Capture: Going Walkabout in Sydney
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Lilith __, in reply to
Common names are such a tangle, eh! Latin binomials are more reliable, although occasionally subject to change....
I'm pretty sure I've seen video of spurwings fighting with their spurs. Very strange!
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Birds are almost as hard as dogs to snap with my point and shoot.
Birds and Kite on Sunday. -
And I was amazed I got anything resembling a picture of these orange billed, one-Legged creatures who seemed completely unpeturbed by the Tamaki Drive passersby.
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Julie Cross, in reply to
point and shoot
my stalking technique is improving (not my framing though). These little old dudes were cruising along until I got too close and they veered away. I think they are Little Corellas - can't see their beaks too well and there are a few types of corellas.
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white faced heron... in a peaceful spot amidst the mangroves
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Nora Leggs, in reply to
Little Corellas
They look like Cheeky Fellas : ) Looks like you have a lot of interesting bird life to stalk over there.
Stumbled on this bird in Kew Gardens, not too bothered by us people. Have used the hand-held-scanner for this one (i.e. point-and-shoot aimed at photo album. -
Julie Cross, in reply to
this bird in Kew Gardens
what a beauty!
we have commoners too. Aussie birds are pretty but they tend to have very harsh and sometimes disturbing calls (like whips and whistles and shrieks) - not much of that gorgeous birdsong that fills the bush back home - something I still miss.
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Nora Leggs, in reply to
Nice line up : )
These feathered flowers are easier to catch... -
Not in Sydney, no flowers or birds....
Venus transit observers. I don't know how they hoped to see anything through the thick haze that enveloped Beijing today, but they seemed very happy and excited.
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O! birds, birds & flowery things that could be bird appurtanances... er, something-
spurwing plovers self-introduced into southern ANZ in the 1940s as did other OZ birds earlier- kotuku in the 18th century; tauhou/waxeyes in the late 1890s; sulphur-crested cockatoos in the 1950s...
storms mainly bring them over- like the moths I noccucaisionally find, storm-wrecked against my windows-
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Aussie birds are pretty but they tend to have very harsh and sometimes disturbing calls (like whips and whistles and shrieks) - not much of that gorgeous birdsong that fills the bush back home - something I still miss.
Oz birdsong - "Like a chipmunk throwing up" as a Canadian of my acquaintance once put it. It's hard to beat any of the butcherbirds for gorgeous morning birdsong, though from my experience they only stay resident for a week or two before moving on.
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they seemed very happy and excited
Just the sense of occasion then? Or maybe they were actually viewing birds and flowery things?
hard to beat any of the butcherbirds for gorgeous morning birdsong
Cool & Confident Butcherbird, liked the human-song that went with it : )
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Cool & Confident Butcherbird
I used to enjoy John Dengate, who'd answer Sydney listeners' questions about backyard wildlife on ABC radio. When a caller asked why the butcherbird that had taken to showing up at his backyard bird feeding station didn't make a meal of the other birds - because butcherbirds occasionally do that - he was told to "just keep feeding him."
A standard feature of Dengate's radio sessions would be the caller who'd been blessed with a "marsupial" visitor, only to have their hopes dashed with "It's a rat."
"But they sit up on their hind legs!"
"It's a rat."
"They climb trees . . ."
"It's a rat."
"They have the cutest little faces . . ."
"DEFINITELY a rat." -
Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
And I was amazed I got anything resembling a picture of these orange billed, one-Legged creatures who seemed completely unpeturbed by the Tamaki Drive passersby.
I've shown them before but here they are again. I found out they are called Variable Oyster Catchers and they hide beaks and legs under wings to keep warm hence the one leg etc.
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Nora Leggs, in reply to
Thanks Sofie, now I can see them more clearly : ) Looks like the darker one may be a bit more advanced, sitting down to keep both legs warm at once!
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Julie Cross, in reply to
gorgeous morning birdsong
Thanks Joe, that made my morning cup of tea all the more memorable, like fatty was in my garden! I found this amazing recording which is middle of the night and one beautiful solo songstress... truly beautiful but I can definitely say I have not heard one Butcherbird in the wild yet. Maybe we have the wrong trees.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Many thanks for that Julie. Until 2003 I lived ten years in a top floor unit high on the North Sydney side of Anderson Park in Neutral Bay. The enormous variety of birdlife there was some compensation for the lack of garden space.
Butcherbirds would turn up occasionally and stay around for a week or two. Their song wasn't dissimilar from that gorgeous soundfile you've linked to. When they sing there's no mistaking them for anything else. From the best look I got at one I guessed it to be a grey butcherbird. Like a smaller magpie crossed with a kingfisher when seen perching.
Unlike those phenomenal rarities like the flock of black cockatoos that once wheeled over the harbour, or the pair of peregrine falcons that moved into the area for a couple of weeks, the butcherbirds' visits didn't appear to be connected with anything like bushfires. They just seemed to show up as it suited them.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Birds are almost as hard as dogs to snap
Yep. They almost tease.
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Ooh and they are fast those swallows, well snapped : )
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Ooh and they are fast those swallows,
Aye. :)
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This was the only way I could catch a swallow - seems he wants to go walkabout too.
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Lilith __, in reply to
Variable Oyster Catchers
Variable oyster-catchers are very cool. If you see them feeding on a beach they seem to tap-dance in and out of the water in time with the waves. And if you see two together they usually synchronise their steps.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Variable oyster-catchers are very cool.
I was impressed. :)
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Then this wee guy was prancing today. Fantails, acrobats. :)
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These waxeyes (?) were all over this plant till I pointed my camera at them...
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