Hi folks ,
Last 2 weeks has been interesting. Scorching hot days and not a single bird to be seen , storms [thankfully] that make them run for cover , and one good day spotting.
Monday 13 Jan was a cool day. overcast . l was in the workshop by 6am , coffee and abc radio news.
By 7am i noticed a lot of birds outside , the usual Double bar finches , willy wagtails , red back wrens , red browed finches , little friarbirds etc etc. lt was all happening!
l decided to take note , and went for a walk around with binoculars. by 830 i had seen birds mentioned above plus: treecreeper [white throated maybe?] , crested pigeon , brown cuckoo dove [1st positive id], peaceful dove , grey crowned babblers [first time] , variegated wrens [first time] , pacific baza [1st positive id] , magpies , kookaburras , sacred kingfishers [which have relocated due to bullying by kookas!] , pale headed rosellas , king parrot , galah , sulphur crested cocky , figbird , jacky winter, pale yellow robin [first time] , koel [m+f] , rainbow lories , crows , eastern whipbird [first time] , welcome swallow , and chestnut breasted mannikins!
lt was awesome.
l went back to the shack , cursing the facts 1: l dont have a decnt camera [yet] and 2: l'd left the camera in brisbane during a visit hahaha....
anyways , it was a delightful mornings birding.
Barney.
see below blurry photo [as usual...] taken yesterday of juvenile Eastern Whipbird. it was following an adult through dense scrub behind my workshop. couldnt snap the adult , wouldnt keep still for a second!
when they "peeeeeeeeee-crack!" they bob their heads and flap their wings , like they put their all into it ! :)
Interesting notes about the heat wave & birds, Barney.
Here on the s.e. slopes of the Mt Lofty Ranges SA it's taking time for the birds to re-appear a week after the last heat wave (& a day before the next one). Red-browed finches didn't appear until 5 days after the heat wave & New Holland honeyeater numbers are still way down. Some species may have headed into the hills where it's a little cooler but I wonder how many birds were killed by the heat although I've seen no carcasses.
Our bird bath is in full sun for part of the day & I'm confident the relatively high water temperature during the heat wave would have deterred a lot of birds. However, its the best I can do apart from putting it right under the verandah. Even late in the afternoon when I would have expected a lot of birds to be coming in for drinking & bathing it's been quiet.
The bird bath is still quiet for most of the day even tho' the temperatures are considerably milder. It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks as the heat waxes & wanes.
There is something interesting about the Eastern Whipbird. I have a few on the other side of the fence in dense bush. I hear them often, but hardly ever see any. Except when a juvenile comes into my garden. At my place I never see or hear them up in the trees, but my friend who lives close by says he always sees them in the trees. Yours sits in a tree? At my place they behave a lot like the Lyrebirds. What do you think?
BTW I think the photo is rather nice, sharp enough to enlarge a bit.
M-L
Woko , l dont know where the birds went to, l dont think there was anywhere 'cooler' for several hundred km's. l had a brief walk down the creek , which was barely running , and still didnt see a bird. Weird.
Woko , l dont know where the birds went to, l dont think there was anywhere 'cooler' for several hundred km's. l had a brief walk down the creek , which was barely running , and still didnt see a bird. Weird.
That already is an enlarged chunk of the photo :D
and from what l saw here Araminta , they almost never 'sat' in a tree , they are always on the go , flitting from branch to branch. the adult was a pretty bird , same body colour as juvenile but with a black head with white stripe thru the eye.
i was tramping through the bush trying to keep up with them and get a photo
And they are quite a big bird surprisingly. says 25cm in bird book but they look bigger.
Barney.