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Occasional bird visitors to our home garden

No Comments »20th July, 2006; Category: Garden birds, Murray Bridge

Yesterday I wrote about the seasonal bird visitors to our home garden here in Murray Bridge, South Australia. Over the 22 years we have been living here, I have recorded 113 different species. Of these 36 could be regarded as resident, meaning that they are always present or are very regular visitors or frequently fly overhead.

Occasional Visitors
More than half the species, however, could only be regarded as occasional visitors. Still others are vagrants, that is, they have only been recorded once or twice. Those that are occasional visitors include:

  • Whistling Kite
  • Spotted Harrier
  • Brown Goshawk
  • Little Eagle
  • Australian Hobby
  • Masked Lapwing
  • Silver Gull
  • Common Bronzewing Pigeon
  • Peaceful Dove
  • Little Corella
  • Cockatiel
  • Crimson (Adelaide) Rosella
  • Rainbow Lorikeet
  • Barn Owl
  • Southern Boobook Owl
  • Australian Owlet-Nightjar
  • Tawny Frogmouth
  • Laughing Kookaburra
  • Sacred Kingfisher
  • Tree Martin
  • Fairy Martin
  • Red-Capped Robin
  • Hooded Robin
  • Golden Whistler (sometimes resident)
  • Rufous Whistler (sometimes resident)
  • Chestnut-rumped Thornbill
  • Yellow Thornbill
  • Mistletoebird
  • Varied Sittella
  • Silvereye
  • Masked Woodswallow
  • White-browed Woodswallow
  • Dusky Woodswallow
  • Australian Raven
  • Diamond Firetail
  • Zebra Finch
  • European Goldfinch

Larking around

4 Comments »19th July, 2006; Category: Birds in the News, General
Magpie Lark

Magpie Lark

There was an interesting item on a local television news broadcast this evening. It seems that a pair of Magpie Larks has been causing a few problems at the Festival Centre in the CBD of our state capital, Adelaide.

The report stated that a nesting pair of Magpie Larks was busy swooping every pedestrian who dared to use the footpath. The news footage used showed the Magpie Larks swooping low over people’s heads, pecking some of them.

I am very familiar with Australian Magpies swooping people who dare to venture near their nest. I’ve been swooped many times – but interestingly never by our resident pair that nests close to our house. But I’ve never been swooped by a Magpie Lark. Furthermore, I’ve never witnessed this behaviour in this species before, nor have I heard of anyone being swooped by a Magpie Lark.

Interestingly, the news reporter was sporting a nasty wound above his eye. He claimed to be a victim of a Magpie Lark attack earlier.

Magpie Lark

Magpie Lark

Seasonal bird visitors to our home garden

No Comments »19th July, 2006; Category: Garden birds, Murray Bridge

A few days ago I wrote about my favourite birding spot. That spot happens to be my home garden, because I spend most of my time at home. I am therefore very familiar with its bird life and instantly know if there is different call coming from somewhere near the house.

In that post I talked about those species that are resident in our garden, either present all the time or are frequently seen or that regularly fly overhead. Of the 113 different species I have recorded over some 22 years, 36 could be regarded as resident. The remainder would be either seasonal or occasional visitors. Several species I would regard as vagrant, meaning they have been only observed once or on only a few occasions.

Seasonal Visitors

Seasonal visitors to our area would include the following species:

  • Pallid Cuckoo (late winter, spring, summer)
  • Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo (spring, summer)
  • Rainbow Bee-eater (spring, summer)
  • Singing Bushlark (late winter, spring)
  • Skylark (late winter, spring, summer)
  • Rufous Songlark (spring, summer)
  • Grey Fantail (winter, spring)
  • Striped Honeyeater (spring, summer)

Some of these species are not regular visitors every year. For example, the Rainbow Bee-eater has been recorded breeding here, and sometimes we see and hear dozens of them but some summers we have not seen or heard a single bird.

Some species, it seems, like to keep us on our toes.

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Scratching around

No Comments »18th July, 2006; Category: Garden birds

As I wander around our little block of mallee scrub near our home I often come across scratchings in the leaf litter or in the dirt. Sometimes these scratchings have been produced by the family of White-Winged Choughs that visit every day or so. Other scratchings are produced by the White-Browed Babblers who also visit frequently. Recently I have observed rabbit scratchings and that is of a little concern as we’ve been free of this introduced pest for many years.

Mulch in the orchard
Last spring I spent many hours weeding and then mulching our many fruit trees in our little orchard. I spread thick layers of pea-straw under and around each tree. This is necessary due to our intensely hot summers. It is an attempt to conserve the moisture in the soil.

Little Critters
This mulch is an ideal breeding ground for worms, beetles, slaters and other little critters. Recently we noticed that some of the mulch had been disturbed.

Blackbirds.

Blame the Common Blackbirds. They are always lurking around in the orchard or in the nearby Hakea bushes. They are always scratching around in the mulch and leaf litter. Yes, blame the blackbirds.

Another Culprit

A few days ago I noticed a single Grey Currawong sneaking into the orchard. I watched from about 40 metres distance as he sauntered casually up to the mulch under an apricot tree. He grabbed a clump of the pea-straw mulch – about 10cm in diameter – in his beak and threw it aside! Ha har! Here is the real culprit. Not once but three or four times he repeated the action, each removed clump revealing a patch of dirt containing plenty of tasty morsels for him to gobble down.

New Species for my Home List

3 Comments »17th July, 2006; Category: Garden birds, Murray Bridge, Nocturnal birds, Owls Frogmouths and Nightjars

After living in the same home for over 20 years it is a rare event to add a new bird species to my “home list.” So it was a delight a few days ago when I disturbed a Spotted Nightjar in our little patch of mallee scrub. It flew before I had seen it roosting on the ground. This is not surprising because the spot where it was sitting was covered in leaves and twigs from the surrounding trees. The spots on its wings were diagnostic, and it was not a Brown Falcon as was my first reaction. Too small, wrong colour and the spots – it had to be a Spotted Nightjar.

Spotted Nightjar

Spotted Nightjar

A few hours later I did a thorough search of the area where it might have landed, but it was not to be seen. With its amazing camouflage I may well have walked within a metre and not seen it. While it is exciting to have such a species in our little patch, I am concerned about its future if it hangs around. Being ground roosting during the day, it is in danger of being stumbled upon by the neighbour’s cat. This pet does regular patrols through our garden – despite some attempts at discouragement on our part.

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