Neighbours Noticing Nature

So much wonderful wildlife still exists within our bushland suburb. These neighbours have shared their ‘faunal finds’ from a festive summer and made some forthright comments about walking on the foreshore with your four-legged friend.

Birds by the lake

There are several very old Casuarina trees on the water’s edge in front of my place. 

An Australian Darter spends much of its time roosting on one of the Casuarina branches that overhangs the water on the Lake’s edge.

It “goes fishing” from this spot.

When it returns it rises out of the water to stand on a rock shelf immediately in front of the Casuarinas.

Here it spends quite some time, maybe up to an hour or more, preening itself and drying its feathers (it has a wingspan of approximately 95cm), before attempting to get to its roosting spot high up in the tree.

It then waddles over to the trunk of its tree and begins to climb/clamber up the tree using both its feet claws and its wings. Quite a feat for such a big bird and quite a sight to see!

Unfortunately when the darter is drying its feathers whilst sitting on the rock shelf it is susceptible to attack by dogs not on a leash, as recently was the case.

Another bird that has been in my yard numerous times during the last few weeks is a Buff-banded rail. A neighbour saw it and thought it was a quail, along with a couple of chicks. But it is too big to be a quail, this Bird is buff!

In response to ‘Waterfront Walking’- 
(Community Quirks Dec Chronicle)

We greatly appreciate receiving the regular yellow newsletter and understand the

work involved in its compilation. As owners of a waterfront property in Toronto, we enjoy meeting the people who walk along the foreshore past our house and we acknowledge the long-standing tradition. We only ask that people keep their dogs on leashes and clean up after them.- KR

Your paragraph re Waterfront Walking is welcome information but as one of those absolute waterfront property owners I would appreciate walkers of dogs picking up their dog poo they continually choose to ignore. Perhaps if their dogs were on leads they might notice when they are pooing. It is difficult to have my small grandchildren playing on our waterfront when so many dogs are roaming free.

Locally we are very fortunate to have two leash free areas in our community, Gurranba Reserve (308a Skye Point Rd) and Puntei Park (bounded by Hampton Street and Excelsior Parade), and there’s the substantial leash free area at Speers Pt Roundabout.

Looking in the Lake

Some stunning sightings- The Gloomy Octopus aka Common Sydney octopus hasbeen spotted in an octopus’s garden off Rofe Street by a keen snorkeler.

Image (Sylke Rohrlach from Sydney, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

A Spotted Eagle Ray was sighted splashing in the shallows around Carey Bay by some regular swimmers; it circled around a couple of times to investigate the non-ray shaped object, an exhilarating experience.

Return of the Squirrel Gliders! Ye ha.

I watch for squirrel gliders every sunset, and it has been a long wait, but over Christmas I have spotted glimpses of what I was sure were gliders, and yes, I have just witnessed a glider land on an iron bark, scamper up a few metres and then glide down to a macadamia tree. Our block is now quite forested, and I have let the grasses take over. I am honestly so excited by this sighting, and it confirms my concerns for the continued loss of our old mature trees throughout the peninsula.

Not sure if you know but I believe Lyn and I were responsible for the gazetting of Coal Point as a recognised squirrel glider location on the National register.

Hope you all get a similar thrill from this sighting. I'm very thrilled.

PS I have now seen two gliders gliding together towards the same trees. I haven’t quite worked out where they’re coming from, but we have a number of boxes they could be using. I also have a couple of boxes I need to replace, which must now be prioritised.

PPS I’ve been watching the gliders again this evening and think I have a handle on what they are feeding on. We have two groves of lady fingers bananas (big block plenty of room). The King parrots like the ripe bananas and it now appears that the gliders like the flowers.

The gliders also like Cocos palm flowers which we had previously recorded and which we also have growing. I’m concerned that these little possums are relying on introduced plants, or maybe it’s simply a case of them taking advantage of a good food source. Kind regards Darrell, Lyn & Jye.

The Squirrel Glider is listed as Vulnerable NSW due to habitat loss, degradation & fragmentation, along with loss of hollow bearing trees, food sources and predation by exotic predators. There is a lot we can do locally to assist our local population survive. Installing nestboxes, providing food sources and responsible pet ownership are key to their continued survival in our fragmented landscape.