Great Birding Moments #13 Sulphur Crested Cockatoos
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Last week my wife was admitted to Burnside Hospital in suburban Adelaide for an operation. After seeing her into the capable hands of the staff I drove off to spend the day photographing birds in the Cleland Wildlife Park in the Adelaide Hills. Rounding the corner into the next side street I was astounded to see a small flock of about eight Sulphur Crested Cockatoos in a street tree. I just had to stop and get the camera out.
Sulphur Crested Cockatoos
The tree was a White Cedar and a branch had broken off, exposing a hollow. Several birds were investigating the hollow as they screeched and carried on just a few metres from my busy camera. I was very pleased with the result because, in my experience, this is not an easy species to get close to in the wild. They seemed more interested in the hollow and each other than the strange creature hovering below them. Actually, one of them did notice me as the photo I took had him looking straight at me with a quizzical look on his face. Pity it is a little blurred.
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Sulphur Crested Cockatoos are found in coastal and sub-coastal regions from northern Australia, down the eastern seaboard and through to Adelaide. It is also found in Tasmania and has been introduced to Western Australia. They are a delightful and spectacular species but are inclined to be rather noisy.
Sulphur Crested Cockatoos are a popular pet in Australia, and probably elsewhere too.
Update: this photo above – and many other photos featured on this site – can now be purchased on a range of merchandise such as T-shirts, aprons, wall plaques, clocks and mugs. Go to my Trevor’s Photos site here.
Favourite Birding Spot # 6 Cleland Wildlife Park
14 Comments »16th September, 2006; Category: Aviaries, Birds, Bush birds, Favourite Birding Spots, Garden birds, Good Birding Sites
Entrance to Cleland Wildlife Park, South Australia
I love travelling so I can go birding in a new area. Last week I visited Cleland Wildlife Park in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. This park is run by the National Parks and Wildlife of South Australia. It is a small part of the Cleland Conservation Park.
It has been quite a while since my last visit. In another life I had taken many groups of primary school children to this wonderful park. On quite a few of these occasions the visit was a part of a school camp at the nearby Woodhouse Scout Camp.
Southern Brown Bandicoot, Cleland Wildlife Park
The beauty of this wildlife park is that one gets a very close up look at many of the birds and animals native to Australia. These include a range of different species, including kangaroo, wallaby, wombat, echidna, bandicoots, potoroos and bettongs. In one spot you can have your photo taken with a koala. A feature of my recent visit was the absolutely gorgeous four dingo pups. They were about four weeks old.
Dingo pup, Cleland Wildlife Park
The main attraction of Cleland for me is the birdlife. The area is well wooded and so there are many native birds resident in and around the park. There are two walk through aviaries which enable one to get up close to many bird species. This is just great for photography. There is also a large wetlands area for all the water birds.
Over coming weeks I will feature some of the photos I took of the birds there. If you are impatient you might want to visit my photo gallery (sorry this gallery has been removed). I took over 200 photos that day, so you will have plenty to look at!
Happy Birding.
Trevor
This article was updated in August 2015.
Ravens v Choughs
White Winged Chough
In my last post I wrote about the Little Ravens feeding their recently fledged young in our garden. A few hours later I heard a great commotion coming from the mallee scrub near our house. A family of White Winged Choughs was on their regular patrol through our property. The ravens objected to the noisy neighbours coming to visit. Perhaps the ravens didn’t like anyone getting too close to their young.
Protection of young cuts both ways it seems. On investigating the noise I discovered that the Choughs were protecting a number of newly fledged young as well. These were quite small and only just able to fly.
White Winged Choughs
No wonder there was conflict. No wonder they were upset with each other. And it all goes to show that spring is really here in South Australia with the frenzy of breeding all around.
Related articles:
Little Ravens breeding
1 Comment »15th September, 2006; Category: General
Little Raven
Little Ravens are very common birds around our home. On occasions there can be twenty or more nearby. They are also frequent visitors to our property, a five acre block on the outskirts of Murray Bridge in South Australia. We often observe them strutting through the mallee scrub surrounding our house looking for a snack.
In recent weeks the ravens have been very active and very noisy. Earlier this week we saw several young ravens. Their movements were very clumsy and they were being visited by the parents to feed them.
I never did find the nest.
And I didn’t get a photo of the juveniles.
The photo above is of two adults and was taken some time ago.
Related article:
What is a Twitcher?
3 Comments »15th September, 2006; Category: Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions about Birding #3
What is a “twitcher�
Someone who is prepared to travel great distances or go to great effort or expense in order to see birds, often just a single bird, that they have never seen before so that it can be marked on their list of birds seen (called a “tick†or “liferâ€Â). The word ‘twitcher’ might have originated from their propensity to develop a nervous twitch until the rare or desired bird has been ticked off their list.
In Australia, probably the most famous “twitcher” is Sean Dooley who went on a twitch for a full year in an attempt to record the most species in Australia in a calendar year. His amazing exploits are celebrated in his book called “The Big Twitch.”
Yellow Plumed Honeyeater