The Rainbow Bird Volume 7 Number 1 February 2018 (Issue 93) Wedge-tailed Eagles: Photos by Lindsay Cupper, Allan Taylor and Finley Japp. In this Issue Wedge-tailed Eagle Page 2 Egrets Page 3 Nesting at Hattah Lakes Page 5 Aboriginal Place Names Page 7 Birdwatching in a Native Page 9 Garden Hearing Loss Page 11 Nest Choices Page 12 Nestling Mortality Page 13 Birds in Flight Page 14 Bustards Page 15 Unusual Sightings Page 16 Calendar Page 17 The Rainbow Bird Wedge-tailed Eagle The Wedge-tailed Eagle or bunjil (Aquila audax) is truly a majestic bird of prey, soaring over the flat plains all around Australia. It’s wingspan of over 2 metres and weight of sometimes more than 5kg makes it one of the largest eagles in the world. As the birds age they become progressively darker, until at 10 years they are a very dark brown, almost black. Indeed the birds can live for up to 40 years, and mate for life, though if a mate dies they will seek a new partner. The Wedge-tailed Eagle has long been a part of Aboriginal culture, particularly in the Kimberley and around the Murray-Darling river complex. The Eagle and Crow appear in a number of Aboriginal stories. The eagle was also hunted in some communities, and tribes would use smoke to attract raptors hopeful of catching vulnerable prey. Early farmers took the bird as a pest because of its reputation of killing lambs. Up to 30,000 birds were killed in a single year, and the endangered Tasmanian subspecies has still not recovered. Eagles are known for their excellent vision and there is a reason why. As well as binocular vision and good judgement of distance, Wedge-tailed Eagles’ eyes have bony rings which can squeeze and widen the eyeballs. This has the same effect as a camera with a telephoto lens: it enlarges the image seen by the bird. The Wedge-tailed Eagle is a master of the sky and can go up to 2000m high. Incidentally, they are also quite aggressive in the air and have been known to swoop hang gliders and take down drones. Indeed, there has been an incident of a Wedgie attempting to fly off with a young boy at a bird show in central Australia. Birds are in our nature February 2018 - 2 The Rainbow Bird Egrets The recent sightings of Intermediate Egrets and Little Egrets nesting at Lake Hattah have prompted comments about the relative scarcity of such sightings in Victoria in recent years. I have been searching for both species for many years and, each time I saw an Egret, it was, until a year or two ago, invariably a Great Egret. The Intermediate Egret, in particular, is difficult to distinguish from a Great Egret unless the viewer takes the time to study the bird carefully. It has a shorter neck than the Great Egret but this is not always obvious on first sight. A camera is a great help in identifying the species. The closer inspection provided by a photo reveals the slight difference around the head area. The point of skin at the gape (the back end of the bill) stops directly below the eye – not behind it as in the Great Egret. The bill usually turns yellow and orange during breeding time but at other times it is yellow. This species, also, has plumes emanating from the breast and lower back area. The Little Egret is smaller than the other two species but this isn’t always obvious when the bird is viewed from a distance. During breeding periods, the lower bill turns black from yellow, the upper bill remains dark, the legs are black and plumes flow from the shoulder area, the breast and scapulars, as in the Intermediate Egret and, also, the mantle. The most obvious aid to identification, if they can be seen, is the two plumes that flow back from the head of the bird. These plumes are reduced to small stubs (or, often, to nothing) when the bird isn’t in breeding plumage. Allan Taylor Great Egret (in Breeding Pumage) Bare Skin behind Eye; Kinked Neck; Plumes from Scapulars Birds are in our nature February 2018 - 3 The Rainbow Bird Intermediate Egret (in Breeding Plumage) Green Skin doesn’t extend behind Eye; Pill pale Red and Orange; Plumes from Scapulars and Breast Little Egret (in Breeding Plumage) Two Plumes from Nape; Plumes (not visible on above photo) on Scapulars, Breast and Mantle; Black bill and legs Plumes from Scapulars and Breast Birds are in our nature February 2018 - 4 The Rainbow Bird Cattle Egret Nesting at Hattah Lakes The end of December, again, brings to us the spectacle of an explosion of waterbird breeding activity at Hattah lakes. This time, it is as the result of environmental watering feeding water into the lakes after a high river. In 2016, the reverse was the situation (a high river after environmental flows). In both cases, however, the result appears to be the same – birds breeding at above-average levels. The sequence of species’ breeding appears