World Bird Wednesday - A Dogfight in the Sky

I was lucky enough to witness the White-Plumed Honeyeater,

Lichenostomus penicillatus, arriving for the summer season.

I heard an inordinate ruckus outside, reached for my camera

and was greeted by a whirring of wings and shouting of insults

as a few very early summer bird arrivals (it is still winter by

the calendar) were homing in to the main food source at this

time of year, a bush of red flowering Grevillea.

Protecting the larder was this very vocal and aggressive

New Holland Honeyeater.

It took a while for me to separate the combatants from the

onlookers, a whole flock of noisy common House Sparrows

jockeying for best vantage points on the wing to watch the goings

on. The whole thing was reminiscent of a Harry Potter Quidditch

match. For once, the birds were completely oblivious of me as

they fought and I could get close enough to get some clear shots.

Occasionally five or six House Sparrows would subliminally

sit in the cherry tree before the next engagement.

Although the beak to beak combat was very loud, no actual

feathers flew and a couple of these tiny Yellow-Rumped

Thornbills blithely went about their business of feeding on

tiny insects while the drama roared around them.

After a while, honour was satisfied and everyone went for

a drink (of nectar) in the bushes.

I am glad the Prof planted the natives below my rose bed,

they provide nectar for the birds when not much else is

flowering and now that they have reached a decent height,

are a good wind-break besides.

Hope all has been Quiet on the Western Front where you are.

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World Bird Wednesday - Crested Pigeon and Tweetie

Oh what it is to wake up in the morning and be serenaded by a

tiny tweetie with a very loud trilling. He kept on and on, first

from the vantage point of the grapevine on the pergola directly

outside my window, then across a tiny bit of lawn into a rosebush -

more trilling. I got up, grabbed my camera and snuck outside, he

was not best pleased and flew across the yard to a faraway bush.

Rats! thought I as I stood in the shade of the rose arch - but then,

wonder of wonders, after trilling in the Melaleuca bush, he flew

right back onto the grapevine and gave me a full blast of his

wonderful song. Such a little bird with such a big voice.

I have a flock of them in the garden and at this time of the year

they seem to think it is mating time, although it is autumn there

is probably still time to raise a family before the cold weather comes.

Yellow-Rumped Thornbill, Acanthiza chrysorrhoa, 11-13 cm

Dawn at Second Valley, South Australia, in front of the verandah

of the hired house we stayed in, a perfect perch for a pair of

Crested Pigeons, Ocyphaps lophotes, to warm themselves up

after a cold and windy night.

We look this way and that way, and then we fly away . . . .

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