You can’t help being aware of the abundance of birds that call the Coal Point peninsula home. From the early morning kak of the kookaburras, the daytime chattering of lorikeets to the soothing hoots of the nocturnal owls, there’s hardly a time throughout the day when our bird-buddies are absent from our ears.
This ever-present connection to nature is good for our mental health and the bushland that they need to survive offers another layer of ambient wellbeing.
Neighbours Noticing Nature
“Just wanted you to know we’ve been visited lately by a juvenile Blue-faced Honeyeater but haven’t seen any adults as yet. The juvenile doesn’t have the blue area around the eyes.
Other locals may have seen this very striking bird, but we’ve never had the privilege of such a visit in the 39 years we’ve lived in Coal Point.
It’s such a treat to sit on our deck surrounded by beautiful big trees and greet our feathered friends every day”.
Want to know about the Birds in your Backyard?
The Autumn seasonal survey by BirdLife Australia is now on until the end of April. The citizen science survey tracks the health of our urban birds, and allows the urban bird team to monitor the impact of our gardens, outdoor spaces and even our own behaviours on bird populations. A lot can be learnt from Birds in Backyard surveys, such as how different types of gardens can attract different types of birds, and which features birds may be avoiding or are negatively affected by. The data were recently used in a study showing the decline of even some of our most common birds in major cities across Australia.
To participate in the survey spend 20 minutes somewhere you can view birds - your backyard, or other favourite space, record the bird species you see and count how many there are. A series of questions are also asked about your garden - like what sort of plants you have, if you have pets and if you feed birds.
If you are unsure where or how to start, then fear not! The Birdata web portal and app automatically gives you a list of 30 birds (including pictures!) from your region to choose from as a starting point.You can also win great prizes if you enter your surveys in Birdata.
A Paw Pledge
The Invasive Species Council (ISC) was formed in 2002 to seek stronger laws, policies and programs to keep Australian biodiversity safe from weeds, feral animals and other invaders. Their focus is on prevention and early action.
One of the key projects of the ISC is the Cats in Australia project. They are working to ensure that pet cats are kept safe at home, and that there is support through local, state and federal government for effective cat containment.
Whether you love them or not, cats are a catastrophe for our native animals.
An estimated 8 million animals die daily, killed by the 5 million feral and roaming pet cats in Australia – doing what comes naturally to them.
The ISC is advocating for a dramatic increase in government action to reduce this devastating death toll and prevent further extinctions caused by cats. And to win government action, governments need to see Australian cat owners, cat lovers or otherwise, publicly showing support for our wildlife. We need to show them that cat containment and effective action on feral cats is popular!
The ISC has done the research and knows the public choose our native animals – alive – over roaming cats. Australians support both cat containment and action on feral cats when they are shown the facts and understand what’s at stake. Cat owner or not, Aussies love nature and want to care for our Australian bush critters.
The ISC’s pledge asks if you are a cat owner (past or present) or if you simply support better protection for wildlife from cats. Many of us, love our furry feline friends, but we also know that they are purrfect indoors.
Please put up your paw to show your support for action on cats by taking the pledge today. https://invasives.org.au/how-to-help/take-action/extinction-emergency/
The Coal Point CATaclysm.
Our local wildlife carer Catherine Wroe provided this insight into cats in our community.“I’ve mainly only cared for birds and blue-tongued lizards attacked by cats, but I have rescued other species and passed them onto other carers. The birds include most species that are found around here, and young birds are particularly at risk because they aren’t able to fly so well and their fear response hasn’t fully developed.
Birds include eastern rosellas, king parrots, grey and pied butcher birds, magpies, kookaburras, tawny frogmouths, noisy miners, wattlebirds, sacred kingfishers, dollarbirds, quail, scarlet honeyeaters, owlet nightjars, crested pigeons, rainbow and scaly-breasted lorikeets, plovers, figbirds and satin bowerbirds. Other animals I’ve rescued/picked up after being attacked by cats are ringtail and young brushtailed possums, sugar gliders, and feather-tailed gliders. And of course, there’s lots of little skinks, antechinus, and snakes that are attacked or killed that aren’t reported.
Animals don’t have to be injured to die from cat attacks. The bacteria in cats’ saliva is fatal to wildlife, so just being held in a cat’s mouth can cause an infection that will kill them. Therefore, whenever any wildlife is suspected of being attacked by a cat, they require antibiotics. Also, cats often don’t bring wildlife home, so many animals die without their owner’s knowledge.”
Catherine is a wonderful community asset. She is calm and with her non-judgemental manner she provides us with a lifeline for injured wildlife. Birds have a much better chance of surviving if they come to Catherine rather than going straight to the vets unless they need euthanising - it’s very stressful for wildlife at vet clinics, and they often don’t get examined for quite a while. Catherine can generally treat them at her place or take them to the vets if necessary. If you have injured wildlife please let Catherine Wroe know-0412 093 030.
