World Bird Wednesday - Rainforest Adventure

While visiting in Melbourne I spotted a couple of ducks in the

wetlands and thought 'yea, right, same old, same old . . .'

but to my surprise, when uploaded and looked up, they turned

out to be pair of Chestnut Teals, Anas castanca, a lifer for me!

We also headed up into the Great Dividing Range and it's

temperate rainforest, a magnetic attraction for us who hiked

these mountains extensively in our salad days.

Stopped at the Mt.Dom Dom saddle recreation area where himself

wanted to climb to the top as any good mountain goat would do

and yours truly, camera in hand, had other intentions.

First (unavoidable) catch, the ubiquitous magpie at my feet as

soon as I opened the hatch to get a mandarin.

Hearing lots of bird sounds in the Acacia re-growth scrub,

I headed to the thicket but the dense growth totally foiled me.

I tried the steep descent towards the creek where a lot of tweeting,

twittering and chirping was going on . . occasionally I spotted

a fleeting glimpse of tiny feathered things flitting across my path

but nothing at all that I could even try pointing my shooter at.

Pretty exhausted, I shlepped my trusty hand extension up the

hill again. Huffing and puffing like a steam engine I wormed

my way back up . . .

and just when I had accepted my empty handed fate, this

little Silvereye moved enough so I could see it and landed

close enough so I could land it too.

Where there is one, company soon appears. I have no idea

what this little one is but I was grateful for anything barely

within the range of my 135mm lens.

Pretty indistinct, yet definitely a bird not a kangaroo.

The flash of a wing caught by pure chance as it fluttered to

another twig.

Thank the Lord fasting for the photoshop cropping device,

Can you pick the little bird in this?? I could definitely not see

a bird that sat still and when it moved, I often could not find

it in my sights. Pretty useless being addicted to stalking when

you are blind as a bat and can't carry a decent sized lens with

you. Yet still, like a blind chicken, you sometimes find a barley

corn.

Hiding behind a branch and heavily cropped, my lucky

last shot before I stopped to give my eyes a rest.

Hope you all had fun birding this week and show us the results

by adding your posts to World Bird Wednesday!

World Bird Wednesday - Common Suburban Birds

On one of my walks in suburban Melbourne recently, I shot a

few common birds of the area. It is seldom I catch a Sulphur-

crested Cockatoo Cacatua galerita with the crest so visible.

Ubiquitous to our whole continent except the very driest

desert, the Magpie, Gymnorhina tibicen, has a voice like

burbling water, also warbles on moonlit nights. It is very

protective of it's nest and will attack passers by in the

breeding season.

Another common bird, the Rainbow Lorikeet, Trichoglossus

haematodus, fast flying and hard to catch in the field of a lens.

I was just plain lucky to get this pair in one frame, no points

for guessing which one is the male.

The Common Myna, Acridotheres tristis, looks like big bad

Leroy Brown, meanest man in all the town. A very cheeky

customer and certainly not a kind bird, breeds like rabbits in

an urban environment.

The Noisy Miner, Manorina melanocephala, has also flourished

near human habitation and steals material for its nest, even

unravelling the ends of ropes and tenaciously braking them off

strand by strand or unpicking shade-cloth.

Common Starling, Sturnus vulgaris, as the name implies,

is very common indeed.

The Piping Shrike, Murray Magpie, Mudlark or Peewit,

Grallina cyanoleuca, is a common sight in Australia and

surrounding islands. Smaller than the Magpie and with a

totally different call, watching over the wetlands sign.

The Red Wattlebird, Anthochaera carunculata, is quite a large

and raucous bird. It seems to have increased it's numbers

greatly in the last ten years, possibly because many more people

have turned to planting native gardens that are less reliant on

water during our recurrent droughts and produce the nectar

bearing flowers they love.

Australian White or Sacred Ibis, Threskiornis molucca, that

I came across in the wetlands near my sister's house.

Spooked by the landing Intermediate Egret, Ardea intermedia,

one of the Ibis took off.

Intermediate Egret in flight . . .

A purple Swamphen, Porphyrio porphyrio, posed for me for

a moment before disappearing amongst the reeds.

Lastly for today, the Spotted Turtle-dove, Streptopelia chinensis,

a pretty little thing that is rather stupid with it's nest building but

it does coo so nicely.

Naturally the 'burbs are full of many more birds but this is all

I bagged in one walk.

To see birds of all persuasions, click on the Logo at right and show

us what's flapping around in your world!

Travelogue: - Being There, Part 1, BIRDS

Our first day at Currawong Beach was wet

See Intermezzo, a few posts down.

Spurwing plover, Vanellus novaehollandiae
is an early riser, as dawn breaks he is already

a busy bird.

The combination of hand held camera and

minimal light does nothing for photo quality.

Little pied Cormorant, Phalacrocorax melanuleocos
Another early riser, drying off just as the sun is rising.

Grey butcherbird, Cracticus torquatus

feasting on bacon rind

Little raven, Corvus mellori Trying to muscle

in on the BBQ breakfast

Only to be sent packing by the butcherbir returning

for a helping of scrambled eggs

Noisy miner, Manorina flavigula is never backward
in coming forward where food is concerned.

He doesn't try to muscle in, just pick pockets here and

there and gets his share none the less.

Rainbow lorikeet, Trichoglossus moluccanus
another early bird, feeding well before sunrise
and any other time of day.

For breakfast it's nectar from Erithrina x sykesii

A Blue-winged kookaburra, Dacelo leachii too late

for bacon rinds, whistfully surveys the the scene.

Black-backed magpie, Gymnorhina tibicen,

happy with crumbs from the royal feast

and lucky last, a Brush turkey, Alectura lethami

cleans up after every one has finished

.