A menace of Mynas

Meanwhile back in Australia Andrew has been taking some picture of Indian Mynas for me to work with. I love his observation notes of this specific twitch:

Stalked mynahs in the South Melbourne Market’s carpark for an hour, baiting them with bits of sausage roll. I have sausage roll grease coating the inside of my mouth and my hands. No luck at Macca’s or at the Preston Market. Weird. Walked around the streets of Preston south and thought a lot about ideal mynah habitats. Noticed that they like to perch places and bounce their calls off hard surfaces like tile or brick. They like open areas in the sun, with a good lookout above. They don’t go as high as crows, or as exposed. Starlings like undergrowth and shade. Sparrows .... just plucky. Hard to get close to Preston mynahs more than 4 m or so—they keep hopping away and looking over their shoulders. 

At South Melbourne Markets they have an undercover loading dock for all the produce. Noticed straight away that the mynahs, sparrows and pidgeons were all ducking in under the roof and having a great old time. Not so good for photos though. A stroke of brilliance was putting their carpark on the roof. Mynahs feel really secure there and there’s lots of stuff dropped out of cars for them. They can get away from trouble by going under parked cars, or make a break for the fence that separates the market’s roof top from the carpark. I got some great shots, could get closer it seems cause they are used to people walking around. 

Leftover trashy food had eluded me ... thinking I could go back to the markets, get some take-away chinese, or salad, or more sausage rolls and leave them in strategic places. The little buggers are really canny though—they know you are watching them, and always keep a safe distance between you and them. Didn’t like the bits of sausage roll I tried to bait them with. Checked it out, didn’t even touch it.  They see or sense intention, I think. 

Flat cat

Ghent, Belgium

Conversations between squirrel and spider

in the Jimmie Durham exhibition at the M HKA in Rotterdam

On one of the animal sculptures from the 1990s "Squirrel", a small spider had made his home between the squirrels ears. He was so small i could not get the spider in focus.

This was a fantastic show, especially to see after the Minding Animals conference. Waving to all new animal friends.

Emerlo Sky #2

Jackdaws (Corvus monedula) heading back their communal roosting spot for the evening. I saw this each night I was in Ermelo at around 8:30pm.

Linnaeus was here

Although it is not really his herb garden as Linnaeus was only in Harderwijk for only a week or so, to get his instant doctorate. What's more, the original plants where sold off after Napolean took control of the city and shut down the University. The two remaining specimens from that time are a ginkgo and plane tree. The plane tree has been heavily pollarded and looks not much more than an enormous stump.

The ginkgo however is very famous and is the second oldest in the Netherlands. It's estimated that it was planted in 1750, there is a legend that it was planted by Linnaeus but as he was in town in 1735 it's unlikely.

In an adjoining open space that also surrounds the De Horus, the old Botanical department building, there was anther huge plane tree whose stump was as large as the one in the renovated herb garden.

In the garden of Linnaeus

Bubble bees moving among the flowers in the herb garden of the former University of Harderwijk, filmed for new friends who I met recently at Imaging Nature II: Andre (NZ), Susan and Tarsh (WA). It was really nice to meet some artists and philosophers where interested in questioning science from within the discipline. I would characterise this thinking as an interest in acquiring and disseminating knowledges, that include scientific observation and categorisation, through the poetics of visual arts. (just to reduce an complicated argument to two sentences...)

Amsterdam bird encounters: Westerpark

Ok I have managed to keep this secret but I am actually quiet nervous about having physical contact with birds and am easily intimidated. As proof I offer you this ridiculous moment when I get chased by a Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra) in a Westerpark. I was too close to the pair and their chicks and the parent had given me some feather ruffling and wing beating warning so I was approaching with care as I could only run forward to get out.

 The pond was one of series in old gas tanks. I saw lots of coots with offspring but this was the only case where the parents gave me the warnings and charged me. 

Haico’s friend has an apartment two blocks from Westerpark so I went there quiet a few times, and even managed a jet-lagged evening jog. The top end of the park is your classic turn of the century park. However the much larger part is in the now disused gas works that includes several jogging paths and a large quiet wild area that is fenced in for dogs to be let off their leads. 

