Wagtail Nestlings and Whistlers

 At last a morning that broke the 20 birds mark! That doesn't sound like much of an achievement but the last half-dozen sessions yielded less than that.

The duck net caught three of a family of five Australian Wood Ducks, including both parents. A Grey Teal was caught late in the morning.

Despite the wind the rest of the nets kept up a steady trickle of birds including Grey Fantail, Yellow-rumped Thornbill and two Rufous Whistlers.

Adult female Rufous Whistler. Note the all black bill and the red eye. The streaking on the throat is not well shown in this picture, but is not as dark and thick as juvenile birds.

The back of the female whistler. Tail shape is an important character in ageing these birds - this one had broad, round-tipped feathers typical of adults.

We had a rare opportunity to band some Willie Wagtail pulli (nestlings). Willie Wagtails have a tendency to nest in strange places and this was no exception - in a tree right next to the public footpath and within arm's reach from the ground.
Looking at the nestlings we could see that they were at the perfect age to be banded. That is, when the feathers have just started emerging from their sheaths. Before this the birds are too small, and much later than this the birds are big enough to try and leave the nest. The three pulli were quickly banded and the parents were happily attending to them the next time I walked past.
This was also a good learning experience for our trainee banders as we don't get to band nestlings often at Herdsman.

The growing feathers have just broken tips of the feather sheaths - the perfect age for pullus banding.

Willie Wagtail pulli, ready to be banded.

Species - New (retrap)
Australian Wood Duck - 3
Brown Honeyeater - 1 (1)
Grey Fantail - (1)
Grey Teal - 1
New Holland Honeyeater - (2)
Rufous Whistler - (2)
Silvereye - 4 (5)
Willie Wagtail - 3
Yellow-rumped Thornbill - (4)
Total - 12 (15) = 28

Wondrous Wattlebirds

Another good catch for an October day with a total of 36 birds processed during the morning. The duck net was up and running and caught some great birds including an Australian Wood Duck, a re-captured Pacific Black Duck and an Australian White Ibis. An Australasian Darter perched tantalisingly close to the net but managed to avoid capture - it would have been a first for the Herdsman project.

Australian White Ibis

A net through flowering bottlebrush bushes was particularly good at catching Red Wattlebirds. An amazing seven wattlebirds came out of this net, all of them juvenile. Brown Honeyeaters were the most plentiful, even outnumbering the rather low count of Silvereyes (six Silvereyes - even less than wattlebirds!).
A first-year Spotted Pardalote was a nice surprise late in the morning.

Silvereye

Spotted Pardalote in its first year

Species - new (retrap)
Australian White Ibis - 1
Australian Wood Duck - 1
Brown Honeyeater - 8 (2)
New Holland Honeyeater - 2
Pacific Black Duck - 1 (1)
Red Wattlebird - 7
Silvereye - 5 (1)
Singing Honeyeater - 1
Spotted Pardalote - 1
Striated Pardalote - 2 (1)
Western Gerygone - 1
Willie Wagtail - (1)
Total - 30 (6) = 36