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Spoonbills of a different kind

No Comments »17th April, 2006; Category: Birds, Blogs, General, Waterbirds

I have been doing some searching on the internet over the Easter weekend. Last night I found a wonderful birding blog written by American birder Laura Erickson. She has written hundreds of pages about American birds and so her blog is very educational – and interesting. (Sometimes those two phrases don’t go together.)

Photo Gallery
The strength of her blog, in my opinion, is in her photo gallery. She has hundreds of beautiful bird photos. I was particularly impressed with her photos of the Roseate Spoonbills. They are so much more beautiful than our Australian spoonbills – which are lovely in their own right. It is such a stunning bird I feel like going out, buying a plane ticket to America and searching out this wonderful bird for myself.

Laura’s site called Birder Blog can be found by clicking here.

Laughing Kookaburras

No Comments »16th April, 2006; Category: Birds, Garden birds, Kingfishers, Murray Bridge

One of Australia’s best known birds is the Kookaburra. There are two species of Kookaburra, the Blue Winged Kookaburra of northern Australia and the Laughing Kookaburra of eastern and southern Australia. The latter is an introduced species in the southern parts of Western Australia. Kookaburras are members of a world-wide family of birds known as kingfishers.

Kookaburras in our garden
Some friends of ours visited us earlier this week. At lunch time we were watching the parade of birds visiting our bird barh. Pam asked, “Do you ever have kookaburras here?” Yes we do – but they are only occasional visitors to our garden. Pity about that because their call is so typically Aussie that we’d love to have them here all the time. They are common along the River Murray which is only about 5km from our place.

Kookaburras at dawn
By contrast, when we stay with our daughter in the Clare Valley in the mid north of South Australia we have often been woken early by the laughter of the resident kookaburra sitting on the television antenna. On second thoughts – the kookaburra’s call may be lovely, romantic and so Australian – but being woken at dawn every day may become tedious.

Cheeky Kookaburra

I have heard of some people having very tame kookaburras in their garden, usually as a result of feeding them. Many years ago while camping in Western Australia I was amazed at the cheek of one of the locals. I had seen a kookaburra sitting on a branch of a nearby tree and thought no more about it. I busied myself cooking our barbecue lunch. A slight turn of my back and – whoosh – down swooped said kookaburra who then flew off with one of our sausages straight off the hot plate. How rude. I hope he enjoyed it. I’m sure he did – I’m an excellent cook!

Mallee Trees

13 Comments »15th April, 2006; Category: Birds, Murray Bridge, Plants

In recent posts I have mentioned the word “mallee”. This is a particularly Australian word derived from the Aboriginal people of Australia. It specifically relates to a group of eucalypt tree species collectively known as “mallee trees.”

Mallee Scrub, Murray Bridge

Mallee Scrub, Murray Bridge

“The Mallee”

Some areas of Australia are referred colloquially as “The Mallee“. These are areas where the mallee tree is the dominant species. The area where we live in Murray Bridge South Australia and areas to the east of here to the Victorian border are often referred to as the “Murray Mallee” because here the Murray River flows through the region where mallee trees are common. We have many mallee trees in our garden and the Murray River is but 5km from here.
Mallee birds

There are many bird and animal species whose preferred habitat is the mallee and its associations. Some species even have the word “mallee” as a part of their name eg Mallee Ringneck Parrot, Mallee Emu Wren and the Malleefowl.

For more information about the word mallee check out the Wikipedia entry here.


UPDATE October 2006: since writing this article I have added the photos that now appear on this page. Both were taken on our property and show typical mallee trees.

UPDATE March 2010: Further photos have been added below.

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Mallee Scrub, Murray Bridge

Mallee Scrub, Murray Bridge

The following photos were taken elsewhere and show typical examples of mallee trees.

Mallee trees in Lowan Conservation Park, South Australia

Mallee trees in Lowan Conservation Park, South Australia

Mallee trees in Lowan Conservation Park, South Australia

Mallee trees in Lowan Conservation Park, South Australia

Murray-Sunset National Park, NW Victoria

Murray-Sunset National Park, NW Victoria

Little Corellas

No Comments »14th April, 2006; Category: Birds, General, Parrots and Lorikeets

Little Corellas are a common parrot in many parts of South Australia – and in other parts of Australia too. Flocks numbering in the hundreds and sometimes in the thousands are relatively common. The noise of a flock of five hundred to a thousand can be deafening as they fly overhead.

Pests

Both Little and Long Billed Corellas can become a pest species when they gather in such large numbers. Not only do they destroy grain crops they can cause a great problem in other ways, such as stripping leaves and bark from native trees and even damaging buildings and power lines. When they get to pest proportions like this people not only get upset with their raucous noises, they start counting the cost of the damage to property.

Calls for Culling

From time to time there are reports in newspapers and on television programmes for these beautiful birds to be culled. One such report was on our news last night. One local football club has had extensive damage caused by corellas to their light towers which are used on training nights.

I don’t believe culling will achieve much as it is a short term “solution.” It’s a perplexing and perennial problem – and I don’t have the answer. It just saddens me that people get to such a state that culling seems to be the only course of action.

Common Blackbirds

288 Comments »13th April, 2006; Category: Birds, Blackbirds, Camera, Garden birds, Murray Bridge, Nests, Photos
Common Blackbird (male)

Common Blackbird (male)

Common Blackbirds are an introduced species in Australia. Their range here is south of a line from Sydney in NSW to Port Lincoln in South Australia and they are found throughout South Eastern Australia, including large parts of Victoria and Tasmania. They are particularly found in parks and gardens where they enjoy scratching around in the leaf litter and mulch for their food. Many gardeners despise the Common Blackbird for their untidy habit of flicking bark, leaves, mulch and sticks on to their nice, neat garden paths.

Beautiful Songbird

The Blackbird may be an introduced species, it may have untidy eating habits but this is more than made up for by its beautiful song. There are few birds in Australia that can match the song of a Blackbird singing in the late winter or spring evenings. It fills the air with a rich melodic harmony.

Breeding

We didn’t have any resident Blackbirds in our garden here on the outskirts of Murray Bridge South Australia until a few years ago. The occasional visitor, yes, but not resident. Now they have moved in and have started breeding. Several times they have used an unusual nesting spot. They fly into a shed in my wife’s nursery through a small gap above the door. They then proceed to make a bowl shaped nest in one of the many empty plant pots we store in the shed. How lovely and cosy – out of the cold, the wind and the rain.

Common Blackbird (female)

Common Blackbird (female)

Photos

Despite them now being resident I find that “our” blackbirds are quite timid and are rather camera shy. It was with great delight that today I have been able to take some close up shots of both the male and the female (she is a dull brown colour) fossicking for beetles and worms just outside our sunroom window. This makes a perfect bird hide for photography.

UPDATE:

Update #2: A further update on this post was made in July 2015.

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