In my most recent post, I celebrated Botanic Gardens Day, which this year fell on Sunday 26 May. There I introduced and celebrated a range of 18 mostly regional gardens (though briefly also touching on a couple of big city ones) across five states and territories. Today I'm going to wrap up this mini-series with a celebration of some of the animals we've enjoyed meeting in 14 different Australian botanic gardens. In this case Canberra's own Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG hereafter) features much more heavily, doubtless disproportionately so, but as a reflection of the fact that, over the decades, I've spent a lot more time there than in all the other featured gardens put together. I shall try to do better in other gardens in the future!
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| Male Satin Bowerbird Ptilonorhynchus violaceus snacking on Lilly Pilly berries (Syzygium or Acmena sp.) in the ANBG. |
I don't doubt that there have been bowers in the national gardens before but I've not seen them. Needless to say though these are not the only gardens with bowerbirds, and I have enjoyed the wonders of male bowerbirds displaying in their elaborately constructed and decorated performance stages in other gardens.
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| Male Satin Bowerbird standing proudly (and hopefully) in his bower, surrounded by blue ornaments (all artificial in this case) at the entrance to the North Coast BG, Coffs Harbour, north coast of NSW. |
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| Western Bowerbird Chlamydera guttata in his impressive bower at the lovely Olive Pink BG in Alice Springs, central Australia. This arid land bowerbird is using traditional decorations, mostly white bones and stones, with some greenery. |
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| Alright, so he's shy about showing his face, but I especially wanted you to see this gorgeous lilac crest, only visible when he's displaying. That lovely soft fawn-spotted chocolate back is very attractive too. |
Elsewhere in this garden, which is a particular favourite of ours, this White-plumed Honeyeater was attending the nest, just above the coffee-sippers (ie us on this occasion) at the outdoor cafe.
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| White-plumed Honeyeater Ptilotula penicillata with nest, Olive Pink BG, Alice Springs. |
Like bowerbirds, honeyeaters arose in Australia, though both have extended into New Guinea and nearby islands. Honeyeaters make up something like 10% of Australia's breeding bird species, so it's inevitable that they'll pop up regularly in botanic gardens.
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| Far to the south of Alice Springs is another arid land gardens, in fact called the Australian Arid Land Gardens Botanic Gardens, just outside Port Augusta at the head of Spencer Gulf in South Australia. It features a bird hide facing this bath/drinking trough, in the extensive natural area of saltbush and shrubs; Singing Honeyeaters Gavicalis virescens, one of the commonest arid land birds, are of course one of the major clients of this water supply. (Here's a photo of the hide, as featured in last week's post.) |
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| Rather more colourful, and a lot less common here than Singers are at Port Augusta, was this exquisite male Scarlet Honeyeater Myzomela sanguinolenta in the ANBG in Canberra feeding on an equally richly-coloured bottlebrush Callistemon sp.. The honeyeater is common enough at the coast, but infrequently makes its way up the escarpment for a visit. |
Flowers and berries are, as you might expect, good food sources for native birds in any garden. Here are a couple of different lorikeets getting stuck into nectar from two very different flowers in gardens in two different states.
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| Scaly-breasted Lorikeet Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus feeding on eucalypt blossom in Goondiwindi BG, an excellent native garden on the Queensland-NSW border. |
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| Rainbow Lorikeets Trichoglossus moluccanus are familiar urban birds everywhere in eastern and south-eastern Australia, and are rapidly spreading inland. This one is feeding on the numerous tiny blossoms of a flowering spike of grass-tree, Xanthorrhoea sp., in the Wollongong BG south of Sydney. Both these lorikeets are feeding (destructively) on both pollen and nectar. |
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| Far to the north these Metallic Starlings Aplonis metallica are feeding on palm fruits along the boardwalk between the Flecker Gardens and the Centenary Lakes in the Cairns Botanic Gardens. |
Another cafe bird (like the White-plumed Honeyeater above) is this male Superb Fairywren Malurus cyaneus which literally came to the table at the Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Gardens near Batemans Bay on the NSW south coast.
