Photographic study of an Australian Magpie Lark
Australian Magpie Lark at our birdbath
Sometimes I am lucky and get just the right pose in the birds I am photographing.
And sometimes they don’t cooperate.
Or the light is wrong.
Or it’s not in focus.
Or part of the bird is accidentally cropped – like the tail in the shot below.
Oh, well – you don’t get it right every time. I’ll just keep trying.
Maybe next time…
Australian Magpie Lark at our birdbath
Wild weather and baby magpies
1 Comment »5th October, 2013; Category: Baby birds, Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Magpies and Currawongs, Murray Bridge
Baby Australian Magpies huddled against the wind
Over the last few weeks we have had some violent wind storms. Spring here in South Australia can often be windy, but these were gale force winds. One afternoon earlier this week wind gusts up to 80kph were recorded many times. While we didn’t suffer any property damage others in our state were not as fortunate. One poor man even drowned when his boat was overturned in rough conditions on the River Murray upstream from my home town of Murray Bridge.
During the worst of the stormy weather I was concerned for the baby magpies in two nests within 50 metres of my office where I am writing this post. We had watched with interest when the nests were being built. Actually, they were last year’s nests which were refurbished. Then we waited while the mother birds sat patiently during the incubation period. Then over the last few weeks there was a constant begging noise from the babies.
When the first storm hit last Monday the babies were able to hang on to the nesting material. The following storms on Wednesday were even worse and the young were blown out of their cosy homes. Watching them today I suspect that they were not yet quite ready to fledge* because they are still unable to fly; they run everywhere – well, it’s more of a wobbly, unsteady waddle.
At one point the two babies from the nest closest to our house clambered up on a heap of scrap wood near the garage. I managed to get up reasonably close without spooking them, thus getting some good photos. You will notice that they are still very downy. These downy feathers will remain for some months yet. You will also notice that the nearest one has not much of a tail yet. In the first few days after fledging, they are terrible flyers as they learn how to get around; having virtually no tail does not help.
*Note: to see a definition of the word fledge click here.
Further reading:
- Baby Magpie – the most popular post on this site with nearly 500 comments from readers.
- Crash landing for a baby magpie
Baby Australian Magpies huddled against the wind
Baby Australian Magpies huddled against the wind
Baby Australian Magpies huddled against the wind
Ouch! That hurt!
Striated Pardalote
This morning I was sitting in our sun room doing some reading while I had a cuppa. There was a sudden thud on the window near me – a sound we hear a little too frequently.
Window strike.
Every few days we hear a bang on one of our windows. Unfortunately, some of our garden birds see the reflection of the garden in the glass of one of our windows, and mistakenly thinking they can fly straight ahead, come to a sudden, head splitting halt. Most birds suffer mild concussion briefly before flying off, a little sadder but hopefully wiser for the experience. The occasional one does not survive the impact. [Sigh].
This little Striated Pardalote shown in today’s photo was the latest hapless victim. I picked him up and cradled him in my hands for a few minutes, showing off his beautiful colours to some visitors who happened to arrive during my rescue. I placed the bird on an outside table, took several photos and left him to recover. Within minutes it had flown off.
I hope his headache didn’t last long.
Further reading
Get out of my patch
1 Comment »6th September, 2013; Category: Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Honeyeaters, Parrots and Lorikeets
Eastern Rosella in Eremophila youngii
We normally have a few Mallee Ringneck parrots hanging around somewhere on our 5 acre property. In the last few years we have also had one Eastern Rosella keeping them company. We don’t see it every day but frequently enough to keep us happy – after all, it is a handsome looking bird.
This particular parrot has taken a liking to the flowers of several of our Eremophila youngii bushes – you can see the flowers in today’s photos. All the bushes have a pink carpet of flowers surrounding their trunks.
Earlier this week we were enjoying watching the rosella eating while we had our breakfast. A sudden flurry of flapping wings and snapping beaks and the parrot flew off at full speed – its tail closely pursued by an very aggressive Red Wattlebird which in turn was followed by a New Holland Honeyeater.
Both of these honeyeater species spend large proportions of their day also feeding on the flowers, so they seemed to be objecting to this interloper elbowing in on their patch. In reality, while both honeyeater species feed on this bush, neither tolerates the other for more than a few seconds. It is an all out territorial war.
And I forgot to mention that both honeyeater species are in breeding mode, so their tolerance level is at its lowest at this time of the year.
Further reading:
- Red wattlebird in a Eremophila bush
- Let’s all have an early morning bath
- The Eastern Rosella is back home
- Mallee Ringnecks feeding young
Eastern Rosella in Eremophila youngii
Rudely awoken
Close up view of a Magpie Lark
This morning I took a few minutes out of various tasks to sit in the sunshine on our back veranda.
We haven’t seen much sunshine of late, but this is the last day of a cold, wet and miserable winter for us here in South Australia. Today the weather has suddenly turned on spring – a day early. Not complaining, mind you. I did a little reading and strangely, the eyelids became somewhat heavy – and I fell asleep. Good – I needed the rest.
A few minutes into my dream world and I was rudely awoken by a raucous Magpie Lark (“Murray Magpie” or “Peewee”) calling loudly about a metre away.
How inconsiderate.
Close up view of a Magpie Lark