Trevor's Birding

Bird books make wonderful gifts

3 Comments »15th August, 2008; Category: Books

Last week I picked up my daughter from the Adelaide International Airport. She was returning from a five week holiday in France, Italy and England. On arrival at home she produced a little gift for me. It was a pocket bird guide. It was a Collins Nature Guide called Birds of Britain and Europe by Nicolai, Singer and Wothe.

It is a lovely little book with great photographic illustrations and enough text to help identify the birds. Its small size and light weight makes it ideal to carry in a day pack while out birding – or just going about various activities on holidays even if birding is not the prime focus.

There is only one problem: now I have to go to Europe to see all those wonderful birds.

Traffic Wise Ravens

1 Comment »13th August, 2008; Category: Bird Behaviour, Ravens and Crows

Driving home from Adelaide a few days ago I was amused at the tactics of a Little Raven on the road. I was using the South Eastern Freeway from Adelaide and heading home towards Murray Bridge.

This section of the freeway has two lanes each way. In the middle of the two lanes there was a road kill – probably a rabbit. As I approached the Little Raven stopped eating the road kill and took several steps into the right hand lane, waiting for the car in front of me and for my car to pass by in the left hand lane. It waited patiently for a few seconds and then strode back to its lunch and continued eating.

Little Ravens nest building

6 Comments »11th August, 2008; Category: Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Ravens and Crows

A few days ago I observed two Little Ravens strutting around our garden. This is not all that unusual; they are often seen looking for morsels to eat. This behaviour, however, was somewhat different.

This pair – I am assuming that they were indeed a pair – were gathering various types of materials from the garden and driveway. This included pieces of bark, bits of string, the odd twig and other things I couldn’t quite make out. After a few minutes of this they both flew off out of view. I didn’t have the time to follow them to see where they were nest building. I have no proof that they were, indeed, nesting – or just gathering different objects for the fun of it. It is about that time of year that they usually start breeding, so their action was not unexpected.

What amused me about the whole episode was their deliberate walk. They casually yet deliberately strode around as if they owned the place. I guess that our garden is really their place – I am the interloper. Their forebears were in occupancy for millennia before I bought the property.

Little Raven

I didn’t have the time or the camera ready to take a photo at the time, so you will have to be content with a photo taken of two Little Ravens (a pair?) sitting in a tree near our house a few years ago.

Birding and the Olympic Games

2 Comments »10th August, 2008; Category: Birds on Television, Non-Australian birds

I spent some time watching the Men’s Cycling Road Race at the Beijing Olympic Games yesterday. It was freezing and showery all day here at my daughter’s place in Clare in the mid north of South Australia all day so it wasn’t conducive to getting out to do some birding anyway.

I figured that watching the cycling road race would have been a good opportunity of ticking a few birds of China – not that I’d be able to identify them. I don’t have access to a field guide to the birds of China. Still -with Phil Liggett commentating, an avid birder himself, there was a chance the cameras might focus briefly on a bird and he would comment on it, hopefully giving its name.

No such luck.

In fact, I didn’t see a bird at any time during the race. And then the result of the race was also disappointing – from and Aussie point of view. Same thing happened during the recent Tour de France – few birds seen during the three weeks of racing. Oh, well, all that means is that I’ll have to visit those places in person.

I and the Bird #81

No Comments »9th August, 2008; Category: Blogs, Carnivals, I and the Bird, Non-Australian birds

The latest edition of the bird carnival I and the Bird #81 has been posted over at the Marvelous in Nature blog site.

You will find plenty of magnificent photos of birds – including one of mine – as well as links to plenty of interesting articles about birds from all over the globe.

Well worth a visit.