Yesterday morning was one of those awesome moments not easily forgotten. I heard the alarm call of the resident New Holland Honeyeaters; this always prompts me to quickly scan the sky for any birds of prey lurking around.

I was just quick enough to see the final stages of the stoop of a Peregrine Falcon, wings swept right back, as it swept low over the trees heading for a small group of Common Starlings. I couldn’t see if it caught its breakfast.

The traffic past our property travels at about 80kph. This bird was going at least twice that speed.

What an awesome sight!

Pity I wasn’t quick enough to race inside, get the camera and take a photo.

If you are a birder and a blogger, why not contribute to the next I an the bird? Details can be found here.

Eclectus Parrot (female) Adelaide Zoo

I found the section on the bizarre - and rather unique - breeding habits of the Eclectus Parrots to be quite fascinating. Apparently, the female stays in the nest hollow for many months and the male comes to feed her. Furthermore, the male often mates with several other females in his territory during the breeding season, as does the female. This species is also unusual in that the female is the more colourful of the two.

Eclectus Parrot (male) Adelaide Zoo

The photos shown above were taken of some captive birds in a walk through aviary in the Adelaide Zoo. This species is quite commonly kept in captivity, though very expensive to buy I believe.

It also features some of my photos of birds, again, mostly Australian birds.

On my writing blog I sometimes write about birds, including poems about birds. You can read my latest haiku about birds here.

Captain Proud at Sturt Reserve Murray Bridge

A few days ago we had some business to do in the CBD of our home town, Murray Bridge. We decided to take the makings for morning tea with us. After dealing with the business side of things we headed down to the river and parked in the shade of tree near Sturt Reserve on the banks of the Murray River.

I was able to get a good list of birds while we had our cuppa. There was nothing spectacular of course, just the usual species I would expect.

Captain Proud at Sturt Reserve Murray Bridge

Probably the most interesting bird seen was a Darter fishing quite close to the bank on our side of the river. Several Crested Pigeons came close to us investigating what we were up to. Three Willie Wagtails fluttered around and near the car. A beautiful Little Eagle soared on high and several Crested Terns patrolled the river looking for a feed.

In all I recorded 22 species, not bad for about forty minutes of birding.

Murray River near Sturt Reserve in Murray Bridge

The above photo shows the low level of the water in the Murray River at present. It is about 2 metres below its normal level and this is a direct result of the poor rainfall in the catchment areas in NSW and Victoria. Excessive use by irrigators in the eastern states is not helping the plight of this endangered river system either.

Golden Whistler (male)

We are having some lovely autumn weather at present. What a contrast to the severe heat waves of the summer just past. It would be perfect if it rained one day; in fact - we need many days of good soaking rain in our area.

A few days ago I was relaxing in the garden reading a book. My daughter was sitting nearby also enjoying a book. A sudden burst of song a few metres away sent me scurrying for my camera. “Whistler!” I called as I disappeared inside.

Golden Whistler (male)

Emerging with the camera I was pleased to get several reasonable photos of both a male and a female. There was another uncoloured juvenile male hanging around too.

It had been quite a few months since the last visit by this species to our garden.

It was an added delight on a thoroughly delightful day.

Golden Whistler (female)

Ornithology: the serious study of birds, the habits, life cycle, habitats and characteristics of birds, often involving keeping of detailed records and writing articles or books about birdlife.

I guess one could call me an amateur student of ornithology. I do take this hobby quite seriously at times, I have written many articles on this blog about birds, I certainly keep detailed records of my sightings and observations but I haven’t written any books about birds (yet). Nor do I make my living from studying birds.

Footnote:

It has been over six months since I had my last entry in this series of articles about words peculiar to this fascinating hobby of birding. I’ll try to get back to regular postings on this topic in the coming months. Meanwhile - check out the archives here and the Glossary of Bird Words here.

Below is a photo of me taken by my wife. I am pretending to be a serious student of ornithology.

Typical Pose of Husband

That’s fine - and I appreciate all of my faithful readers and those who leave comments and questions.

What you may not be aware of is that I write for another blog which features more of my writings. Sometimes I feature poems or Haiku about birds.

To read one of my Haiku about birds click here.

To read more of my general poetry click here.

This morning as I finished my breakfast and was attempting to solve the cryptic crossword (only one word defeated me) I looked up to see a female Mistletoebird drinking from the bird bath. This is an unusual occurrance as I can recall only one other occasion when a male Mistletoebird came to drink.

The photo below shows a male. The female is plain brown with a red patch on the rump.

Mistletoebird

Feeding on the ground only a few metres from where we sat was a family group of Yellow-rumped Thornbills, too busy finding things to eat to worry about us enjoying their presence so close to us.

Yellow-rumped Thornbill