Mistletoebird at bird bath
I keep a daily eye on the bird baths in our garden. On several other occasions I have written about the visitors to the bird bath and I even have a list of those species to have paid at least one visit.
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
Yellow-rumped Thornbills in the garden
All the really hot weather we had earlier in the year seems to have flown. We have recently had some lovely days in the low 20s with a gentle breeze; lovely weather to be out and about in the garden. Yesterday we had a break from what we were doing and made a cuppa to enjoy out in the beautiful autumn sunshine.
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
White Winged Choughs
White Winged Chough
One of our favourite species of bird here where we live in Murray Bridge South Australia is the White Winged Chough. At first glance, the inexperienced observer might dismiss them as a crow or raven or just another large black bird. We think differently of them.
We have a family of Choughs that has taken to visiting our garden almost on a daily basis. Walking “the estate” (we live on five acres of land) I often see little scratchings in the ground where they have been searching for some tasty morsel to eat.
Choughs are almost always seen in small family flocks numbering from about six or seven through to as many as twenty. Nesting is a communal or family affair. Most of the flock will contribute to the building of the bowl shaped mud nest. After the eggs hatch the whole family helps raise the chicks.
It always amuses me how this species often prefers to walk or hop along rather than expend their energy in flying. At times they can be quite unafraid of humans. I’ve stood in the middle of a flock of about a dozen as they continued to feed on the ground around me, just metres from where I stood.
White Winged Choughs
Grey Currawongs
No Comments »15th April, 2008; Category: Garden birds
One of the frequent visitors we have in our garden are the local Grey Currawongs. I can’t really call them a resident species because they are not here all the time. They are only visitors. Sometimes they visit every day for a week or more, then we won’t see or hear them for several days.
When we first moved here over twenty years ago I would have to walk or drive several kilometres to the west of our home to observe this species. Over the last 4 to 5 years they have come closer and closer; we sometimes would one calling in the mallee scrub just up the road a little. Over the last year or so they began visiting our garden and the adjacent scrub lands. Only a few days ago one came to the bird bath just metres from the house; it also landed on the roof.
There are two possible explanations for this local movement of this species. The dry conditions we have experienced over the last few years may have forced them to move from the scrub to more populated areas in search for enough food. Two years ago last December the mallee scrub just up the hill from here was completely burnt out by a significant bush fire. It is only slowly recovering from that time and so there would be limited food available.
Grey Currawong
I’m still here
Contrary to what my regular readers may have thought, I have neither dropped off the planet nor shuffled off this mortal coil.
I’ve been busy.
With my nose in the books.
I’m in the thick of studying for my Master of Arts in Creative Writing course. Plenty of assignments due at the end of term yesterday. We now have a two week mid-semester break. Time to catch my breath – and hopefully catch up on a few birds. And catch up on some reading.
Things have been rather quiet around home recently as far as birds go. The hot weather we had in March seems to have flown. We’ve had some very pleasant days, some very windy days with gale force winds, and we’ve had a light sprinkling of some wet stuff from the atmosphere. I’d hardly call it rain. We are still desperately waiting for the rains to come; things are starting to look rather desperate.
One downside to having much cooler conditions has been the lack of visitors to the garden birdbath. The Pardalotes still come from time to time. The Red Wattlebirds, Common Starlings and House Sparrows are still reasonably regular visitors. And about once a day the resident Willie Wagtail comes for a water-wasting bath; he splashes water in all directions. I tried telling him we are on strict water restrictions, but he just ignores me.