Trevor's Birding

Pandas at the Adelaide Zoo

4 Comments »28th April, 2010; Category: Animals, Zoos

Panda at the Adelaide Zoo

Yesterday morning I had a specialist medical appointment in Adelaide so I took the opportunity to visit Adelaide Zoo in the afternoon. It had been many months since my last visit and I hadn’t yet seen the two pandas added to the collection late last year. I deliberately left it a few months to avoid the early rush. Despite this, I still had to line up for about ten minutes behind a line of over a hundred eager panda peepers.

The new enclosure for them is most impressive and you can get excellent views of the two animals as they move about their new homes. After viewing them for about twenty minutes – and taking numerous photos – I moved on to other enclosures, especially those featuring birds. I wanted to take more bird photos to share here on this site. More of that in the days to come.

Panda at the Adelaide Zoo

A special visitor

3 Comments »26th April, 2010; Category: Bird Behaviour, Garden birds

Grey Shrike-Thrush

On Saturday I was sitting in my comfortable reading chair in my office. I was enjoying a coffee and reading a magazine that had arrived the day before. A sudden flurry of wings at the nearby window caught my attention. (My attention is very easily distracted by birds.)

A Grey Shrike-thrush had landed on the on the window sill barely a metre from where I sat. It pecked at something on the glass – probably an insect caught against the window – took a quick glance in my direction, and flew off to a nearby tree to eat his morning snack.

It is close encounters with our bird life like that which makes this such a wonderful hobby.

Grey Shrike-Thrush

Lest we forget

No Comments »25th April, 2010; Category: General

Lest we forget

Today is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand. It is a very special day of remembrance for those who have served on the theatres of war throughout our history.

You can read my tribute on my writing blog: Trevor’s Writing.

We will remember them.

Australian Owlet-nightjar

No Comments »22nd April, 2010; Category: Garden birds, Nocturnal birds, Owls Frogmouths and Nightjars

Australian Owlet-nightjar

During recent evenings there have been times when our house and garden are undisturbed by noise. No television and no noisy neighbours – the nearest are about 60 metres from our house. During these times we are aware of the wildlife in our garden – if they call. Last week it was a Brush-tailed Possum – I’ll write about that soon.

Tonight and last night we heard an Australian Owlet-nightjar calling briefly – not long enough to get a torch and track it down. Being nocturnal it had come out of its hiding place to feed. The photo above was taken a few years ago now. It shows “our” nightjar sunning itself in the entrance of its roosting hollow. You don’t often get a chance to see this species in broad daylight.

The Australian Owlet-nightjar looks like a miniature owl. It is only 20 – 24 cm long. It can be found all over Australia but is more often heard than seen.

Aggressive Red Wattlebirds

63 Comments »20th April, 2010; Category: Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Honeyeaters

Red Wattlebird

This morning I was suddenly aware of a noisy disturbance just outside my office window. I looked up to see three Red Wattlebirds locked in a furious battle in the garden bed. In fact, I thought at first it was only two fighting each other. As I reached for my camera, they flew off, and I saw that there had been three birds fighting.

What caused this kerfuffle? I have no idea. As they flew off two of them were aggressively chasing the third one. The battle may well have continued elsewhere.

Red Wattlebird