Some birds seen in Ouyen, NW Victoria
Peaceful Dove, Cleland Wildlife Park
Road trip to Sydney, May 2010
On the first day of our recent trip to Sydney we reached Ouyen in north-west Victoria in time for lunch. We found a park near the main street and as my wife prepared some rolls for lunch I wandered over the road to buy some treats from the local bakery. It’s an indulgence of ours. Country bakeries in Australia are usually very good, and this one was no disappointment.
While having lunch I tried to make a list of the birds heard and seen. We were a little distracted by the mice (House Mouse) wandering around the shelter shed in the picnic area. They seemed oblivious to our presence less than a metre away. I guess they thrived on the bits of food dropped y happy tourists like ourselves. We were only there for about twenty minutes, and seeing there was little time for an intensive bird search, my list is rather small. The highlight would have to be several Peaceful Doves in the bushes nearby.
Species seen:
Click on the names to go to other articles about each species.
- Galah
- Crested Pigeon
- Peaceful Dove
- Rock Dove
- Red Wattlebird
- Noisy Miner
- Singing Honeyeater
- Welcome Swallow
- House Sparrow
- Common Blackbird
Australasian Grebe, Lake Roberts, Lameroo
Australasian Grebe, Lameroo, South Australia
Road trip to Sydney, May 2010
On the first morning of our recent road trip to Sydney we stopped at Lameroo near the eastern border of South Australia, just over an hour’s travel from our home in Murray Bridge. We briefly stopped for morning tea and to change drivers. Our favourite stopping point in this delightful country town is at Lake Roberts on the eastern edge of town. This is an artificial lake and is next to the golf course. The picnic grounds also incorporate a small caravan park.
Over a number of visits here in recent years I have recorded some interesting bird sightings. One can usually record several of the mallee species, such as various honeyeaters. The lake usually contains a reasonable level of water and this attracts a range of water-birds too. On this occasion there was a solitary Australasian Grebe in breeding plumage (photo above).
This species of grebe can be found throughout Australia, including Tasmania, wherever there are suitable conditions. They can be found on small farm dams, small lakes and ponds, larger bodies of fresh water such as wetlands and sometimes on larger reservoirs and rivers. Although this individual was in breeding plumage, I didn’t have the time to investigate if there was a nest nearby. If there was, it was probably located in the reeds at the southern end of the lake.
Lake Roberts, Lameroo, South Australia
Species list (each bird listed is linked to another article for further reading):
Bar-shouldered Dove
Bar-shouldered Dove, Adelaide Zoo, South Australia
Bar-shouldered Doves can be found in eastern and northern Australia. Sadly I’ve only ever seen this beautiful species in the natural environment on one occasion – nearly 30 years ago in northern NSW. I need to get out and travel a little more! The above photo was taken in a walk through aviary at the Adelaide Zoo (click the image to enlarge).
This species is found in a variety of habitats, including subtropical scrublands, eucalyptus woodlands, gorges and gullies, near creeks and swamps and even in gardens with plenty of trees. Like many other species of pigeons and doves, they make a flimsy platform of a few sticks which serves somehow as a nest.
Further reading:
- Flock Bronzewing Pigeon
- Spotted Turtledove nesting
- Peaceful dove in our garden
- Great birding moments – Crested Pigeon
Birds at Adelaide Writers’ Week 2010
Adelaide Writers Week 2010
Last week I attended the 2010 Adelaide Writers’ Week. This popular event is an important feature of the Festival of Arts held here every two years. Writers and readers come from all over Australia and attendees are treated to a large contingent of guest speakers, some Australian but many from overseas, with a sprinkling of local talent. Writers for children are conspicuous by their absence.
This event is spread over six days and is held in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens in the beautiful park-lands of Adelaide, just an easy five minute stroll from the CBD. All sessions are free – except for several evening sessions in the Town Hall. Panel discussions, book launches and meet-the-author sessions are run concurrently in two large marquees set up on the lawn, while a third is the book tent where you can buy the books of guest speakers and get them signed. There is also a catering tent for food and drinks.
Pioneer Women's Memorial Gardens, Adelaide during Writers Week March 2010
While attending three days of this year’s Writers’ Week I was able to position myself during most sessions where I was also able to see out of the tents and observe the passing bird life. Being set in the gardens, and very close to the River Torrens, I was able to get a nice little list of bird seen. Below is an annotated list.
Galah: small groups seen flying over head along the river.
Rainbow Lorikeets: fast flying flocks seen and heard over head and feeding in nearby trees.
Noisy Miner: several heard calling from nearby trees. Interestingly I only saw one bird.
Australian Pelican: two seen gliding low over the river where they presumably landed (the trees obscured my view).
Sulphur-crested Cockatoos: several small flocks of 4-8 flew noisily overhead.
Australian Magpie: two heard carolling in nearby trees and several feeding on nearby lawns.
Silver Gulls: one or two seen often flying over head or along the river.
Australian Wood Duck: flock of about a dozen feeding on the grass within a few metres of the tent, quite unperturbed by the large numbers of people.
Black Swan: One seen sitting on the grass near where I parked the car next to the river (I was lucky enough to get a park each day very close to the venue).
Welcome Swallows: About 5 seen flying over the river.
Crested Pigeon: one seen feeding on the grass near the tents.
Pacific Black Ducks: Two flew between the tents at just over head height, narrowly missing people as they mingled near the Book Tent.
Little Pied Cormorant: one seen flying over the river.
Further reading:
Rainbow Lorikeet
CONGRATULATIONS to Trevor’s Birding for 1000 posts
CONGRATULATIONS.
Congratulations to Trevor’s Birding blog.
This article marks the 1000th post on this blog.
It has been quite a journey, from a hesitant start on another platform through to the introduction of photographs and on to this point. It has taken a little over 4 years with plenty of interesting articles – I hope. The readership has steadily increased to over 20,000 visits per month – and growing. The readership also extends to over 100 countries every month so we are getting around. Only wish I could visit all those countries to watch the birds there!
To celebrate I would like to list the most popular articles over the 4 year period based on the number of comments:
- Baby Magpie (255 comments)
- Common Blackbirds (176 )
- Pesky Plovers – dealing with swooping birds (174)
- Do Blackbirds swoop ? How to deal with aggressive bird behaviour (107)
- Crested pigeons as pet birds (66)
- Eastern Rosella (61)
- Great birding moments #5 Crested Pigeon (53)
- Welcome Swallows (53)
- The problem with Common Blackbirds (49)
- Australian Magpies (47)
Why not visit some of these articles and read some of the comments?
Feel free to add further comments of your own. (Note: first time visitors will need to be moderated before the comment appears.)
Now that we’ve reached a thousand articles, why not dig deeper into the archives? You can access the archives by clicking here or on the link called ‘Archives‘ at the top of each page. You can also search for particular topics via the categories on the sidebar, or through the search box at the top of each page.
Photos:
Over the life of this blog I have shared thousands of photos. I take every opportunity to add to my collection. Later this week I might feature my favourite photos. In the meantime here is my all time favourite photo taken on holiday in Victoria earlier this year.
Australian Pelicans, Mallacoota, Victoria