Drouin's honeyeaters

In avian terms, Australia is often referred to as the land of parrots. In fact there are far more species of honeyeaters that inhabit our great country than there are parrots. A quick scan of any current Australian bird field guide will produce entries for over 60 species of honeyeaters while the parrots list is less than 30.

Early settlers to the Great Southern Land were astounded at the number and size of the nectar-eating birds. The Tasmanian Yellow Wattlebird was hunted for food to the extent that in 1903, a closed season was instigated for fear of eradication. Like all native fauna, they are now fully protected.

Most other continents barely have three or four honeyeaters – Africa has a few Sugarbirds and Sunbirds. In Europe several tits and bee-eaters are known to sometimes take nectar. The tiny, fascinating hummingbird family is South America’s main avian consumer of nectar (Attenborough’s brilliant hummingbird video 50min – check out the sword-billed Hummingbird!).

Over millennia, our native trees and shrubs have evolved to cope with soils depleted of nutrient. It is postulated that our eucalypts, banksias, wattles, grevilleas, bottle brushes, paperbarks, hakeas, etc. tend to produce excess sugars through photosynthesis to make up for the lack of nutrient available through their root systems. Their flowers are often dripping with nectar – honeyeater heaven!

Most Australian honeyeaters don't just consume nectar. Most honeyeater diets also include seeds, pollen, fruit and insects.

Honeyeaters have brush-tipped tongues that extend beyond their beaks (often long and curved) to facilitate the lapping of nectar from the gland at the base of the flower. In doing so, they inadvertently collect pollen on their chins, foreheads, etc. from the flower’s anthers. The pollen is transferred to the stigma of the next flower on their calling list – pollination! Honeyeaters have become the principal pollen vector for many of our native plants.

Enough. Here’s fourteen of Drouin’s (and district) honeyeaters that you may encounter:

 Wattlebirds

Little Wattlebird                                 Red Wattlebird

These two honeyeaters seem to be present in our district in just about equal numbers but they are highly nomadic as they chase blooming trees and shrubs. The Little Wattlebird is without the cheek wattles and the yellow belly. It’s a bit smaller than the Red Wattlebird and has rufous underwings that are very obvious in flight.

Lorikeets

Rainbow Lorikeet                       Musk Lorikeet

The Rainbow Lorikeet is the main lorri we have in Drouin, but every now and again there will be some Musk Lorikeets among the flocks of rainbows. Rainbow Lorikeets are like, well, rainbows. Musks are pretty much all green with a red forehead and patch behind the eye and are a little smaller.

Eastern Spinebill and New Holland Honeyeater

Eastern Spinebill                    New Holland Honeyeater

These two are pretty common in our district. The spinebill has the long, curved bill that is perfectly adapted for seeking nectar particularly from tubular flowers like correas. The new holland has a single, high-pitched alarm call and spends a lot of its time chasing other honeyeaters from its territory.

Lewin’s Honeyeater and Brown-headed Honeyeater

Lewins Honeyeater                Brown-headed Honeyeater

These two are generally not so easy to spot. The lewins usually stays well-hidden in deep wet gullies. You know its present when you hear a machinegun-like call. The brown-headed is just not that plentiful in this district it seems. It tends to prefer more open woodlands.

White-eared Honeyeater and Yellow-faced Honeyeater

White-eared Honeyeater          Yellow-faced Honeyeater

A loud ‘chock-up, chock-up’ is the distinctive call of the white-eared. In our district, this bird can be found from the alps to the coast. The yellow-faced tends to stick to open eucalypt woodlands. In autumn, many of them head north for winter.

White-naped Honeyeater and White-plumed Honeyeater

White-naped Honeyeater          White-plumed Honeyeater

White-napes usually feed high in the eucalypt canopy. They are a ‘smart-looking’ bird in their black, olive green and white plumage. White-plumes have adapted well to tall eucalypt reserves in urban situations. They are sedentary but nomadic at times.

Noisy Miner and Bell Miner

Noisy Miner                             Bell Miner

We don’t have much difficulty seeing these two in our district. Both are very aggressive to other birds – not just other honeyeaters. Noisy Miners tend to be ‘fringe-dwellers’ – they inhabit the edge of bush and woodland, seldom venturing into the denser places. Bell Miners live in colonies wherever there is an infestation of lerp. We could probably do with fewer of these two in our town!

 Our honeyeaters need our trees and our trees need our honeyeaters

What is the Government doing about Australia’s biodiversity crisis?

The Australian Government’s State of the Environment Report, 2021, says, “Overall, the  state and trend of the environment of Australia are poor and deterorating as a result of increasing pressures from climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and resource extraction.”

Over 2000 native Australian species of flora, fauna and fungi are listed as threatened. More than 80 species are described as ‘critically endangered’. Not to mention the dozens of ecological communities (e.g. “central Gippsland plains grassland community”) and processes (e.g. “loss of hollow-bearing trees from Victorian native forests”), also listed. The inventory of threatened species, communities and processes grows almost daily.

