Tag Archives: Native

Black Cockies

Calyptorhynchus funereus

I used to think that a black cockie was a black cockie, it turns out that the name is a general descriptive term for several species of cockatoos with black colouring.

The cockies that visit my yard are Yellow tailed black cockatoos. For the last few years they’ve been turning up for just 1 day, chowing down on Banksia flowers, gnawing off many small branches, and then flying out not to be seen for another year.

Yellow tailed black cockatoos are big, noticeably bigger than the Sulphur-crested Cockatoos that are here year round. They have black feathers all over with a yellow patch on the cheek and the tail.

A Yellow tailed black cockie on the clothes line. They visit once a year to attack the Banksia trees, this year it was August 5th

 

Black cockie eating a Banksia flower

Resources and References

Red-browed Finch

Neochmia temporalis

The Red-browed Finch is a spot on name for these guys, the other thing to add is they are small and they are fast! Red-browed finches enjoy hanging out in the garden near to the ground where there’s good cover from scrub and small trees. I’ve not seen them flying in the sky or anywhere in the open where there’s no cover. There’s a prunus tree in the backyard that they build a nest or 3 every year. Their nests are made from twigs, tightly woven into an enclosed ball shape with one small doorway.

Red-browed Finches are a common bird that are found up the entire east coast of Australia. They are found in grassy areas interspersed with dense understorey vegetation, often along creek lines.

Red-browed Finch
Red-browed Finch. This guy’s beak looks a bit like a big human nose

Resources and References

Pale Sundew – Another Sundew

Drosera peltata

“stalked semicircular leaves on a slim stem to about 20cm high”  NPOS p. 163

Funny how you can pass something a hundred times and never notice it. A few of these pale sundews were growing in exactly the same spot as a bunch of common sundews I’d known about and been passing for months.

Just like the common sundew the pale sundew grows on damp clay or sandy soil and makes up for poor nutrients by capturing small insects with sticky fluid excreted from it’s leaves.

You can see by the 10c coin that they are small, and there’s not much bulk to them so easy to miss I suppose.

Pale Sundew - Drosera peltata
Pale Sundew – Drosera peltata is a small carnivorous herb that grows on damp clay or sandy soil. You can see yesterdays dinner caught up in a leaf above and to the right of the coin.
pale sundew
Pale Sundew leaf detail. They may look delicate but those leaves are *LEAVES OF PAINFUL LINGERING DEATH!* if you’re a small insect

Resources and references

Common Sundew

Drosera spatulata

“A small rosette herb, about 30mm wide.” NPOS p.164

The Common Sundew is a small ground herb, it has remarkable leaves that are covered in coarse red hairs and tipped with a clear sticky fluid. When small insects get stuck the leaves roll up and the insect in consumed. In this way the Sundew is able to supplement it’s diet by providing nitrogen that is lacking in sandy soils.

The Sundew is a small plant and easy to miss unless you are really looking. They are not rare but I’ve only found them growing in a few areas on sandy / clayey soil that is wet year round.

Common Sundew
Common Sundew – A small carnivorous plant that captures it’s insect prey with leaves covered in sticky fluid.
Common Sundew
Common Sundew – key for scale

Resources and references