Little Penguins at Adelaide Zoo
Little Penguins, Adelaide Zoo
The Adelaide Zoo has been very much in the news lately. I refer to the recent attack on one of the Flamingos in the zoo. Fortunately the injured bird is well on the way to recovery and back on exhibit. The incident has created quite a stir in the media both here in South Australia and throughout the world I believe.
I try to get to visit the zoo several times a year, being a Life Member. I mainly go to see the excellent bird collection. I usually take my camera along too because there are many opportunities to get good close up photos of many species, some of which I would have trouble getting shots of in the wild.
Today I feature two photos taken on a visit last year. Little Penguins (also called Fairy Penguins) are a naturally occurring species here in South Australian waters, with several places where they regularly breed along our coast and on the islands near the coast.
Little Penguins, Adelaide Zoo
Is that a Cockatoo you are eating?
The Sulphur-crested Cockatoo is one of the wonderful world of parrots here in Australia. Our country has been called the Land of Parrots. They seem to be everywhere, in wonderful colours and often in huge numbers. For example, we often have flocks of 400 or more Galahs fly over our house. Bit on the noisy side, mind you, but a truly spectacular sight.
The photo at the top of this blog is of a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo taken in the streets of Adelaide some time ago. Today’s state newspaper features a photo of a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo in a different pose – being eaten by a python.
To see the photo and read the article click here: Python makes a meal out of a cockatoo.
Peaceful Dove
Peaceful Dove, Cleland Wildlife Park
While working in the garden yesterday we heard the unmistakable call of a Peaceful Dove. I started searching it out but was unable to locate the individual before it flew off. In my experience their call can have a ventriloquial quality. It can sound like it’s about thirty metres away, until one realises it is sitting in the tree above you.
Peaceful Dove, Cleland Wildlife Park
Peaceful Doves are widespread and relatively common around where I live – except in our garden. They only come to visit a handful of times every year. This is a pity, because we love hearing its soft doodle-doo call. It’s far nicer than that brain numbing call of the introduced Spotted Turtle Dove.
Spotted Turtledove
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters
Spiny Cheeked Honeyeater
We usually have a plentiful number of honeyeaters resident and breeding in our garden and the nearby mallee scrub. Probably the most numerous is the New Holland Honeyeater. This would be closely followed by the Red Wattlebird and the White-plumed Honeyeater. We also have several Singing Honeyeaters. From time to time we have visits from a small flock of Brown-headed Honeyeaters. They love splashing in our bird bath. Several other species visit only rarely. Some I haven’t seen here in many years.
One species we usually have around the garden somewhere is the Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, as shown in the photos on this post. This species has been rather quiet lately. Just before I managed to race for the camera and get these shots the adult bird was feeding a young one. They must have been keeping their presence quiet while they were nesting.
This species is found throughout much of mainland Australia but not in Tasmania. It is also absent from the tropical north, coastal south east and far south west of the continent. Its preferred habitats include drier woodlands, scrubs and gardens.
The plant shown in the photos is Eremophila glabra.
When they were little, our children used to call this bird the “yoo-hoo” bird. This is one of its calls and is quite memorable. My wife and I still refer to it by this name.
Spiny Cheeked Honeyeater
I and the Bird #87
The latest birding carnival has been hosted over at Ecobirder. This is issue #87 of I and the bird. Heaps of good reading about birds from all over the world with links to many bird blogs just like this one.