Waterford Rise Warragul

A few locals on the threatened list include:

Clockwise: Southern Brown Bandicoot, Graceful Sun-orchid, Purple Diuris, Gang-gang Cockatoo

A survey of nearly 4000 people conducted in Nov-Dec 2024 by Monash University for the Biodiversity Council, found strong support for: strengthening environmental laws to protect nature, protecting native species habitat from developments such as mines and urban expansion and establishing national environmental standards for the protection of the environment from developments.

Buln Buln Rd Drouin

Less than 5% of people surveyed expressed opposition to environmental law reforms.

Credit: Monash University Behaviour Works Australia and Biodiversity Council

A review of the EPBC Act more than 5 years ago found that the laws were ineffective and in need of urgent reform. A summary of points from the review included, “The EPBC Act is ineffective. It does not enable the Commonwealth to play its role in protecting and conserving environmental matters that are important for the nation. It is not fit to address current or future environmental challenges. Fundamental reform of national environmental law is required…”

In 2022, the Government’s response was to produce the Nature Positive Plan. More than two years later we are still waiting!

So why are the government’s Nature Positive Bills, which would reform the 25-year-old Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and establish national environmental standards, currently stalled in the Senate? Mainly because there is a Western Australia state election on the 8^th March and the WA Labor party does not want to lose votes from the powerful mining industry and our Labor PM wishes to appease Roger Cook, the WA state Labor premier. We now have to wait until after the next Federal election in May, for the Labor party to raise the bills again in the Senate (maybe).

In the meantime …?

Ed: sorry for the recent posts of a negative nature – I’m getting old. I promise to do my best to find a positive topic shortly.

Gouldiae.

 

 

Quick, duck!

In 2023, a Legislative Council Select Committee advised the State Government to discontinue duck hunting on all public and private land from 2024. The committee chairman, Ryan Batchelor said, “The Committee’s rationale is driven by the considerable environmental evidence of long-term decline in native bird populations, and a worsening outlook as our climate continues to change.”

In 2024, instead of a total ban, the State Government shortened the season and instigated a bag limit of 6 birds a day. Despite the shortened season, it is estimated that almost 400,000 birds were shot last year.

On Friday last week, Steve Dimopoulos, the Victorian Minister for the Environment in the Allan Labor Government, announced a 50% longer season and a bag limit of 9 birds a day. This year, the duck season begins on March 19^th and runs to June 12^th. Minister Dimopoulos said, “Duck hunting is a legitimate activity that matters to thousands of Victorians and we’re making sure it can continue sustainably and responsibly – backed by science.”

'Targeted' this year by the Victorian Government's 'adaptive harvest management' model, (clockwise): Pacific Black Duck, Mountain Duck (Shelduck), Chestnut Teal, Pink-eared Duck, Hardhead, Wood Duck, Grey Teal

Whose science is right? Which way to turn?

 

The corella problem

We have three species of corella in Australia: Little Corella, Cacatua sanguinea; Long-billed Corella, Cacatua tenuirostris; and Western Corella, Cacatua pastinator. The Little Corella is the most widespread and the most common species here in West Gippsland. The Long-billed Corella is mostly found in the south-east corner of SA and inland western Vic. The Western Corella is restricted to a small part of south-west WA. The three corellas are members of the cockatoo family and closely related to the familiar Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. 

The Little Corella is a small (35-39cm) white ‘cockatoo’, with a short erectile crest. It has some bare skin around the eye and some barely perceptible pink flush between the bill and the eye. 

It seems the Long-billed Corella is becoming more frequently sighted in our district with most large flocks of ‘Littles’ containing a few ‘Long Bills’ these days.

 

The Long-billed Corella (38-41cm) has a long, slender upper mandible, a distinctive red-pink bar between the bill and the eye, and an obvious pink flush on the throat and upper chest.

Corellas need fairly large tree hollows in which to nest. They mostly eat fallen seed on the ground, fruit and they particularly like to dig for corms and tasty roots of various grasses (a golf course greenkeepers nightmare!). It is not unusual to find flocks of hundreds around grain silos. 

Perhaps their most annoying characteristic, in urban situations at least, is that especially in the mornings, they collect in large noisy flocks and can damage garden trees and shrubs, orchards, crops, sporting fields, even buildings, with their chewing. 

Their presence in specific localities appears to be a seasonal thing. Eventually the flock will move on to ‘pastures new’. In the meantime, their raucous belligerence, for the most part, has to be endured. 

The Victorian Wildlife Act 1975 reminds us that “It is illegal to willfully disturb or to destroy protected wildlife”, and all native animals are protected. In theory, legally we can’t even disturb them! DEECA, the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, has fact sheet available Guidelines for Reducing Cockatoo Damage - Wildlife Management Methods, which details things you can do (practically – not much) and things you can’t do (heaps). 

Mid Murray Council SA, has a fact sheet, Little Corella Management on Private Property which perhaps gives the most practical advice for most urban dwellers at least: “… using strobe lights and flashing torches at roosting birds. This will disturb and scare birds which will cause them to seek other sites”. In other words, send them off to disturb someone else in the next suburb! 

It’s worth noting here, that in Victoria, a slingshot or shanghai, is a prohibited weapon under the Control of Weapons Act 1990. 

The German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is known to have said “Enjoy when you can, endure when you must” or something like that – seems appropriate.