Birds

I have submitted this to the Guinnes people for the Stilt with the longest legs

You folks are really amazing! I appreciate all the great photos, and the associated dialogue. I can’t even pretend to be a reasonable birder, just a pitiful wannabee. However, yesterday while striding along in a snow-packed favorite nearby open space, I had a great experience – I spotted several hooded mergansers just floating along in a patch of open water in an otherwise frozen pond. I stared at them for a few minutes, and when they figured out that I was focused on them, they abruptly flew off to find another pond. These were my first sighting, and they usually just stop by this area in Feb-March as they move on to their usual spring-summer habitat. This, in combination with a bald eagle and 2 great blue herons, made my afternoon on a rare +50* F winter day. And also a delightful 1/2 hour visit with a cute young ranger, who patiently  listened to all of my suggestions about how to manage this special open space (add park benches, get rid of the bicycles, and enforce the dog leash rule; she didn’t agree with my idea to provide free beer to the birders…).

how can a creature have such long legs????

I believe leg extensions are getting very popular with Stilts.

But it could be an evolutionary step.

I don’t know if this link works but I wanted to share a video showing how an Australian kite can hover keeping its head still. Kestrels can do pretty much the same

https://www.facebook.com/offworldphotography/videos/2706947426009339/
the video is playing 5x slower than real time.
This should give an idea of why I like them so much
BTW, NOT my video.

about that stilt…

Black Kite , today

Having posted many photos of the local kestrels I wanted to give a better idea of its size. So I went to the local library and had a photo taken with one that would not fly away :

I now this is the photography thread.  (really nice work guys!)  But could someone capture the song of the Hermit Thrush in its full fidelity?  Waking up to them on the Long Trail was incredible. Their vocal cords must be made of crystals.

@jaymenna78734 – try Xeno-Canto:

https://www.xeno-canto.org/explore?query=hermit%20thrush%20type%3A%22song%22

Bert the kestrel was sitting on a fence post again yesterday, so I went there to say hello. Going back to the path I pointed her out to a couple passing by because of the lack of other birds about in that area . I played back some photos for them from the screen on my camera.

This , from yesterday, is a whistling kite. I have better photos of it but yesterday it was flying away from me.

Today for the first time I spotted a pair of brolgas in the wild. A large bird that has a very peculiar courtship dance routine . But no dancing today.

and a couple of raptors , from the same area, about half an hour by car from home.

(Melbourne Water Treatment Plant)

I’m still going for my afternoon walk most days.
In just under two hours I came across less than a dozen people, door to door.

Could be the virus or that it was cold and raining on and off, maybe the wind.
Anyway I shot a Little Eagle going by

Still going for our walk.

this one I called “where did I put the key ?”

one from yesterday

those white faced herons are around most of the time but this type of ibis, the Straw Necked, is seldom seen here but common about half an hour away by car.

Also from yesterday.

Love the heron.  I often run into them in small, very remote but wet canyons.  Impressive bird to see take flight in a tight space.

Nice, you’ve named them

Thanks, I’ll try to remember to put a name to those birds.

A funny one from yesterday.

A Royal Spoonbill telling a ghost story

We are still doing our 90 min or so walk most days. Today we did it twice.

One from the afternoon

Australian kite.

Mr and Mrs Scarlet Robin this morning.

That is a pair of Flame Robins not Scarlet. Similar but not the same.

we need some colour.

Two doors down from us this afternoon.

Rainbow lorikeet

Sometime ago bird behaviour was mentioned.

In the last few days I again observed how females are much easier for me to get close to and in fact often I don’t see the much more obvious males at all.

So yesterday I took this photo :

I was taking photos of the male when this female flew closer to me for a look.

A bit later I spotted some birds I could not identify. All females that I could see. Turns out that they were Golden Whistlers .

the male has a black head and neck, white throat and bright yellow chest. Should be easy to spot but I did not see one. That female , with another one nearby, just sat there posing.

same with the Flame Robin the day before. See the previous post

Something else that came to mind.

This is the Splendid Fairywren in the photo on the previous post :

pretty but not exactly splendid.

however in breeding season it looks like this :

the ladies go nuts when it does that.

(on the first photo, opening to full size, you can see a small blue spot under the eye, but that and the blue tail is about it)

to see the full size : right click , open image in new tab

We have the Black-necked stilt here in Southern California…looks similar to yours (not my photo):

You’re quite the birder…I may not comment much, but I enjoy your pictures.  Just got some new binoculars, was out birding/hiking yesterday.