I haven't had much time for birding this week, since I am going away on the weekend, and have been running from pillar to post prepping stuff, but as I was coming out of my local shopping centre, I spotted a Common Starling sitting on a wire. Not having seen one in the flesh before, I ran to get my camera, by which point it had flown off.
However, in its place was another new bird for me - a couple of young House Sparrows.
Eventually (and thankfully for my sanity) the Starling came back too.
A whole swag of Welcome Swallows were hanging around, and didn't seem to mind me at all.
I drove past a local park on my way home and spotted some Corellas (long billed and little) hanging out with some galahs.
I seem to have collected a lot of the 'exotic' or less common birds lately, but it's nice to catch some of the common, yet new-to-me birds as well.
NIce collection of pics - is that same diameter wire all the birds perched on? Shows the diffference in the size of their claws.
Interesting to see the tinges of green and blue in the starling - I see starlings around often but i never had any luck with getting a close pic like yours. In my bird book it says that is the summer breeding plummage with the yellow bill, otherwise the bill is dull brown??
The swallows are my favorite little birds and I also find they dont seem to mind letting me get quite close and i get rewarded with some nice shots of all their colors . I got one at a nearby wharf recently
Yes, it was the same wire, or type of wire they were sitting on.
My brother was telling me he saw a couple of starlings in his backyard some time ago (although we weren't sure what they were at the time). When I showed him the one I saw yesterday, he said it was one of those. Like I said, I'd never seen one before myself.
It took a bit of maneuvering around to get the right angle so the sun would catch the sheen on its feathers (started off shooting from below, and then drove up a level in the carpark so I was almost level with where it was sitting)
Love that photo of the swallow, very glossy!
Nice collection and good to get a bit of Serendipity Starling
Dont take life too seriously, it never ends well
Eeeeewwwww starling's & sparrows , rest are ok . good pic's, but
Neil
Great collection windshear, gotta love a bit of accidental birding
Great to get some you haven't seen before too!!
West Coast Tasmania