Bushwalk discoveries

Today on our bushwalk we discovered a few wonderful things.

A Grey Butcherbird (Cracticus torquantus) feeding chicks in its nest. There were two adults feeding the chicks. It's hard to see in the photo but the bird had a really large spider in its beak. It waited until its mate came and fed the chicks, then it flew off with the spider. I'm guessing it ate the spider itself. I wondered why it decided not to fed it to the chicks? My kids call these two Butcherbirds, Mildred and Rosie. I'm guessing it's more than likely a male and female feeding the chicks but we'll go with Mildred and Rosie anyway.

I also spotted this gorgeous butterfly known as Large Grass Yellow or Common Grass Yellow (Eurema hecaba). It was flying quite fast about 1 metre about the ground. I crept up and got a few photos before it flew off again. Reading tells me they are quite common in Brisbane and during all seasons. It was a deep yellow with black markings on the wings. It was small, maybe about a 4cm wing span.

My daughter has a great eye for animals. We really complement each other out in the bush. I'm guessing it must be her height. She can see things I often miss. She spotted this female Golden Orb Spider (Nephila Plumipes). The females are large, often 5xs the size of the male. They build an orb web and the silk is yellow in colour. The females abdomen in the photo is narrow, showing that she is either young and/or hasn't developed any eggs yet. Her abdomen will get really big and round when the eggs have developed. The females are really large, I wouldn't want to walk into a web!!! Golden Orbs are really easy to recognise, they are large with blank and orange legs.

My daughter also spotted this Tent Spider (Cyrtophora moluccensis). Tent Spiders vary in colour, this one had black, white and yellow on its abdomen. They build a tent or dome like web and sit upside down in the middle of it.

The understory has a lot of Barbed Wire Grass (Cymbopogan refractus). This native grass is really easy to identify, its seed heads are similar to a barb wire. It is a clumping grass and has a distinct lemon scent. You can often smell it when it gets disturbed or by picking some leaves. It grows well on nutrient poor and stony soils which it is growing in, in these photos.

 

 

So we enjoyed our walk and saw some interesting things. It was a real treat to watch the Grey Butcherbirds feed their chicks. My daughter watched them intently. Will be nice to see the chicks start to fly.