Mangrove Gerygone

The Brunswick Heads Nature Reserve (BHNR) and Marshalls Creek Sanctuary protect mangroves and tidal flats where migrant and non-migrant shorebirds feed and roost and where Beach Stone-curlew have nested. The Reserves are located behind coastal dunes on the north side of the Brunswick River in NSW.

I have completed a number of Birdata surveys in the BHNR over a 3 month period including recording the birds resting on a rock groin and foraging on the surrounding tidal flats which are surrounded by substantial mangrove forest. But I had not thought to look for Mangrove Gerygone. After many visits I finally spotted a small grey/brown bird in mangroves close to where I was standing to observe water and shore birds on the tidal flats. A close look with my bins revealed to my delight a Mangrove Gerygone. 

While Mangrove Gerygones also occupy habitat such as Melaleuca swamps and coastal woodlands they are probably more common in mangroves.  However the difficulty of accessing mangroves means we don’t think of them or see them much, hence my delight in finding and photographing a pair at the BHNR.

The Mangrove Gerygone’s range closely aligns with coastal mangroves from Derby in WA across the top of Australian and down the east coast to Botany Bay just south of Sydney. 

Please click on photos to enlarge.

 

Subsequent visits to the area failed to turn up the Mangrove Gerygones so I may have been lucky to capture the above photos!

Red-backed Fairy-wrens

There are nine species of Australian Fairy-wrens (genus Malurus) and as the name Fairy suggests they are all small - and beautiful - however the Red-backed is the smallest. The Red-backed is found across northern Australia in WA, NT and Qld and its range extends south into NSW east of the Great Divide to about Newcastle.

Along the NSW north coast Superb, Variegated and Red-backed Fairy-wrens may all share the same small area of habitat, though the Superb is easily the most numerous and easiest to find.

The following photos of Red-backed Fairy-wrens were taken at the Byron Wetlands. One photo shows the all brown female which has no blue in the tail and no deeper brown around the eyes. All other species of female Fairy-wren have either some blue in the tail or have deeper brown around the eyes or both.

Please click on photos to enlarge. 

Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets

Many eastern Australian gardens and urban parks are dominated by Noisy Miners which successfully drive out most small native birds leaving only the larger, bolder and more aggressive native birds present, such as Australian Magpies, Pied and Grey Butcherbirds, Pied Currawongs and Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets. The Lorikeets are attracted by planted nectar producing trees and shrubs with Grevillea species being particularly popular with lorikeets.

 

At my daughter’s place on the NSW north coast a large Grevillea with orange flower spikes, a very popular garden species in the area, attracts Noisy Miners and Rainbow Lorikeets which visit the tree on a regular basis throughout the day for at least three months.

 

Much less frequently, Scaly-breasted Lorikeets also visited the Grevillea. It was obvious the Lorikeets, in small groups from pairs to four or five at most, were doing the rounds of the  nectar producing flowering shrubs in the area. I did not see one species of honeyeater (excluding the Noisy Miner which is strictly speaking a Honeyeater) visit the shrub in all of the three months I kept an eye on bird activity at the shrub. The only other honeyeaters I saw in the area were the fairly large Blue-faced Honeyeaters which are themselves somewhat gregarious and aggressive and able to stand up for themselves against the ever present Noisy Miners.

 

I took the opportunity to photograph some of the Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets that visited the large Grevillea.

 

Please click on photos to enlarge.

 

I have included just one photo of the highly successful but problematic Noisy Miner.

 

Rainbow Lorikeets have successfully adapted to urban development and have expanded their range. They are loud, highly energetic and very colourful.

 

Scaly-breasted Lorikeets are less numerous than Rainbows, more sombre in colour and have a smaller range.

 

Ruddy Turnstones foraging among Cunjevoi at Flat Rock

Flat Rock is a popular ocean beach site on the northern fringe of Ballina NSW. The name Flat Rock derives from a relatively large and flat basalt rock platform covered at high tide and exposed at low tide. The platform edges support a rich cover of short sea weeds and abundant stands of Cunjevoi (Sea Squirts)⁽¹⁾ which in turn provide a substrate and nooks and crannies for algae, sea weeds, star fish, molluscs, crustaceans such as small crabs and in addition there are small fish in the tidal pools.

 

As a young boy exploring ocean rock pools I was fascinated by sea squirts and confess to the joy of prodding these seemingly rock like structures to make them squirt a jet of water. When a little older I was further fascinated to discover these primitive marine creatures are not plants but a member of the animal kingdom.

 

Life here in the intertidal zone on an ocean beach must be tough for the intertidal inhabitants because large waves pound the rocks as the tides ebb and flood. Flat Rock is a popular spot with local birders because it attracts a number of migrant shorebird species which no doubt find rich pickings in this environment.

 

On a recent visit to Flat Rock at low tide on 1 September 2020 we readily found about 200 roosting Crested Terns, four Pied Cormorants, a few Great and two Little Black Cormorants plus Pied and Sooty Oystercatchers and one White-faced heron, which were all obvious.

 

Less apparent were about six Red-necked Stints and sixteen Ruddy Turnstones, most likely all recently returned from Arctic regions⁽²⁾. They all seemed hungry and were busy feeding among the Cunjevoi close to the edge of the rock platform and close to the crashing waves. We first spotted the shorebirds when they flew to avoid sea water wash.

 

The day was moderately stormy and rain threatened.

 

The following photos show Red-necked Stints with a little breeding colour still in their plumage foraging in the short sea weed and adult non-breeding Ruddy Turnstones foraging on the Cunjevoi.

 

Please click on photos to enlarge.

 

If you look closely at the following photo you will see the bird has found a small black and white banded crab.

 

 

You can read more about Ruddy Turnstones in this earlier post:

http://avithera.blogspot.com/2015/04/ruddy-turnstones-at-port-fairy.html

 

Note (1) Cunjevoi, an Aboriginal word for the sea squirt, Pyura stolonifera, which is a primitive form of marine life. You can read more about these creatures here:

https://australian.museum/learn/animals/sea-squirts/cunjevoi/

 

Note (2) Not all migrant shorebirds migrate north to breeding grounds each year. Some overwinter in the south or do leave but stop short of the breeding grounds along the migration flyways and may return early. Juvenile birds may not reach a point of maturity where they are ready to breed so wisely do not embark on a long and hazardous journey when there is no biological/reproductive imperative to do so. So the Flat Rock birds may not have recently returned from the high Arctic.