Chicks’ insatiable taste for lizards
IT all began, I suspect, in October 2014.
The swallows had built their nest on a light bulb under the veranda of our house at Yaugher, near Forrest, and on that day I found their eggs had been tossed out of the nest, and smashed.
I wasn’t sure of the culprit but I did suspect it may have been grey shrike-thrushes.
My suspicions were confirmed when in October 2015, the shrike-thrushes built a nest on top of a whippersnipper that was leaning against the wall directly below the swallows’ nest site.
They successfully raised their young there, as they did in the two following years.
But last winter I decided I really did need to do some grass slashing, so I put the nest into a basket and placed it as close as I could to where the nest had been for three years.
In December I was delighted to find the shrikethrushes had accepted my compromise, and there were three eggs in the nest.
Now, there are hungry triplets for the parents to feed.
One thing the birds provided me with was an opportunity to see what the adults were feeding the nestlings.
To my surprise, one major item was lizards, and on one occasion last year I counted at least seven fully grown skinks fed to the nestlings in two hours.
The lizards were large, relative to that of the nestlings, but that they were well able to ingest such large prey was obvious. The number of lizards the family consumed in the nest was astonishing. It must have run into the hundreds.
I wonder how far the adults wander in search of food, as I see relatively few when I’m out in the local bushland.
Now I have two questions — how far the adults range and what species of skinks form the bulk of the prey. Wildlife information and questions can be sent to ppescott@gmail.com