Spring

I’ve been slack in my attendance to my blog, sorry for that, but the photos & visitors continued.

Spring was interesting to say the least. Breading Season.

The whole dynamics of the Tapas Bar changed almost overnight.
The meek & bullied were now the bullies.  The world has turned upside down (or down under)

This post I’ll devote to my Red Wattlebirds. Red & Little John (turns out my naming skills aren’t too good as Little John turns out to be a girl – they all look the same to me).

Now normally they get along with all the locals. The Tapas Bar is a bit like Switzerland – the Neutral Zone.

Except for the Noisy Miners. They give Red & Little John a hard time all year long. They give everyone a hard time. That's what they do. Except the Kookas, them they leave alone. 

Well that is except for spring. Then the Wattlebirds really grow a set of wattles, and it’s safe for no one. Friend or Foe. Big or Small.
There were many arguments and luckily Headley was there to catch it all (Headley’s my GoPro camera).

It seems Red took exception to Brad, the male Satin Bowerbird, visiting the Tapas Bar.

This was a light bulb moment for me. I thought I had discovered something new. Not the fighting, as there are always squabbles at the Tapas Bar, but what happened next. Brad copped a flogging from Red and was driven off the Tranquillity Pool & onto the grass. Down there he started to mimic other birds. Crows, Black Cockatoos & Kookaburras.  The next day Shiloh the juvenile Satin Bowerbird had the same thing happen to him. He flew into the bushes and did the same thing. On both occasions the Wattlebird flew away. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. While this is all out of camera shot, the audio picked it all up. (I’ll include this at the end of the post). So I looked into it, to find this behaviour was only discovered 5 years ago in 2010. Outside of that study that recorded this, there is next to nothing on the Net of this happening due to stress. They will mimic when courting & that is well documented (which I didn’t know).

This is a snipped of that interaction.

Are you threatening me Red?

NO, not at all Brad.

I'm attacking you.

The old Saratoga Nose Hold

I don't imaging Brad is enjoying this moment.

Not one little bit.

What’s unusual is his sparing partners. He doesn’t compete for food with Bowerbirds, they eat different stuff. So why the agro? Babies maybe? I think they see these guys as being threats, although I can’t find anything on the Net to support this.

I can understand the agro with this next contender. Kit the Green Catbird. They are known for eating baby chicks & eggs. Kit is a daily visitor, so he’s had a few beatings lately. He has also learnt to fight back. And best all some of it in front of the camera.

Attacking from above seems to this guys thing.

As is the Saratoga Nose Hold

This hurt on so many levels.

His beak was hurt.  His pride was hurt. His back was about to hurt.

But most of all his ego was hurt.

But Kit's a quick learner. He was expecting an attack from above.

What Red hadn't counted on was Kit's a pretty good jumper.

That didn't stop him trying from below.......

Or pretending to be just flying past.

If you're just flying past,

You better keep going.

He even tried a sideway attack

Red tried & tried.

What stopped the fight was this.

It was a simple statement.

Fuck with me & you'll fuck with no-one else.

This next contender confirms with me that the agro directed towards the Bowerbirds isn’t about nesting sites. This is Shiloh. He’s a juvenile Satin Bowerbird (Brads lad), he turns black like his Dad @ age 7. He won’t mate before then, so he shouldn’t be a threat.

Christ, what's this about Red?

You're one of them.

Them who Red?

Them that I attack.

This being attacked rubbed against the grain.. Shiloh has seen Kit fight back so decided to take it to the next level.

Next time Red turned up he was going to take him to task. Best defence is attack, right?

This is what transpired...

SO. You think you can best me do you Red?

How do you like it now the shoe is on the other foot.

Yeah, not much as a matter of fact Shiloh.

So is this a Mexican stand-off?

Now we could fight & waste this beautiful fruit

or we could....

Seems common sense prevailed

Until he did this. Talk about poking the tiger. 

To be continued in my next post

More on other quarrels & stuff in my next post.
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas & New Year.
I have a new addition to my Barra Family. The family has introduced Boof, this years baby. But much more on that later.
Here is the video on the Bowerbird mimic

https://youtu.be/kiB0iq9ODuc


See you all next time.