Wildlife September 2011

[jandals]

A regular visitor around our garden is this bellbird . Has been here for about 3 years and has a distinctive song . Feeds on Kowhai flowers ( as seen here ) in the spring , Kniphofia and Phygelius spp in the summer , Lavatera in the autumn and Grevillea spp and Melianthus major over the winter . Pictures taken yesterday .
Conservation dept has bellbird calls at http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/birds/land-birds/bellbird-korimako

[Anthony Darby]

Captain Cook had strange ideas as to what a bell sounded like! Not seen Kowhai flowering here yet.

[mark smyth]

Sounds nothing like a bell
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaT40JqXJ_8[/youtube]

[Stephenb]

Despite having a really good web based reporting system for birds here which I regulalrly visit, I somehow missed that a pair of Red-backed shrikes had bred this year for the first time in our area within about 50m of my cycle ride to work! I discovered this on the day they left... I recorded Whitethroat singing at this same location a couple of times and remember being a bit uncertain if it was that species but not having time to check. Here's a couple of pictures taken by others:

[Martin Baxendale]

Sounds nothing like a bell
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaT40JqXJ_8[/youtube]

Maybe the name was meant to refer to those different sized bells that you play tunes with by picking them up and shaking one or two at a time? Sounds a bit like that if you listen for it.

[Lesley Cox]

Both bellbirds and tuis have different songs in different areas. I mean that the tuis around Tauranga, for instance, sound very different from the ones we have here in Dunedin. They also have different songs at different times of the year. The spring call when they are courting is much louder (and carries great distances), than the autumn call or when they're just finishing a sugar and water drink. And they're great mimics, especially the tuis. To the day, I can tell when autumn has arrived because of a different and truly bell-like call from the local bellbirds.

Tony Hall asked me to describe the sound of the bellbird and after thinking about it, the nearest I could come up with, that he would understand, was a clarinet being played inside a bell.

Steve, another winter dish for the bellbirds and wax-eyes, is Salvia confertiflora. They really love it and sometimes the bush at my kitchen window fairly shakes with so many birds with their beaks inside the tiny flowers.

[Lesley Cox]

Captain Cook had strange ideas as to what a bell sounded like! Not seen Kowhai flowering here yet.

I guess he was used to 2 bells, 4 bells, 8 bells and perhaps a dinner bell?

If you haven't seen kowhai in flower yet, maybe there aren't any near you. They're late winter and into spring flowerers. There are some excellent cultivar forms available now in the garden centres, usually quite dwarf growing, say to a metre or so.

[Anthony Darby]

I have a kowhai in the garden, and I have seen trees in Lucy's school grounds and in the parks around us. No flowers yet, but I'll keep my eyes open.

The first bird we heard in New Zealand was a tui pretending to be a bell bird. It woke us up at 4 a.m. most mornings. I prefer the tui call.

[jandals]

I might try some of those salvia Lesley . I too prefer the tui call Anthony but they are so bossy and will push other birds out of the area .
My bellbird was at the flowers on our plum trees this evening

[David Lyttle]

Went out to photograph some kowhai flowers this evening for a piece I wrote for the Botanical Society of Otago newsletter http://www.botany.otago.ac.nz/bso/newsletter.php(link for any one that might be interested) and this bellbird arrived so photographed him as well. The male has a bright red eye. The bellbirds are year round residents in my garden and breed there but the tuis come only when there is a food source available (at the moment kowhia Sophora microphylla- flowering very well round Dunedin this year). There was a tui here this morning making sure I knew he was there. He swooped down towards me - a very noisy whirring flight that is part of their territorial display. Tuis are very aggressive towards one another and to bellbirds.

While I am on this thread I will post a picture of a couple of little blue penguins in a nest burrow I took two weeks ago. (No they do not make nice pets and you do not want them under your beachside cottage)

[mark smyth]

Lovely blue penguin photo. Where did you see them?

[Anthony Darby]

I'm off to sign the children up for tennis at the Koru Tennis Club in Pakuranga this morning. There are some lovely trees at the back and side of the courts and I've seen as many as five tuis chasing each other there. All Blacks will be at Pakuranga Rugby Club tomorrow afternoon, which is where the Scotland team will be based for their Auckland matches.

[David Lyttle]

Lovely blue penguin photo. Where did you see them?

At Taiaroa Head, the entrance to Oago Harbour. There is a colony of them there and they use the artificial nest boxes that have been installed for them. There are quite a few of them about but since they hid in burrows when they are on land you dont often see them.

[Natalia]

On the eve of approach of autumn....

[Tim Ingram]

I've only seen a swarm of bees some three times in my life, so it was quite dramatic when the third time occurred on the roof of our house! They spent about 15 minutes in a swirling ball outside our dining room window (great place to watch them from close up! Our dog outside looked a little more disconcerted) before they settled down on the roof and are now somewhere in the loft! One of Nature's great excitements.