29 July 2014

White-plumed Honeyeaters, and Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater

White-plumed Honeyeater on Callistemon (Bottle-brush)

Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater




looking like a young one





photographs taken in this location, Alice Springs, N.T.


Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday

26 July 2014

Port Lincoln Ringneck

After walking about the Bush Telegraph Station at Alice Springs,  N.T. this post (Snap Happy Online), I ventured outside the boundaries to the 'waterhole' behind; looking for birds.

well there's a spot of water there...only just


fact-sheet on the Port Lincoln Ringneck is here




 Alice Springs Waterhole, dry...how dry?

this dry



and another

one of the many wonderful hanging artwork by students of the School of the Air, in Alice Springs.  Well done Darcy!  Their website is here.

Sharing with Saturday's Critters





22 July 2014

Lets stop for wetland birds

Here's a good little spot to pull up a while; can see a White Ibis out there .. what else?


One advantage of a grey day was the lovely light and reflectons on this little wetland area 

Masked Lapwing

Great Egret

 White Ibis


not sure if this one's still in action but it made for a nice prop 

walking through the Samphire.  It's a delicacy; have you tried it?  When I first recognised it growing on another walk near to home in February 2012, I wrote this post



Little Pied Cormorant



Swans, Chestnut Teal, White-faced Heron


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20 July 2014

The second half now, of The Boys Walk, Cooranbong

beautiful trees; interesting textures, and lovely lichens beside the creek



Superb Fairy Wren

 noxious weed (native to S.E. Africa) with  a pretty yellow flower, is known as Fireweed


and another of the Eastern Yellow Robins, which proved to be our bird of the day 

 they sure make my day!

checking some thing out ...first time I've ever seen one on the ground like this

oh!

Good on you little Eastern Yellow Robin!!

Sharing with The Bird D'Pot

16 July 2014

while birding along The Boys Walk, Cooranbong, N.S.W.

It was just jesterday morning, with a cool start and grey skies, but what better to warm the cockles of your heart, than to spot a beautiful little Eastern Yellow Robin, first up.

walking the track, a 2 km. route, with the occasional jogger, and cyclists to contend with.    They hadn't been expecting two women standing on the pathway just around the bend, binoculars fixed to their eyes and cameras at the ready.  All cheery, g'days exchanged.

Dora Creek



then a clearing came up through the trees on one side, with Straw-necked Ibis out there



Grey Fantails were flitting about catching insects on the fly and then landing back on the fence, just long enough for a photo shoot



out on another clearing, quite a number of Superb Fairy Wrens; delightful little birds.  Of course I want to capture the blue-boy!

 but not complete without the Jenny-wren (female)


Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday

15 July 2014

Birding at Myuna Bay #2

...it's all so easy to walk by a tree and not notice that a certain bird is sitting in it.  I'm so used to trying to find little birds hiding behind the tracery of branches and foliages instead!

Take this eucalypt (gum) tree; on the right side of the trunk, just before the first long branch on that side ... there's a little broken stub of a branch, and there's something perched there.  Now who would've known, so OUT THERE?!  Someone in our birding group that day spotted it; well done I say!   Shall we look a little closer at it then?

Tawny Frogmouths ..they make me smile; quirky little beings with their beak pointing to the sky trying to make out it's just another branch, and they do camouflage SO well, don't they?  

Read about (and hear), the Tawny Frogmouth on this Birds in Backyards fact-sheet here



while standing on the opposite side of the channel, over there near the top of the pine tree is a nest.

it was Whistling Kite

one sitting at the nest and the other flying overhead



stretched to the max., it appears two to the left of the trunk, and one sitting up a little higher, at right

... and while sitting in the sun with morning cuppa by the bay, Silver Gulls paddled in circles