Grey Currawong at the bird bath
No Comments »1st April, 2013; Category: Bird baths, Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Honeyeaters, Magpies and Currawongs
Grey Currawong
When moved to our current home and five acre block nearly 30 years ago. Over that time I have recorded over a hundred different species that have visited or flown over. About 40 of those are resident – meaning they can be seen most days – and most of those have been recorded breeding here.
The locally common Grey Currawong was a notable species absent from my lists for several decades. We would occasionally hear one calling in the distance up the hill about a kilometre away. This is an area of thick mallee scrub. They rarely ventured down into our garden.
That all changed about ten years ago. Now this species is a frequent visitor in our garden and we see or hear one or more every few days. I still wouldn’t call it a resident species, though. On a few occasions a local breeding pair have brought their recently fledged off-spring to visit too.
Even rarer is a visit to one of our bird baths, but this, too, is changing. Last week I managed a few good photos of one bird as it was drinking. Those bright yellow eyes are quite penetrating, and I am not surprised that smaller birds – like the thornbills and honeyeaters – get very nervous when the currawongs are around, sending out warning calls. That large beak would easily gobble down a nestling by the look of it.
Grey Currawong
Singing Honeyeater at the bird bath
No Comments »30th March, 2013; Category: Bird baths, Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Honeyeaters, Photos
Singing Honeyeater
Over recent days I have shared some of the photos of birds seen during our recent hot spells of weather. Our bird baths are popular with the resident bird population and we can observe anything up to a dozen species in a ten minute period. Bird Bath Central can get both busy – and noisy.
One of the quieter species to come for a drink would have to be the Singing Honeyeater. They come individually – and occasionally in twos and threes – and never make a great fuss. certainly not like the gregarious New Holland Honeyeaters. I have observed that they tend to come when no other birds are around. The much larger Red Wattlebirds and Australian Magpies are the usual dominant birds, bossing the other species away.
And then we get those interesting birds like that not shown in the photo below. Sometimes the birds are just too quick for my camera. I must make a collection of photos of rocks, twigs, branches and fence posts showing where a bird has just been – but escaped before the shutter was released.
What the?
Fork-tailed Swifts overhead
No Comments »27th March, 2013; Category: Bird Behaviour
I have written in recent days about the hot weather we are having. As I write this a cool change is on the way, and storm clouds are gathering. So far the clouds have promised much – and delivered nothing in the way of refreshing rain. Still, the promise of cooler weather over the coming week is reassuring.
A little while ago I was having a coffee while doing some reading. I looked up to think about what I was reading and suddenly got all excited by what I saw out through the window.
SWIFTS.
I grabbed my binoculars and raced outside. About 6 Fork-tailed Swifts (Pacific Swifts) were swooping at great speed across the cloudy sky, following the storm front as is their habit. Within minutes they were gone, so there was no time to try for a photo – they were too high up and moving too fast anyway, so I’m not disappointed. You can see a photo taken by someone else here.
On checking my records this is a new species for my home block list. Previously I had seen Needle-tailed swifts on one occasion. Two swift sighting here in nearly thirty years. No wonder I was excited.
Yellow Thornbills at our bird bath
Yellow Thornbill
The most common thornbill species in our garden is the Yellow-rumped Thornbill. This is a resident breeding species and we see small flocks of up to 20 almost every day. If we searched our whole property we would probably see them every day.
Less common is the Yellow Thornbill shown in today’s photos. This species, also known as the Little Thornbill, is a regular visitor. On a recent hot day a small flock came hesitatingly to our bird bath. Some of the larger birds such as the honeyeaters can be quite bossy and this makes this tiny visitor nervous and flighty, so I was pleased to get a series of close up photos.
As an added bonus, I managed to catch one of them landing but still in flight – check out the last photo below.
Yellow Thornbill
Yellow Thornbill
White Plumed Honeyeater comes for a bath
White Plumed and New Holland Honeyeaters
Over recent days I have been writing about and showing photos of various birds coming to visit our birdbath. Usually the New Holland Honeyeaters dominate proceedings, making a terrible din and splashing water everywhere.
On this occasion a solitary White Plumed Honeyeater forced its way in , running the gauntlet of the mob. I am not sure what it is doing in the photo below. Almost seems like it has landed awkwardly. It’s probably just flapping its wings and I caught it in an unusual pose.
White Plumed and New Holland Honeyeaters