Another unusual visitor to our bird bath
3 Comments »24th February, 2007; Category: Animals, Bird baths, Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Honeyeaters
In recent times I have written about the behaviour of various species of birds at the bird baths we have in our garden. The birds give us many hours of entertainment as they come to drink and bathe. The very hot weather we have been having this summer helps to encourage their frequent visits.
I also wrote recently about some unusual visitors to the bird baths, a Stumpy Tail Lizard and a Red Fox.
A few days ago I was alerted to the alarm calls of a flock of New Holland Honeyeaters near the bird bath. I quietly went to have a look. The NHHEs were soon joined by several Singing Honeyeaters and a family of White Browed Babblers. All were calling madly and looking at the ground near a bush.
I waited for a few moments, fully expecting a Brown Snake (highly venomous) to emerge from the undergrowth. I had my camera at the ready and my feet ready to take off if a hasty retreat was in order.
To my great relief it was only a Blue Tongue Lizard. With the stripes on the back and tail, and a thin, long snake-like tail we have often been fooled into thinking we have a Tiger Snake (also quite venomous) in the garden. (They actually look nothing like a Tiger Snake; it’s the stripes that catch you by surprise every time.)
The new visitor didn’t wait to have a drink. A slight movement from me sent it slithering – almost snake-like – into the undergrowth again.
Related articles:
- Some unusual visitors to our birth bath – with photos.
- Time for a bath – with more photos
Updated November 2103
Blue Tongue Lizard
Birds and Communal Bathing
New Holland Honeyeaters
Our bird baths give us many hours of delightful birding. Quite often the honeyeaters come in numbers to bathe communally. When this happens with the New Holland Honeyeaters are often the first – and the bossiest – species to take advantage of the water. Sometimes there can be between five and eight individuals bathing and squawking noisily. With the Brown-headed Honeyeaters the number can be as many as twelve to fifteen at once, but they are very polite and take it in turns to bathe.
During the hot weather we have had this summer the bird baths need frequent replenishing. The water is splashed in all directions. They obviously haven’t heard that we currently have severe water restrictions due to the drought. On one hot day we actually had five species present at the bath at the one time: New Holland, White-plumed and Singing Honeyeaters, House Sparrow and a Spotted Pardalote. Soon after a Red Wattlebird (which is also a species of honeyeater) joined the communal bathing.
More recently I have observed a large family of about a dozen White-winged Choughs coming to bathe and drink together.
The photos on this page are better viewed by clicking on them to enlarge.
This article was update on September 20th 2015.
Further reading:
- Time for a bath – a long list of birds and animals using our bird baths
- White-winged Choughs at our bird baths
- Blue-tongue Lizard comes to our bird bath
New Holland Honeyeaters
Bird strikes on planes
Birds and planes don’t mix all that well. A bird flying into a plane can cause some very serious damage to the plane, endangering the lives of those on board. Sadly, it doesn’t do much for the bird either.
While there have been few serious bird strikes on planes in Australia in recent years, they still number in the hundreds of incidents annually. Worldwide the cost is estimated to be over $US3 billion. The article I read about this made no mention of how many birds are killed annually in this way. The toll must be enormous.
The most common bird strikes on planes at the Melbourne Airport are, in order:
- Common Starlings
- Australian Magpies
- Ravens
- Pigeons
- Straw-Necked Ibis
Alarmingly, in recent years there have been three incidents involving emus and planes. Presumably these were on the ground during landing or take-off. As yet, I’ve not heard of any flying emus.
Links:
- Flocking birds cause havoc in the air – from The Age newspaper.
- Bird strike at Adelaide Airport – an article I wrote last year on this topic.
Birds of a Feather and love birds
I’ve never been one to observe St Valentine’s Day because I believe that every day should be a special day for the one that you love. Many people do observe the day, however, and the Audubon web site has a special St Valentine’s Day feature to help birders celebrate this day in a special way.
They have three special features:
- Avian love birds – special courting behaviours in birds.
- Human love birds – interviews with couples who met through birding activities or clubs.
- Green gift ideas – some ideas for gifts that will benefit the birds.
To read more click here.
Turnstones take the easy way
Bird behaviour can often be a fascinating part of birding. Most of the time it is interesting, some of the time it can be amusing and from time to time it can be downright amazing. I recently was alerted to the amazing exploits of a pair of turnstones in England.
A pair of turnstones, birds that fly thousands of miles across oceans, are taking the ferry to save themselves a three-mile commute.They catch the 8.30am boat from Falmouth to St Mawes, where they are served a breakfast of breadcrumbs by the skipper. They land after 20 minutes then spend the day feeding, before catching the 4.15pm back across the River Fal.
To read the original article click here. The pair has been named Fred and Freda.