There have been some amazing sightings lately of friendly fauna visiting our community. A spotted-tailed quoll was seen at Robey Rd, along with a Pheasant coucal, a large, long-tailed, pheasant-like cuckoo
Ecologists Chris Mclean and Gordon Patrick both assured us that they are relatively common in Lake Mac, occurring at both Glenrock SRA and the Watagans NP.This one was probably a roaming male on the lookout for a mate when he went as far east as he could.Wildlife carer Catherine said “the fact that the quoll and pheasant coucal are down our way, shows just how important our bushland, trees and native gardens are for our wildlife that are having to extend their range to find more food and suitable habitat.”
The Threatened species website says “Quolls use hollow-bearing trees, fallen logs, other animal burrows, small caves and rock outcrops as den sites” so it’s really important to let the logs lie in our bushland reserves as they are important homes for our fauna nomads.
Quolls also eat a variety of prey including gliders, possums, small wallabies, rats, birds, bandicoots, rabbits, reptiles, insects, carrion and domestic fowl. With the current explosion of rodents this can potentially be devastating for the quoll. Second generation rodenticides can cause death beyond the target rodent by building up in the fat reserves of every animal further up the food chain, eventually killing them too.
The first generation warfarin-based rodenticides, which don’t accumulate, are less likely to impact on non-target animals like quolls and owls.
The other local threat for this uncommon community quoll will be the roads. Driving carefully, especially at night, will help.
Local bird surveyors Rob & Michael have also noted that the Satin Bowerbird on the West Ridge is active again - “he has moved it a bit but that’s a good sign that the hormones are flowing again” .
Adult male Satin Bowerbirds build and decorate stick bowers to attract females for mating. Females choose among males based on these complex bowers, decorations placed at these bowers, and displays consisting of vocalisations and posturing. These bowers are amazing, if you happen to come across one please stay a respectful distance, it is their home that they’ve invested a lot of time in decorating it.
The current major drought, which began in 2017, is starting to be felt closer to home with water restrictions recently being put in place. Our bushland wildlife however has been on water restrictions for quite a bit longer.
Local wildlife carer, Catherine Wroe, is seeing lots of dehydrated birds coming into care as they are not getting enough moisture from the food available. If you’ve been for a walk in our bushland recently it’s obvious that there is very little moisture about, leaves and limbs are being shed, mature trees turning up their toes, the soil is dry and drifting without moisture to keep it together.
Catherine has offered up some tips on how to care for our local wildlife.
- Put out water in shallow dishes, both up high and down low and in the shade if possible. If you don’t have shallow dishes include a stick or two so smaller animals can get out if they slip in.
- Keep your cats and dogs inside, especially at night. This lets the wildlife get a drink relatively risk free.
Other tips from https://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/summer-wildlife.php include;
- Covering your pool avoids animals drowning and also reduces evaporation, saving you money
- Keeping an emergency care kit on hand; water, blanket , box and wildlife carer number...Catherine Wroe 0412 093 030
Signs of heat-stressed animals include;
- Nocturnal animals like possums out during the day
- Birds or other animals showing loss of balance, collapse, confusion or panting
- Tree dwelling animals on the ground
By Wildlife Carer Catherine Wroe (for rescues call 0412 093 030)
I have recently had a very beautiful Masked Owl in care, she had been hit by a car on the Wangi Wangi side of Myuna Bay. Very lucky to be alive, as she was sitting in the middle of the road with cars zooming past before a lovely lady stopped to pick her up. She had a lot of blood in her mouth and was badly concussed, but fortunately x-rays showed no fractures. She made a full recovery and was released early August.I identified her as female by her weight of 810gm. On the mainland, female Masked owls weigh on average around 700gm and are generally larger than the males. She was also a dark morph of this species.
I also had a Barn Owl in care from Westlake Macquarie that was hit by a car - sustaining a broken coracoid. Luckily it healed well and the owl was released about 4 weeks later. Interestingly, both these birds are from the Tyto owl family.
Recently a local Wildlife Rescuer discovered two baby Owlet-nightjars that had been mauled and killed in our local bushland. Whilst saddened at the loss, it was significant to find these small nocturnal birds locally.
The Owlet Nightjar is a common and widespread bird preferring tree-studded habitat with hollows. During the day it roosts in these hollows and tree trunks. The birds form permanent bonds and live in the same territory throughout the year.
The Owlet Nightjars are the smallest of the nocturnal birds and only raise one brood per season of 2-5 eggs. The nest is usually placed in a tree hollow or rock crevice. The Progress Association will be assisting local wildlife carers with provision of suitable nestboxes to support the local population of Owlet Nightjars and increase the number of ‘tree hollows’ available.
Hollow logs are vital for survival for many native animals. Possums, sugar gliders, birds of all shapes and sizes need the shelter, protection and warmth that only good wood insulation can provide. The removal of logs from the bushland especially as winter approaches, places the survival of local wildlife at risk. Log hollows take decades to form and are a precious commodity. Please leave the logs in the bush this winter.
For more information about Owlet Nightjars
