Hi I walk in the Boolarra State Forest in Gippsland every day. There are some water holes, billabongs, dams don't know what they are called and I disturbed this bird early one morning as I walked towards the dam. I believe it is a Nankeen Night Heron. Now I am very careful and try to creep up on the bird and get a closer photograph but so far I have not been successful.
Although I'm not a Nankeen Night Heronologist, that looks like a Nankeen Night Heron to me, rozkidd.
Boolarra State Forest sounds like a delightful place to visit daily.
It is Woko and visiting on a regular basis I now have a fair idea of what to expect to see in certain
areas. There is even a butterfly that I have never seen before (throughout my life) that is only in a
very small area in the forest. It is rare to walk and not see something that is interesting.
It's amazing how the Night Heron's soft variations on the colour brown can be so beautiful. Is brown even a colour?
Is the heron always roosting in the same spot? The few i've seen along the Goulburn R have been in isolated spots and i'm wondering if i should trek back.
It'd be interesting to know what attracts that butterfly to that specific area, rozkidd.
It is always interesting to see if a bird favours a particular spot. I was monitoring the Hooded
Plovers at a Apollo Bay and thought they were migratory but watching them throughout winter
demonstrated to me that they stayed at the same beach throughout the year. However during
Summer and nesting time it was usual to see them on the beach and during winter they were
feeding on the rocks.
Ro
Hi schulzzz, yes, " brown is a colour"
It's such plain "brown"word, but it covers a wide variety of colours—there are light browns, dark browns, warm browns, cool browns, reddish, greenish, and bluish browns. You learned in primary school that "red and green make brown," and while that's true, so do blue and orange, and many other color combinations! Muddying several colors together to get brown is pretty easy, but perfecting an exact shade of brown takes a little more finesse.
Hope that helps, as far as the colour brown is converned
And Ro, wow, are there still Hooded Plovers in Apollo Bay? How long ago was that?
M-L
I moved from Apollo Bay, August 2011 and prior to that I monitored the Hooded Plovers for 3 years. At that time there were two breeding pairs on the beach adjacent to the mouth of the Barham River and at least one other pair at Skenes Creek. There is a marvellous group of volunteers at Apollo Bay who keep an eye on these birds and do as much as the possibly can to ensure the eggs and chicks are safe.
Pet dogs, foxes and feral cats are always a problem. We started to trap foxes between Skenes Creek and Marengo and in a very short time trapped 28 foxes.
There are also Hooded Plovers at Point Franklin, Aire Beach and Johanna Beach.
I also offered to go looking for the Orange Bellied Parrot at Warrnambool with a couple who were very knowledgeable and interested in this bird. However if you saw any other species of bird when you were with them and said "what is that?" their reply was "Oh, a little brown bird, of course."
Ro
I moved from Apollo Bay, August 2011 and prior to that I monitored the Hooded Plovers for 3 years. At that time there were two breeding pairs on the beach adjacent to the mouth of the Barham River and at least one other pair at Skenes Creek. There is a marvellous group of volunteers at Apollo Bay who keep an eye on these birds and do as much as the possibly can to ensure the eggs and chicks are safe.
Pet dogs, foxes and feral cats are always a problem. We started to trap foxes between Skenes Creek and Marengo and in a very short time trapped 28 foxes.
There are also Hooded Plovers at Point Franklin, Aire Beach and Johanna Beach.
I also offered to go looking for the Orange Bellied Parrot at Warrnambool with a couple who were very knowledgeable and interested in this bird. However if you saw any other species of bird when you were with them and said "what is that?" their reply was "Oh, a little brown bird, of course."
Ro
I know people in Mornington doing some great work helping the Hooded Plover, would you like me to find a contact for you?
As for people who are only interested in one kind of bird, although it is very commendable to help the Orange Bellied Parrot, I knew someone like that. Every time there was a little bird, he said, "o, just a Pardalote"
M-L
Thanks, but I am in touch with Grainne Maguire and at the moment I am a "free spirit" helping where I am needed. I am going to the Prom
middle January to see if there are any Hooded Plovers or Sooty Oyster Catchers at Little Oberon Bay. Later in the year if I am asked to
go anywhere that requires a fairly long hike I will be looking for company as I am now a "mature" person and think it is probably foolish to
do these hikes on my own as I used to. So anyone who wants to volunteer will be very welcome.
I don't know it is a swampy area with a lot of sword grass and a few nondescript wildflowers like Goodenia.
I haven't been able to photograph the butterfly yet as it moves quickly and doesn't land for long.
Rozkidd, you might want to Google sword grass brown butterfly. I suspect this might be the one you're seeing.
Buttermops seem to be on the move at the moment. I remember the Monarchs from when I was a child but have hardly seen any in years, however, just this last week I've seen the occasional large Monarch type floating past, heading west towards the coast. A couple of months ago I did a walk at a lake to the south and there was a mass migration (again, heading west to the coast) of smaller Monarch-looking ones, many resting on the ground. They were looking quite tatty around the edges so I thought they might have just about been at the end of their journey.
Wendy
Mandurah, WA
Peel-Yalgorup System Ramsar Site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/girlinoz/
This is amazing I did Google sword grass brown butterfly and there it is, must do this more often when something strange pops up in the forest, thanks Woko.
I wonder if those smaller Monarch-looking butterflies are common brown butterflies, Wendy.
Hi Wendy I haven't seen any Monarch butterflies here in Gippsland although your comments reminded me that at Apollo Bay over
summer I would see a lot for a couple of weeks and then they would disappear.
I have managed to take a photo of the butterfly that I see in the Boolarra forest which I now think is a Sword Grass brown.
Nice photo of the Sword-grass brown Rozkidd .
To be able to identify an insect or bird with an appropriate name is a better way of understanding their fragile habitats.
Your photo is of a female , cream bands on the forewings.
Male has orange bands.
Nankeen night heron , they have been known to carry Encephalitis .So watch out for Mosquitoes.
Woko as for the small monarch like butterfly , without photo I would like to think it is a Common brown, its range is from QLD thru to southern SA, or it could be a Meadow Argus which is found throughout Australia. Both like to settle on the ground.
As for the Monarch butterfly it is a native of America and has spread across the pacific and south-eastern Australia over the past 100 years.
Wendyk the larger monarch type ,could be Lesser Wanderer.
( Danaus chrysippus petilia ) a native .
Which uses the cotton bush as its host plant, a weed of open fields an road sides.
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
Thanks for that, Darinnightowl. I was aware that the monarch or wanderer butterfly wandered in from North America but I'm wondering how the wanderer did that. Was it transported by boat or by wind?
We get lesser wanderers at our place (s.e. slopes of Mt Lofty Ranges SA) but I'm not sure which plants they use, if any. Fortunately, we don't have cotton bush here so presumably it's something else. I note from my buttefly book that they travel around Australia seeking favourable conditions. However, none of the native plants listed as being favourable to them exist here as far as I know.