Like many city parks there was several people feeding the ducks in the classical park, But I  didn't see any feeders in the wilder section.

Emerlo sky

One of my enduring memories from the last time I was in the Netherlands was of sitting with Haico at his parents place watching the swifts (gierzwaluw: Apus apus, although Haico calls them swallows) circling and catching insects in the late evening. I filmed this between 9:30 and 10pm. The sky is not completely dark till after 11pm, and its bright daylight at 5am. It has been very strange having jet lag in with all this daylight.

The bird that greeted me to the Netherlands was a dark headed duck and some small Grebes- I am going to find a field guide and hopefully it will solve the mystery, if I got a good sighting. The first bird I recognised was a Blackbird: the bird that greeted me in Launceston.

take off

A collision of rare and recovering birds.
From the Sydney Morning Herald last week:

Taronga Zoo is calling on the public to help find three rare red-tailed black cockatoos after they were spooked by four sea eagles during a bird show at 3pm on Monday and flew away, spokesman Mark Williams said.  

"The sea eagles are top-order predators and they live on the harbour. The five black cockatoos in the show, seeing them, flew off. It's a natural reaction. They leave the area where they perceive there to be a risk or threat," Mr Williams said this morning.  

Two cockatoos were found yesterday but three remained missing, he said, adding that there had been sightings in the north shore suburbs of Balgowlah and Castlecrag.

"They can't put trackers on cockatoos because they chew off the little bands," Mr Williams said.
"It's highly likely that we will see these birds back as they regard the zoo as their home so they will be looking to stay in the vicinity, we hope.

"Once they can be sighted, the keepers will go to them and the birds will recognise the keepers ... and they will come down and have food and we'll be able to take them back."

The cockatoos take part in a free-flight show held twice daily at the zoo. They are usually found along Australia's eastern coast but are not common in the Sydney area, he said.

Once you read about what the red-tails feed on, the complications of how we produce food for human consumption always has a huge effect on the animals that live those landscapes. In this case circular irrigation systems mean that remnant Buloke trees are cleared from paddocks. Buloke is a major stable annual food source that only grows in fertile soils which are favoured for agriculture. In that case unfortunately I don't feel so hopeful for the birds.

But perhaps I shouldn't be so negative after all as the flock was spooked by White-bellied Sea-Eagles, a bird that has only recently returned to Sydney Harbor and has successfully breed several years in a row now. I have never seen 4 W-b Sea-Eagles together, 2 is my record. I wonder if it was the resident pair and some of their juvenile offspring.


UPDATE: I was sitting in the new balcony cafe at the MCA this morning (18/6/12) and saw an adult White-bellied Sea-Eagle being chased over the Sydney Harbour Bridge by two currawongs or raven- I didn't have by bins.. 

dearly departed

Surely the strangest cat art ever: Bart Jansen turning his deceased cat, Orville Wright, into a helicopter. He does look like he really misses him.

Rainbow and Sunset for Michael

 Seen over the Cooks River after hearing that our friend Michael Callaghan passed away on Saturday morning. Too big for one frame, we will miss you.

Beppu Rocks!

I visited Beppu in March 2010 to see Beppu Projects. It was an intense couple days after the week of intensity that was finishing up my residency at Tokyo Wonder Site. I was spat out of Tokyo, being the hopeless packer that I am and found myself in another warmer world. I am looking forward to returning to Beppu. 

The view out the window on the clear day I arrived- for the view in room check the Fuji blog. To summarise, excellent food, climbing mountains (one of the famous 200, not sure if it part of the famous 100), a feeling of what post-war Japan would have been like, old interesting onsen, the scariest onset experience ever- the mud onsen DONT GO THERE!, interesting art, very nice people, Plus the sound scape of many stray cats and a fascinating visit to the Monkey Mountain.

tidied

Ok! So I finally took at look at the new blogger and have revamped my blog.  It really lets you post large images, which makes all the ones I have been posting seem rather small. I guess I could go back and re size things but... I do rather have a more pressing task at the moment. The right hand column is still pretty messy. I'll get around to it, now that I am back to posting after the intensive writing period.

