Birds

Awesome shot! Intense eyes on that kite… it’s amazing the different varieties you have over there. The falcons here have been having a “field day” hunting mice and snakes in all of our potato fields.

the mother Mourning Dove finally showed up for a family photo :)

In the small park we walk around we have kestrels,kites,little eagles,brown falcons,hobbys, sparrowhawks, whitsling kite  and spotted harrier.

I dont’t have photos of the last three .

That kite eating the mouse :

we have crested pigeons here, very common.

here is one :

Franco your bird photos are Amazing! a real privilege to see them; keep posting, if you ask me!

And the same goes for anyone else. the photos remind us of how astonishingly beautiful these birds around really are. I don’t stop to look nearly enough.

I was able to go on a birding retreat on the north coast of Ca. with Dave Quady and some others.

me: Dave, is that the cry of a raptor?
Dave: it’s a seagull (suppressed eye roll.) Etc.

Yeah, the adults are colourful. This is an adult Brush Turkey:

but the babies, not so much.

Yes, this IS a baby Brush Turkey, maybe one or two days old. Camouflage maybe? But they grow fast.

Cheers

Aww, so cute! Driving away after my last hike in Acadia we saw this enormous American Turkey. No good shots but figured I’d send them anyway. In American history, the Noble Turkey was poised to be our Official National Bird until the Bald Eagle “stole it’s thunder”…

This was taken a couple of days ago. I call that photo ‘ it does not matter if you are black or yellow”

At times we have only one or the other but most often both yellow and Royal spoonbills are about and do  freely mix .

Wow! Amazing birds…. gotta keep that gene pool from getting too shallow! Too much inbreeding will make it come out a “Forkbill”

Yesterday, while wandering at my local ponds, I saw a pair of wood ducks, which have a similar spoon bill. I wonder what need they had to develop that. Now, if it evolves into a spork bill the fish could be in trouble – they could probably shred an average trout!

Since most of the cool birds have left the ponds for the season, I am forced to turn my attention to figuring out the numerous dragonfly species. Man, are they hard to study – they are so quick. Pretty though. I think they are my new favorite insect. I need to buy a butterfly book now, as there are scads of them flitting about right now, seemingly dancing with one another, or maybe defending their flowers, or perhaps just playing.

Yesterday, while wandering at my local ponds, I saw a pair of wood ducks, which have a similar spoon bill. I wonder what need they had to develop that. Now, if it evolves into a spork bill the fish could be in trouble – they could probably shred an average trout!

Spork-bill, you say?

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/139582171

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/143807511

(sadly, not my photos)

We have lots of ducks here but I am not all that taken with them. The other day I could not see any raptor so I shot this chestnut teal. One of a pair in that spot. They mate for life. Most of the other ducks are in small to very large flocks but these spend their time with each other.

turning my back is where the golden finches are right now but they have proved difficult to take.

This is a photo I took two days ago because there is a story along with it.

These two larks use the area  at the start of our walk . We have seen them for months but about two weeks ago the one with the lame wing disappeared . (it can fly) So we assumed something happend to it. Given that they were happy for us to walk by them within a few feet , we missed the other lark and felt sad to see the mate by itself. Yesterday again going out there was only one, coming back we saw the other one too. Made our day.

For those that like ducks, here are some.

the last two are pink eared ducks and blue bill ducks.

This is the same chestnut teal with his mate this time.

I think that they saw me.

We saw a couple of flocks of Corellas the other day. Yesterday one was on a tree , well over 100 .

i called this photo Three is a crowd

i like this one from yesterday because of that flower

Springtime!

My zoom lens is not as good as Franco’s tele, but no matter. Australian Wood Ducks, at least 9 babies, our paddock, this morning.

Cheers

A day older and they are getting bigger. And closer to the house.

Cheers

nice Roger.

I like when there is a story to it.

We had a duck breeding on our frog pond.

When they hatched after a few days she marched them down to the neighbour’s dam. I was lucky enogh to be there when it happened.

Yesterday I spotted this first year superb fairy wren male starting to get his mating plumage

it was feeding close to a few females and non breeding males (they look almost identical…) as well as this one that could be his father

commonly called blue wren but  they are not wrens at all.

Fun fact : the male offers yellow flowers to the female when courting.

Sometime you get luky.

I thought that  yesterday I had taken some photos of one of the Little Eagles we have here but it turns out to be a White Bellied Sea Eagle, a bird rarely seen in this area .

This to illustrate the difference between a photo that gives me pleasure and a great photo.

The above is of the former type.

I like it because it’s my first photo of a whiskered tern , one of a small flock fishing on the local creek.

It isn’t a great photo beacause for a start you can’t see the eye and that makes a big difference when capturing birds.

Pretty good: the sweep of the wings is excellent.

Cheers
PS: all 10 baby ducks now swimming on our dam.

I miss having lots of birds within my own property…

Really amazing birds and photos! Keep em coming. Those 10 ducklings are adorable…wait, did I say that? Well it’s true. Here’s hoping they all make it to adulthood.

Now I’m off to play rugby whoof whoof.

The baby (native) ducklings are now old enough that they can retreat onto the dam and swim around. Hopefully, that gets them out of the reach of the foxes (feral) and goannas (native).

The very aggressive Spur Wing Plover which ’emulates’ attacking me every time I go out to the barn has disappeared today. I think (hope) that means the eggs under the nesting female in the bush on the other side of the road have hatched and the babies are now running around. (They do not stay in the nest once hatched.)

I found half a (tiny) speckled eggshell on a bench in the barn a couple of days ago, from a Welcome Swallow nesting in the rafters. The nest is now several years old. That means the eggs have hatched, but the parents are still feeding them.

The Magpies had one baby some weeks ago in a big gum tree in front of the house: baby is now almost as big as an adult.

The Noisy Miners’ nest just outside our eaves has hatched, with two very fluffy babies hopping around in the tree. They will be flying around very soon.

The Kookaburras had babies in the very tall Blue Gums we planted on the fence-line quite a few weeks ago. The parents are very noisy (‘laughing’) rather early each morning, proclaiming ‘their territory’. Devil of a racket!

There is a male White-Necked Heron and also a male White-Faced Heron strutting around our paddocks with their heads raised, looking for threats. Not sure where the respective females are nesting.

There are tiny Thornbills and/or Weebills flitting around in the scrub by the dam. Some of them are so small I think they are babies.

Sorry Franco!
Cheers

This is from yesterday:

this male is showing the full display , even more colourful than usual

Another pretty little bird from this afternoon