World Bird Wednesday - Birds at Arkaroola

Driving into Arkaroola, this Emu caught my eye.

Not so easy to do precision shooting across a passenger and

keeping the bird in the frame. Apologies for the focus.

No more luxury of drive-by shooting, since I'm sole driver,

either I or the bird has gone by.

Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Acanthagenys rufogularis, not one of 

your nice chaps, were he human, you could hear the chains and the 

click of flick knives. More on this fellow on a later post.

I saw a flash of red and swivelled my hand-held lens and snap!

I thought it was one of our robins but envisage my amazement

when I checked it on the computer

and found it to be a Mistletoebird!!, Dicaeum hirundinaceum.

I thought all my Christmases had come at once. A lifer for me

and a bird I had hardly dared to hope to see, let alone get a shot of.

Isn't he just the cutest with that black stripe down his front?

Another bird landed near by and, blind as a bat me thought it 

may be the female but fate decreed otherwise, 

a second lifer within seconds, a Hooded Robin, Malanodryas 

carullata, another of our black and white birds and a charming

little chappy. 

Both the Mistletoebird and the Robin had pretty voices to 

recommend them as well.

There was so much more in just one morning. I'll leave some for 

another day, rather than risk boring you all in one hit.

So, until next time, keep snapping!