to be similar. The earlier breeders appear to be the Little Pied Cormorants and White Ibis. This year, Intermediate and Little and Great Egrets, Great Crested Grebes and Nankeen Night-herons have also bred. Last year those latter three species had young that continued to fledge after the White-necked Herons, in particular, had finished. Some Little Black Cormorant and Darter nests have been seen but, if last years’ pattern repeats itself, those species will be amongst the later breeders. A White-faced Heron nest is also present. I fancy that the odd Pied and Great Cormorant nest might exist but it is very hard to identify the nesting birds that are situated back in the dense rows of gum saplings in the shallow water that most of the birds prefer. At this date (early January) no White-necked heron or Yellow-billed Spoonbill nests have been seen but breeding may be occurring in lakes other than those I have visited. Those visited to date have been Lakes Hattah, Little Hattah and Mournpall. Allan Taylor Photo collage on next page by Allan Taylor Birds are in our nature February 2018 - 5 The Rainbow Bird Birds are in our nature February 2018 - 6 The Rainbow Bird Aboriginal Place Names I guess that we all wonder about the source of the place names that occur in our District. I have been doing a bit of research and have ascertained the following information about the aboriginal meaning of some of our regions’ towns: Boinka Flat Black Beetle Bitterang (lake) Red Boolungal Pelican Brokie (lake) She-oak Carwarp Possibly “Crow” or the sound a Raven makes Colignan The name of an aboriginal chief Coomealla Meeting Place Curlwaa Home of the wild peach (the quondong) Irymple Waterhole? Konardin (lake) Daughter Koorlong Lightwood Tree Kulkyne “kulk” – tree or wood; “kaalk” – forest or stick Merbein Originally Merebin – thought to mean “White Cliffs” Mildura “mill” meant either red or water; “dura” meant earth or rock Mournpall (lake) Sky Nandaly Fire Nip Nip (lake) Aboriginal lady’s name Ouyen Pink-eared Duck? Or Ghost Waterhole? Patchewollock “putje” – plenty; “wallah” – porcupine grass Pooncarie was originally Pooncaira but I don’t know what it means Linga A play on the Aboriginal word “lar-gni” meaning – camp of… anglicised to linger Werrimul Eagle? Or Emu? Yelta This was an aboriginal name for a small lagoon across the river from Wentworth Yelwell (lake) Echidna Millewa This was the Wiradjuri (Murrumbidgee Area) aboriginal name for the Murray River There are numerous other place names in our area which the white settlers adopted from the aboriginals here and, most probably, their exact meanings weren’t known at that time. To interpret the name, an understanding of the local aboriginal dialect might be necessary. This leads me to discuss the location of the various tribes that existed in the extended Mildura area. I have compiled a list below. Birds are in our nature February 2018 - 7 The Rainbow Bird N.S.W. From Menindee down the Darling to Avoca Station (north Parkintji/Barkinji/Bar:kendji of Wentworth) South- west of them from Popiltah in the north, Mirauira Wentworth in the south and Ral Ral (Renmark, SA) in the west (this area known by the southern mallee natives as Tar-ra) West of both Danggali/Danga:li East of Wentworth on the Murray to Euston (this area Kureinji/Keramin/Kemendoc/Yaako known as - or, possibly, the natives there were known by Yaako the southern mallee natives as - Yaako Yaako) East of Euston Mutti Mutti East of the Darling, including Mungo Barindji Victoria From SA border to near Mildura with a Ngintait very small area around the south- western corner of NSW Merbein area the explorer Blandowski called it Nyerinyeri (Nyeri Nyeri) which is confusing, because the tribe by that name existed around the Kulkyne area (see below) and other literature states that Merbein was in Ngintait territory Mildura to Chalka Creek, possibly Latje Latje / Darty Darty / Laitchi Laitchi / Walkanwani / extending across the northern Sunset Baluk-Mernen area to close to the SA border (though The Lail – Buil sub-tribe of the Wotjobaluk tribe knew the in one map this Murray Sunset area is Latje Latje people as “Baluk-Mernen” (people of the the province of the Lail-Buil sub-tribe of sandhills). The tribes west of Mildura knew the tribe Latje the Wotjobaluk tribe). Latje as Walkandwani. Around the early times of “Mildura Station” the area was known as Yerre Yerre country – again very confusing! Chalka Creek (Colignan) to Robinvale Jarri Jarri/Yerre Yerre/Yarre Yarre Around Robinvale Tati Tati/Dadi Dadi Swan Hill Area Wadi Wadi/Wati Wati From the northern Sunset Country or, Lail-Buil and the other tribes of the Wotjobalu (known as perhaps, only from Pine Plains the Malicundidj by the river tribes to their north-east) southwards.