Azures see through me

Azure Kingfisher (Alcedo azurea) sits and waits at the oft-mentioned rainforest pool today for the right moment to zoom across and into the nest tunnel.

The birds must have returned to the hole immediately after I stopped haunting the area last month. Heard plenty of their high-pitched in-flight calls as I passed by yesterday. Snuck in today and stood 'hiding' behind a tree about 10 metres from the obscured tunnel entry.

Many more calls. The birds came and went. Fish in bill, they'd perch opposite me, upstream from me, downstream from me, high in trees, low on exposed roots. And never go near the nest tunnel.

I moved further away, lost sight of the tunnel entry, and yearned for Harry Potter's invisibility cloak. Legs started to feel numb.

Just another five minutes. And another five. And another five. And finally one of the birds darted across the water and vanished. Seconds later it reappeared, minus fish.

But that was it. Neither bird would deliver more fish. I felt they did not see me as a threat to themselves, but wouldn't extend grudging trust when it came to possibly revealing the nest site and (probable) 4-6 young. Very sensible parenting.

I'll revisit even more circumspectly in two or three days.

After that terrible picture of bird and fish, here's something a little better. Olive-backed Oriole sits watchfully above a low-slung nest in Tyto's first shady grove of trees. The nest is in plain view just a few metres from the main track.

On the opposite side of the track - and in even plainer view - a pair of White-browed Robin sit, at times, on two green-and-brown speckled eggs. But the birds are so alert, and the nest site so exposed, it's impossible to sneak up on them.

Also frustratingly difficult to pin down, in spite of noisy activity in many spots throughout Tyto, have been several pairs of Pale-vented Bush-Hens, which flew in following rains in mid-November.

Finally, a first since the start of 'winter', a female Cicadabird, on the rainforest fringes today. Though said to be sedentary in northern Australia, the birds - never in great numbers - don't usually stay in or near Tyto beyond May.

Nest news good and bad

First, the bad news. Not only no sight or sound of the Lovely Fairy-Wren (Amurus amabilis) but the nest was today one egg light and the surviving egg felt a bit cool. A quad bike had left minor skid marks on the dirt road right beside the nest. But the rider was probably a pig hunter, licit or illicit.

My suspicion is a cuckoo. Soon after reading about cuckoos supposedly carrying eggs to plant in nests I witnessed the end part of more probable behaviour. A Brush Cuckoo (Cacomantus variolosus) flew into view with a small white egg in mouth, landed on a branch, swallowed the egg, and flew off.

Many birds have demonstrated the capacity to distinguish between small numbers. If the preyed-on wrens know two from three, it makes sense that the parasitic predator does also. It would also make sense not to waste food by throwing the host bird's egg(s) away. Wren watch continues tomorrow.

The good news was stumbling upon Large-billed Gerygones (Gerygone magnirostris) and a White-browed Robin (Poecilodryas superciliosa) at their nests, the first about 750mm long dangling over a rainforest creek, the latter in plain view about two metres up in a dying Tulip Tree sapling in Tyto.

There is no thick rainforest in Tyto but the fire trails lead a kilometre or so southwest to a dense 4sq km patch of forest, swamp and riverine jungle, all largely hidden from the highway by stands of pines and conifers and semi-ringed by sugar cane and flood grasses.

Chasing the high-pitched 'zeep' of an Azure Kingfisher (Alcedo azurea), I edged down a steep creek bank, spooked a duck lurking in the dark-shadowed long pool - topped up by unseasonal rains - and found two Large-billed Gerygones flitting about in trees across the water in front of me. One was carrying nest material.

The bird flew toward me to the nest - which dangled with entry hole almost right in front of me - popped the additions in place and headed away for more. Another site to keep an eye on. I left them to it. Cuckoos may not however.Cuckoos also make use of White-browed Robins, which usually build low on horizontal branches in shaded groves. Today's find appears to break every building code. Will try for better picture tomorrow, and see if clambering up nearby tree allows a view into the nest.

More good news, but stop reading if you hold all creatures equally sacred.

Feral pigs (Sus scrofa) began running amok early last year. After months of failed action, the shire got a professional trapper in. Nine shot in one trap at the edge of the main lagoon today brought his kills to more than 80. Tough on the pigs, but left alone they churn and destroy huge areas, and cost cane farmers a lot of cash.