One thing with this new platform is that is seems to have a major glitch with the labels... I have edited so many times only to have them all disappear.

Ibis indicators

A story appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald a while back now that covered some research that has been done on the toxins found in ibis eggs. As ibis eat from rubbish dumps their eggs contain traces of all the toxins that are discarded in the domestic rubbish. 

Researchers from the University of NSW tested ibis eggs in 11 locations across eastern Australia and found that eggs in city-based nests carried seven to nine times as many artificial chemicals as those of country-dwelling birds. Traces of the synthetic pesticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, or DDT, were found in some eggs, indicating that the substance is still working its way through the food chain after being banned in Australia in 1987.

More than 20 years latter and the chemicals are still in the food chain. The SMH story has a good short video with Prof Richard Kingsford, an expert on Australian water birds, and the study's author Camila Ridoutt.

new neighbourhood friend

He is not always around but if I walk past his place around 5pm he is usually waiting out the front for his flatmates to come home and get dinner on. I have no idea what his name is but he recognises me and comes when I give my special cat whistle. His fur is now thick for winter. Somehow only today I notice he has a milk moustache and really long whiskers.

Flashed flowers #9

From a callistmon street tree near the station, I am not sure what kind it is. It has a paperbark-like trunk and a downward branch growth. West German vase.

The thesis progresses... one more chapter to get to first draft stage, but it's the hardest chapter... the one that I am not sure what its purpose is.

soccer cats

I've been busy writing the thesis so haven't had much time to write about the bird things I have been doing. So instead I will do a lazy post and re-post the videos of cats on soccer fields. Of course this in response to the Anfield cat who invaded the soccer field in the UK- doesn't too look panicked and gets picked up by one of the security guards.

Turns out he has a Twitter account (?) with 53,000 + followers. Most of the content are soccer jokes I can't follow.

Some other cat invasions
From a Barcelona game:

A longer version of the invasion from another station is here. The main picture is at 2:53 but before that you see it streak across the top left hand corner.

Ok do doing this post didn't take too long so I should stop feeling sorry for myself and post some more. 

House guest #2

Manny, the schnauzer is hanging out with us this week.

Remembering Miss Orlando

who went to ceiling cat a year ago. Dearly missed.

typical Cooks River scenes

New phone, new movie camera! and so now hopefully some better movies to upload. Typical scenes on the walking path by the Cooks River: A sunbathing skink.

And a White-faced Heron hunting in long grass. White balance not so good with this clip- also the phone camera doesn't seem to like the zoom. But I think it has a little lizard, which it swallows then it continues to hunt. Notice the way he shakes the grass with his feet in order to flush a frog or lizard.

House guests

Now that the weather is pleasantly warm we open the back window wall of the house in the evenings. This has meant an increase in the number of house guests.
The moth that camouflages with the kitchen tiles:

Our long term guest: the insect who loves the blinds in the lounge room and makes a strumming sound like a cricket in our ears while we watch TV:

One of the most beautiful moths I have ever seen. His camouflage of a new lillipilli or gum leaf was a bit of a waste in our kitchen:

And this house guest who arrived very late last night attracted to the lights in the living room and who couldn't find his way out. He flew around the room bumping his body in the ceiling making a dull thud. He sure is one big moth! He sound of his thumping work me up a few times last night so I was very keen to liberate him from the living room this morning. Not before getting some photos though!

garden wonders

Flowering Lillipilli Casade; the Swamp Banksia with it's massive production of flower candles; a strange cocoon, which feels very light and papery - any ideas?; and the biggest surprise- a stick insect! Maybe Ctenomorpha chronus? suggestions welcome! He was hard to photograph.

UPDATE: the cocoon is a Praying Mantis egg, which will hatch with lots of little nymphs. Thanks R.M for the info! Further update: In this very windy weather we have getting of late the cocoon disappeared.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Vanessa Berry also recently had an very amusing encounter with a stick insect in Sydney.