Trevor's Birding

Peaceful Dove

No Comments »19th December, 2008; Category: Garden birds, Pigeons and Doves

Peaceful Dove, Cleland Wildlife Park

When working in the garden we often take a break for morning tea. We take our cuppa out on to the front veranda where have several comfortable chairs. This gives us a good view of part of the garden and the surrounding trees. It is a very relaxed form of birding, for sitting quietly we can often observe the birds going about their everyday activities. This includes visits to the nearby bird bath.

Several days ago we were enjoying our cup of tea when a Peaceful Dove came into the garden. We could hear it calling but couldn’t see it. It flew off before I could locate it. This species is common and widespread in the district but it does not often visit our garden which is a shame. We love hearing its gentle and soothing “doodle-doo” call.

Click on the photo to enlarge the image.

Woodswallows on high

1 Comment »17th December, 2008; Category: Woodswallows

Last week we were busy doing some house painting. At one point we needed to have a short break so we made a cuppa and sat relaxing on our front veranda. After a few minutes I heard a familiar sound.

“Woodswallows!”

I could hear them calling but couldn’t see them.Ã‚Â Eventually about a dozen or so appeared high in the sky. Even with binoculars I couldn’t determine which species of woodswallow they were. They were possibly Dusky Woodswallows; this species has been reported in the district in recent days.

Always a nice species to see.

Or hear in this case.

Dusky Woodswallow

About rain and ducks

No Comments »15th December, 2008; Category: Bird Behaviour, Ducks Geese and Swans

Late last week we had a beautiful rain. It fell steadily for about 30 hours which it hasn’t done for some time. In fact, it was the best rain we’d had for over seven months. In that 30 hour period we had more rain than the total of the previous four months.

Of course the birds loved the rain too. I was a little surprised to see that some of them still wanted to come to the bird bath for a drink. At least I didn’t have to refill it after the downpour.

The next day I was driving home from an outing. I rounded a corner near our place and had to brake to avoid two Pacific Black Ducks casually waddling over the road. I didn’t have the camera with me, so you will have to be content with one I’d taken on another occasion.

Pacific Black Duck

Common Starling bathing

No Comments »13th December, 2008; Category: Bird baths, Garden birds

Common Starling (with female House Sparrow)

The bird baths in our garden give us many hours of entertainment. There is a constant stream of birds coming to drink, especially during the hotter months.

Quite often the antics of the birds bathing makes us laugh. This Common starling really got into the idea of having a thorough bathe. The result was not a pretty look – not like their usual sleek and well kept plumage. The new ‘hair-do’ … or should that be ‘feather-do’ might catch on.

The female House Sparrow in the back ground had to wait her turn for a bath – or was that a drink?

For more articles about our bird baths, click here.

Singing Honeyeater

2 Comments »11th December, 2008; Category: Honeyeaters

Singing Honeyeater

Singing Honeyeaters are a resident breeding species in our garden in Murray Bridge. We see several of them every day, usually when they come to one of our bird baths. We often hear their beautiful ‘preet preet preet’ call.

Singing Honeyeaters are found throughout mainland Australia with the exception of the east coast. They are not found in Tasmania. One of their preferred habitats is mallee scrubland, of which we have plenty around here.

They usually breed from about July through to February, making an untidy cup shaped nest of grass, stems, spider’s webs and usually made in a thick shrub. they usually lay 2 to 3 eggs.

Reference: Graham Pizzey and Frank Knight: Field Guide to the Birds of Australia. Angus and Robertson, 1997

Related articles:

Honeyeaters – a list of articles about honeyeaters from my archives