Ringnecks and Kites
Mallee Ringneck Parrot
I was putting out the rubbish bin a few days ago. Our rubbish is collected once a week and it requires a 60 metre walk towing the bin behind – we have a long driveway.
I was in that kind of mood where the brain was in neutral and the eyes weren’t really trained for birding. It happens.
The brain suddenly snapped back into focus as a Black Kite soared low overhead, perhaps only 15 metres above me. Great views. Seemed to have a few feathers missing on the wings. I wonder what caused that? Maybe it’s been in a scrap with another bird.
As I returned to the house two Australian Ringneck parrots were sitting in a tree right next to the house. They just sat there less than 5 metres away, watching me for a minute before flying off. They are regular visitors to our garden. The above photo of one of them at our bird bath was taken last year.
This is one of the reasons I love being a birder; I don’t have to travel anywhere to enjoy my passion. The birds just come to me, insisting that I share my garden and my life with them.
All I can say is – fantastic.
Related posting:
First of all, thanks for the comment on my blog. I left you an answer there.
I checked the photogalery – BEAUTIFUL! Great pictures of amazing birds! Ghallas and parrots (and budgerigars or budgies and cockatoos and other such birds) are exotic birds here in Europe, and seeing them captured on a photo in their natural habitats is amazing!
I have the same experience with birds as you do – they aren’t afraid of me at all. My doves, starlings, magpies, crows and the smaller ones (like green finches, bullfinches, sparrows, blue tits, golden finches, jays, woodpeckers and others) come to my window sill and peacefully eat there while I’m watching them just a few centimetres away by the window (even when the window is open!).
We have many kinds of birds of prey here, too. From my backyard garden I can watch kestrels, hawks, falcons, kites (a word-to-word translation for a kite would be “scissor-bird”), screetch owls and owls. It’s very interesting to observe the hawks as they rise up into the sky in a sort of spiral-way. They go so far up that you can only see a little dot up on the sky; sometimes not even that – you have to use the binoculars and still all you can see is just a dot. It’s truly amazing.
Well, I’ll definitely be back to see more of the photos. Please keep writing about your interesting bird-adventures!
Thank you for the great comments. I look forward to one day coming to Europe and seeing totally diferent kinds of birds. Until then I will look on the internet. Last January I was a little disappointed with how few birds I saw in Thailand and Nepal. I did get to see some lovely birds but not in the big numbers we have here in Australia.
It sounds like you are very aware of the birds in your garden and district. Most people do not give birds a second glance – except when they cause a problem – like eating the fruit on the trees in their garden or orchards.
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