three caps growing from the grassiest of tracks is the Tyto norm.

In my eagerness to post Little Bittern pictures yesterday I neglected to include other details from the sighting.


Also close by was a Red-backed Fairy-Wren ferrying insects to a regular nesting area. The wren's disguised approach to the nest made more noise on the Scleria than the bittern.


So did a pair of Crimson Finches bouncing on the stems before taking nesting material to a hole in a paperbark. Even noisier was the rustling about of an Australian Reed Warbler.


Yet eight metres from me a relatively huge bird shifted around with little noise at all. It may be that the birds are more active feeders during the day than has been recognised. It's almost impossible to see them and now I find their secretiveness is much enhanced by quiet movement.


Missed out everywhere else on the rounds today. Shining Flycatchers, Azure Kingfishers and Large-Billed Gerygones made shadowy appearances and vanished. All the glorious leaves tiling the rainforest creek surface were scattered by overnight wind. I've declared the Lovely Fairy-Wren nest a lost cause, and am having doubts about my cuckoo thief theory.

2 comments:

Mosura said...

Crimson Finches? Wow!

Tyto Tony said...

Only by the hundreds!

Head up for dragonfly, head off for fish head . . .

One moment it's dragonfly trying to dance on White-bellied Sea-Eagle's head, the next it's all go for fisher's discarded fis...