Trevor's Birding

Common Blackbirds nesting

2 Comments »1st December, 2009; Category: Baby birds, Blackbirds, Garden birds, Nests

Common Blackbird (babies in nest)

Over the last few weeks the resident Common Blackbirds in our garden have been singing beautifully. They have also been giving their warning calls when I approach too close. With some careful observing I found out where they had built their nest (see photo above). For the second year running they have used a shelf in the pool shed where the pump and filter for our swimming pool are housed.

It proved to be quite a cosy place out of the wind and rain we’ve had recently. Today the nest was empty so they also survived the heatwave we had recently.

Common Blackbird (male)

Peaceful Dove in our garden

8 Comments »30th November, 2009; Category: Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Pigeons and Doves

Peaceful Dove, Cleland Wildlife Park

Last week I heard the lovely sound of a Peaceful Dove in our garden. I went chasing after it with my camera but it wouldn’t sit still long enough or in good light for me to get a good shot of it. So I’ve had to use several photos taken several years ago in a walk through aviary at Cleland Wildlife Park in the Adelaide Hills.

While this dove is common and widespread in our district they don’t seem to come into our garden all that often. We usually hear and see the resident Spotted Turtledoves and Crested Pigeons every day, but this beautiful bird seems to be a little shy about staying around for very long. Because of this we are always delighted when we hear its soft call in the trees near the house, and even more delighted when it comes close enough to see.

Peaceful Dove, Cleland Wildlife Park

Young Grey Currawongs

9 Comments »29th November, 2009; Category: Baby birds, Garden birds, Magpies and Currawongs

Grey Currawong (juvenile)

Over the last week or so we have had two young Grey Currawongs visiting the garden almost every day. They are still quite downy and their begging calls are quite pathetic compared to the far reaching, ringing calls of the adult birds.

They didn’t nest in our garden or on our block of land. I guess they nested up the road a short distance where there is a considerable patch of mallee scrub. The adults are regular visitors in our garden every day or so, but I can’t really call them resident as they come and go. We often we hear them calling in the distance.

Click on the photos to enlarge the image.

Grey Currawong (juvenile)

Young Australian Magpie

5 Comments »28th November, 2009; Category: Baby birds, Garden birds, Magpies and Currawongs

Australian Magpie

I have been a little puzzled about our resident pair of Australian Magpies this spring. Although they showed signs of building a nest earlier in the spring they seemed to abandon the idea after a few days. I had observed them refurbishing the nest they have used for the last four or five years. Instead of continuing the nest building and then sitting on the eggs and finally being busy feeding the young in the nest, they seemed content to just occupy themselves searching for food during the day, visiting the bird bath (as in the photo above) or chasing away the White-winged Choughs whenever they came into the garden.

I thought they’d given up on breeding this season.

It seems I was wrong. Earlier this week I was passing the garage when I saw a young magpie fresh out of the nest, all downy and begging for food.

This is perplexing. I still haven’t found any nest. There are two possible explanations:

They made a new nest in a location I haven’t yet discovered. This is entirely possible as it would take quite a while to check every tree on our five acre block.
The young bird I saw was from a neighbouring magpie territory and it had wandered into our garden.

It does not matter. It is good to see that at least one magpie was hatched in this locality this year.

Good birding.

Australian Owlet-nightjar

No Comments »27th November, 2009; Category: Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Nocturnal birds, Owls Frogmouths and Nightjars

Australian Owlet-nightjar

One of the endearing little birds we have frequenting our garden is the Australian Owlet-nightjar, a small nocturnal bird more often heard than seen. Last night around midnight I was checking my emails because we had been in Adelaide shopping all afternoon and at a dinner in the evening. The house was quiet with no television or music.

From just outside my office I heard this small owl-like bird calling several times. Normally the sounds of the television would drown out its call.

Last year we had one roosting during the day time in a hollow limb of a tree near our house. It would come out most days about mid-morning to sun itself in the opening of the hollow. It would call several times before retreating back into the hollow. This daily habit enabled me to eventually get a reasonable but not brilliant photo.

It is nice to know it is still around.

Good birding.