Read some of my poetry about birds
No Comments »28th April, 2008; Category: Parrots and Lorikeets
This blog is mainly about Australian birds.
It also features some of my photos of birds, again, mostly Australian birds.
On my writing blog I sometimes write about birds, including poems about birds. You can read my latest haiku about birds here.
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos
12 Comments »22nd February, 2008; Category: Parrots and Lorikeets
On my way to Adelaide on the South Eastern Freeway yesterday I saw about eight Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos slowly winging their way across the freeway. This magnificent species is relatively widespread in small numbers in the Adelaide Hills and Mt Lofty Ranges of South Australia.
I couldn’t stop to get a photo. I didn’t have my camera with me anyway. [sigh]
I must track down this species sometime and get a photo of our country’s largest parrot.
Corellas with a death wish
Last Friday evening I needed to drive the 25 kilometres across to Tailem Bend, south east of Murray Bridge in South Australia. As I crossed the Swanport Bridge I noticed a flock of Little Corellas settling down to roost in a row of tall eucalypt trees next to the river and near the bridge. It was dusk and getting dark quickly. Despite that I was able to quickly assess as I drove by that the flock numbered at least 500 individual birds. They were all congregated in three or four trees and they made the trees look as though they were covered in snow.
I regularly travel this route at least once a week. Over recent months I have noticed some of corellas sitting on the lights over the bridge. These tend to fly around quite a deal and almost seem to be playing “chicken” with the passing cars, trucks and buses. From the heaps of feathers regularly seen on the bridge some of them obviously come off second best.
I do not have a photo of a Little Corella in my collection. This is surprising as they are quite common in our district. I’ve never seen one land in our garden or on nearby trees though occasionally a flock will fly over. I must wander down to the river and get a few photos. In the meantime I will have to make do with a photo of a very similar species, the Long-billed Corella.
Long Billed Corellas
Large flock of Galahs
6 Comments »31st January, 2008; Category: Bird baths, Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Parrots and Lorikeets
Galah
We had a visit from over a hundred Galahs this morning. A visiting flock of this size (or bigger) happens every few weeks. Most of them tried unsuccessfully to access water from the swimming pool. This one in the photo above shows the only one that tried to drink from the bird bath. It got to within a metre before taking fright and flying off. So far I have not been able to record this species actually drinking from one of our bird baths. It must happen sometime.
There is one downside to having such a large company of this beautiful Australian species in our garden.
The noise can be deafening.
The following photo was taken last summer.
Galahs
Further reading:
- Galahs come for a swim
- Parrots and Lorikeets – articles from my archives
Death of a Galah
Last night I went for a walk in the cool of the evening. It was just on dark when I arrived home. I didn’t go with the intention of doing any birding; it was just a much needed walk to deal with the indulgence of the season. (Actually, I was rather good and didn’t over-indulge over Christmas.)
At one point in the gathering gloom I saw what looked like a Galah. Not your usual pose mind you. This poor Galah was obviously dead and was hanging from a thin dead branch near the top of the tree. There was not enough light to be absolutely certain, but it looked as though this unfortunate bird had accidentally caught its leg in the sharp V-shape junction of two twigs and couldn’t escape. Poor thing.
On reflection, I seem to have some memory of having seen this sort of incident before but I can’t recall the details.
The photo below shows some Galahs in our garden.
Galahs