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| This was in March, and he was just finishing moulting out of his breeding finery to be less conspicuous - and thus safer - for winter. Like the bowerbirds and honeyeaters, he belongs to an endemic Australian family, with a couple of outliers in New Guinea. This bird is one of the most familiar and beloved of south-eastern Australian birds. |
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| Black Butcherbird Melloria quoyi, stalking the understorey of the Cairns BG, for small reptiles as well as invertebrates. |
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| Fan-tailed Cuckoo Cacomantis flabelliformis in Eurobodalla BG, looking not only for insects, but also opportunities to parasitise the nests of smaller birds, leaving eggs for the involuntary hosts to brood and then ultimately rear the chicks. |
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| Eastern Whipbird Psophodes olivaceus, briefly appearing in the open. |
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| Jacky Winter Microeca fascinans waiting for lunch to fly by. This is one of the Australian robins. (I'm pretty sure this isn't its bower...) |
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| Male Leaden Flycatcher Myiagra rubecula, nicely catching the sun in the ANBG. |
Like the White-plumed Honeyeater above, many birds of course nest in botanic gardens which may provide some security, especially if cat control is undertaken.
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| White-winged Chough Corcorax melanorhamphos nest in the Australian Inland Botanic Gardens, Buronga, south-west NSW. These belong in this list of invertebrate-eating birds of botanic gardens, which continues below. |
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| Papuan Frogmouth Podargus papuensis roosting in mangroves in the Cairns Botanic Garden, beautifully camouflaged. At night they feed mostly on large insects, usually on the ground. |
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| Powerful Owl Ninox strenua, which took up residence in the ANBG for some weeks in autumn of 2007. It stayed until the supply of Sugar Gliders in particular ran low, then moved on, but while there it was quite a celebrity. This top-order predator elsewhere is known to prey on fruit bats, larger possums and domestic cats. |
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| Brown Goshawk Accipiter fasciatus with an introduced Common Blackbird Turdus merula in the Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens. As I sat on a bench the bird flew right over my head, with still-struggling lunch in its claws, then sought a more private spot to eat it. |
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| A few gardens birds are omnivores, like this Australian Brush-turkey Alectura lathami in the Cairns Botanic Gardens, though I'm surprised to discover how little we know about their diet. He was tending a mound at the time. |
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| Double-barred Finch Stizoptera bichenovii, Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens. |
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| Common Bronzewing (Pigeon) Phaps chalcoptera, ANBG. A familiar pigeon, found across virtually the entire continent, but always a pleasure to encounter up close, especially with the sun bringing its iridescent wing feathers to glittering life. |
My last gardens bird for today is a special one for me, being the first Australian 'lifer' that I've come across in a botanic gardens (or at least for a very long time).
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| Spotted Whistling Duck Dendrocygna guttata, Centenary Lakes, Cairns Botanic Gardens. They are found from the Philippines to New Guinea, and in the last couple of decades have established a colony at Weipa up on Cape York Peninsula. However it was a real surprise to find a small group in 2019 here, another 800k to the south-east. |
Mammals are, unsurprisingly, much less frequently encountered in botanic gardens, but mostly because we're only there in the daytime. Additionally, large grazers like kangaroos and wallabies are understandably discouraged by garden managements. However, sometimes we get lucky.
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| Black-tailed Wallaby (or often Swamp Wallaby, though it's a misleading name) Wallabia bicolor in the ANBG. They are browsers on shrubs, so could be a problem, but there are very few in the gardens so unlikely to be very damaging. |
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| Also in the ANBG, this Echidna Tachyglossus aculeata was definitely no threat to the plants, though the ants and termites are distinctly unsafe. |
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| Grey-headed Fruit Bat (or Flying Fox if you like, but really?) Pteropus poliocephalus, Sydney Botanic Gardens, part of a large daytime roosting colony. This was in 2009, and they've since been moved on. I understand the dilemma - in large numbers they can be quite destructive to the canopy of roost trees - but they are also a nationally listed threatened species (and were at the time of the removal). Personally they provided one my strongest motivations to visit the gardens, but I wouldn't want to have to make decisions on the issue either. |
Reptiles live in any botanic gardens, I feel safe in asserting, albeit without actual comprehensive proof! I'm thinking especially of the numerous small skinks...
