Our wrens are back!
Male Superb Fairy-wren
Our wrens are back!
When I say “our”, I mean the family of Superb Fairy-wrens who have decided to call our garden their home. Ever since we got back from our recent trip to visit family in Sydney we haven’t seen or heard them. That’s nearly a month and we missed not having them around.
This morning, while having breakfast in our sun-room, we saw two of them fussing around in the bushes near the bird bath. Both of them briefly visited the water for a quick drink. One was an uncoloured male and the other a female. Originally we only had two, a male and female. Then last year a third one joined them; we assume that they had nested and the third one was their offspring.
Now where have they been for the last month or so? In fact, thinking about it, we haven’t heard or seen them since well before we left for Sydney about 7 weeks ago. Have they been quietly nesting somewhere? And if they have been breeding, how many in their family group now? I guess time will tell.
Meanwhile we are looking forward to their cheerful trilling as they feed in the garden and nearby mallee scrub. And we also enjoy seeing them hopping and flitting around as we go about our daily tasks.
The photo of a fully coloured male above was taken in our driveway earlier this year.
A little bird encounter
Weebill
I haven’t ventured out much over the last few weeks. It has been a wet winter so far and we’ve have many rain-sodden days. On the days where it hasn’t rained, we’ve either had frequent showers, overcast skies or bitterly cold winds – sometimes all three. The weather has not encouraged anyone to be out in it. Added to my misery of being stuck indoors was the fact that I’ve been very sick over that period. Bronchitis (and several other health issues) has made life even more miserable than it already was.
I’m slowly on the mend, and today we had a lovely winter’s day, typical of many days at this time of the year. After a cold night and a near frosty morning, the sun shone brightly all day. I even managed a half hour of reading while sitting in the sun on our back veranda. It was delightful, and I received a good dose of vitamin D as a bonus. I hope it will help the healing process.
At one stage I wandered up into our small patch of mallee scrub. Mallee trees are eucalypts and are very common in this part of South Australia. As I slowly walked through the trees a small group of Weebills sat calling sweetly in the branches not two metres above my head. They weren’t at all perplexed by my presence.
Lovely.
Blue-faced Honeyeater, Adelaide Zoo
Blue-faced Honeyeater, Adelaide Zoo
The first time I focussed my binoculars on a Blue-faced Honeyeater I was amazed at the brightness of its blue face. It was one of those special moments we sometimes get while birding.
As a result of that first great encounter, I enjoy every subsequent observation of this species. On the downside, not every sighting is as good as the one I had earlier this year in one of the walk through aviaries at the Adelaide Zoo here in South Australia. Being a captive bird quite at ease with hundreds of visitors to its home daily, this bird was quite happy to pose for me – or was it just too hungry to fly away. Note the identification band on the right leg.
The Blue-faced Honeyeater is found along coastal northern and eastern Australia, often found far inland from the coast where there is suitable habitat. In south eastern parts of our country it is more of an inland bird, generally avoiding the higher altitudes in Victoria and southern New South Wales.
Its preferred habitats include open forests, watercourses, woodlands, orchards, parks and gardens and farmlands.
For more of my photos of this species and another article click here.
Diamond Dove, Adelaide Zoo
No Comments »22nd June, 2013; Category: Adelaide Zoo, Aviaries, Bush birds, Garden birds, Murray Bridge, Pigeons and Doves, Zoos
Diamond Dove, Adelaide Zoo
The Diamond Dove is a small, almost dainty dove found across large parts of Australia. It is also easy to keep as an aviary bird and so is popular as a pet bird.
Although we have Peaceful Doves visiting our garden here in Murray Bridge occasionally, we have yet to see or hear a Diamond Dove despite having been observed only a few kilometres from our home. One day we might see this lovely bird.
This individual was photographed through the wire netting of one of the aviaries in the Adelaide Zoo here in South Australia.
Beautiful Mistletoebird
Mistletoebird
One of my favourite birds is the colourful little Mistletoebird, shown in today’s photo. I can’t say it is a resident species in our garden, but it is a frequent visitor. In our district here in Murray Bridge, South Australia, it is a widespread species occurring in small numbers. They are usually only seen singly, occasionally two.
Today my wife and I were working in our garden and a male landed briefly in a nearby Eremophila bush. It stayed only a few seconds before flying off. The male, as shown in the photo, is far more brightly coloured than the female. In the female, the red is a washed out colour and only present under the tail. She also lacks the dark blue-black colour of the male, being mainly plain brown instead.
As I didn’t have my camera with me today, the photo shown above was taken some years ago, also in our garden.
This species has a special place in our records for our home block. Over the 30 years we have lived here we have planted hundreds of trees, shrubs and bushes. The mistletoebird was the first species to make a nest in a tree we had planted. At least – it was the first one we noticed.