Reintroduction from Tenterfield, NSW

Thanks for welcoming me back, Wollemi and WhistlingDuck. I only have old photos of the birds here but the lack of rain is dramatically changing everything, forcing a lot of bird species to move on to greener pastures or adapt to it. Even the breeding cycle of the birds here have been greatly affected. Masked Lapwings and Australian Magpies tried breeding but no chicks anywhere in my area.

My old username on this site used to be called shirley.hardy so you might remember some of the photos I was adding way back then. I'm happy to readd old photos if either one of you are interested but I can't guarantee any of the photos will be interesting. 

I'm going to try and write up a bird species list for this year but so far the amount of species in town at the moment doesn't look promising (dropping from more than 100 to around 70 or so, maybe less). Won't know for sure until I start on it.

Hey WhistlingDuck. Here's a small collection of some of the photos of birds I've taken in town in the last few years. These are all preAugust 2014 photos dating back to about 2012. Most were taken at a neighbour's house across the road; some at my place; the rest taken on my way into town (main street). I've lots (100s) of photos of Tenterfield in my Facebook photo albums, so feel free to browse through them all at your pleasure.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.695601560451952.1073741839.100000063426737&type=1&l=0f24b66643

I'll take photos of just about anything, whether moving or not.

My brother took the photos of the male King Parrot on his letterbox back in 2005-2009 sometime. The King Parrot was a very mature bird at the time, and one of the first King Parrots that moved back into the area. Once the male found a mate he started breeding. I suspect the male (when on the letterbox) was hoping for food, or checking out my brother to see how friendly he was. Who knows what birds think really?

The Double-barred Finch photos were taken on my neighbour's property across the road. I was always excited to see them whenever I'd visit my neighbour. They ended up by hanging out with the Red-browed Finches and often took off together as a big flock. Both species of Finches are gone now.

Those Cockatoo photos, the one being silly upside down, was a juvenile. It spent about 20-30 minutes going round and round and round on the power line. It first decided to just hang upside down, and got cocky and did so by one leg. Then the worst thing happened, it's whole body twisted the wrong way and it couldn't let go of the power line. It screeched it's head off, and you could just tell it was in pain being twisted around the wrong way. Once it recovered it's body from that position it was then able to grab the power line with it's other foot and climb back up. The little fellow went straight to mum for comfort and encouragement. After that it never repeated that same mistake and hung onto the power line with both feet at all times and thoroughly enjoyed it. I guess all birds have to learn to hang upside down at some point for whatever their reason. Feeding and having a shower are two of the reasons I know of. But why they learn to hang upside down and correct their postures to the right way up on power lines is intriguing actually. I've thought about this and the only conclusion I can come up with is there is zero chance of getting their feet stuck between branches whilst hanging upside down on a power line. Learning to get unstuck from tree branches whilst upside down is more than likely another lesson and done in another setting when the juvenile birds are older and strong enough to handle it and have mastered the going upside down and correcting your body position lesson. 

I love Pied Butcherbirds. My brother took the close up photos of that bird on his door step. It wanted food. That's all it wanted. That's all Pied Butcherbirds ever want here. I have been very fortunate to see many changes to the bird life here, including a lost (yes, lost) Pied Butcherbird chick the size of a Laughing Kookaburra. I've seen it hitch up with a normal sized Pied Butcherbird and then once a year the normal sized parent brings the giant sized offspring back to the area across the road only to be harrassed by Australian Magpies and Torresian Crows until it can't take it anymore and flies away accompanied by it's parent. Strangely, the normal sized Pied Butcherbirds you see around here are never attacked by the Magpies or Crows. Only predators are attacked and chased out of town, meaning the birds of prey. But even stranger than that, is once the large Pied Butcherbird has settled down (takes about 3 weeks for that to happen) by itself, it becomes a fiercesome predator that not even the Crows will attack. Can you even imagine a Pied Butcherbird the size of a Kookaburra? Somewhere nearby, to the south/south-west/west of Tenterfield are whole generations of Laughing Kookaburra sized Pied Butcherbirds being born every year. And every year since that young one got lost and ended up in the area, a new generation has been brought here just for an hour or less and then gone again for another year. I never miss it because I know the predator sounds the crows and magpies make when it's in the area, accompanied by the typical Pied Butcherbird sound. By the way, Pied Butcherbirds are becoming rarer to spot here in Tenterfield now. They've all gone bush. Any you do see are just passing through and you won't see them the next day.

There were so many bird species here even just 2-3 years ago but so many environmental changes have also been happening including a loss of trees, shelter bushes, and creek vegetation. People and nature have taken a toll on the vegetation here. I've watched this place very slowly turn into the sort of climate and sparcity of vegetation you'd see in South Australia. Its not there yet but its getting there and people are not helping the situation either - they're just adding to the increase of the changes. Sorry about the rant.