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| Rainbow Skink Carlia sp. (I think C. pectoralis, but am happy to be corrected), Cooktown Botanic Gardens. |
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| Red-throated Rainbow Skink Carlia rubrigularis, Cairns BG. I'm a little more confident about this one... |
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| Australian Water Dragon Intellagama lesueurii, ANBG. There is a thriving population throughout the lower part of the gardens where there is permanent water. They regularly lurk under the restaurant tables. |
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| Eastern Bearded Dragon Pogona barbata absorbing as much of the early spring sun in the ANBG as it can. It has flattened its body and tilted it towards the sun to maximise exposure to the sun, and cells containing melanin have turned its flanks almost black for greater heat absorption. |
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| And here's another (though not closely related) water dragon, the Northern Water Dragon Tropicagama temporalis in the Darwin BG. |
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| Krefft's Turtle Emydura kreftii, Centenary Lakes, Cairns BG. This turtle is found along almost the full length of the Queensland Pacific Coast, but not south of there. |
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| Green Tree Snake Dendrelaphis punctulatus, in the big lush conservatory, Cairns BG. Perhaps not a great name, as it is as much at home on the ground as in trees, and isn't always green! Common Tree Snake is another name that reflects this aspect of it. I don't know if this one had just popped in for some reconnaissance, or if it was finding enough frogs and skinks here to make a permanent living. A lovely encounter anyway. |
And this time I'm giving the invertebrates the honour of closing the show. As you might imagine I could have offered many more photos than these, but hopefully these can satisfy. I have just noticed that a disproportionate number of these photos feature butterflies (not really apology-worthy) and were taken either in the ANBG (because that's where I spend most time) or Cairns (because it's Cairns?).
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| Shining Oak-blue Arhopala micale, Cairns BG. Like other blues, its caterpillars are attended and protected by ants while they feed. It is found in Queensland, New Guinea and throughout Melanesia to Fiji. |
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| Red Lacewing Cethosia cydippe, Cairns BG. We can just see the distinctive big red patch on its upper wing. This tropical butterfly is found from north Queensland to Indonesia. |
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| Male Cruiser Vindula arsinoe, Cairns BG, with a similar distribution to the Red Lacewing. Both these butterflies were in the steamy green and extensive conservatory; I suspect that they were introduced there (though maybe not) but in either case they are local species. |
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| Imperial Jezebel Delias harpalyce, ANBG. I find it interesting that the upperside (not visible here) is a somewhat dingy black and white. This is a common butterfly throughout the southeast mainland. (Just noting in passing that people - English blokes? - who gave butterflies English names seemed somewhat preoccupied with human women, often with derogatory connotations. Keep your eye out, though now that I think about it, it's probably not as common in Australia as elsewhere.) |
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| Male Common Brown Heteronympha merope, ANBG. This is always a common butterfly, but in the summer of 2022-23 (when this was taken) they were extraordinarily abundant, literally everywhere! |
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| Orchard Swallowtails Papilio aegeus, ANBG. Here two males (left and right) are attending - harassing?! - a female with intent. These were in the Tasmanian rainforest gully by the footbridge, before the gully was severely damaged by the devastating hailstorm of January 2020. |
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| Australian Painted Lady Vanessa kershawi on Xerochrysum sp., ANBG. Its proboscis, clearly visible, is probing the numerous tiny florets for nectar, without having to burn energy in moving. See previous comment re butterfly names... |
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| Common Flatwing Austroargiolestes icteromelas, ANBG, a very common eastern Australian damselfly. |
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| Flower spider Diaea sp., waiting on a daisy for a pollinator to alight in the ANBG. Isn't it a beautiful camouflage? |
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| Fly, Family Acroceridae, pollinating a daisy. |
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| Native bee (best I can do, sorry!) collecting pollen from a paper daisy, Xerochrysum sp. |
And finally, an insect from a different botanic garden, before the rumbles about local bias become too overwhelming!
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| A spider wasp (ie she hunts large spiders to paralyse and lay eggs on, to feed her babies), Family Pompilidae, in the Inland Botanic Gardens, Buronga. |
And that's the end of this celebration of botanic gardens, though I don't doubt there'll be more in the future. My thanks if you're still reading, I appreciate that.
In a just over a week we're planning to head off for four weeks in south-west Queensland, where we're hoping that the wet seasons of the past year or so will have relented enough for us to get to places, but left them full of flowers and breeding birds! We'll see, but whatever we find will be rewarding, and will doubtless provide material for future blog posts. The point here though is that there will a hiatus in Ian Fraser Talking Naturally, until Thursday 18 July. In the meantime you can always find more to read in past posts that you might have missed. See you then!
NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 18 JULY
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