Choughs everywhere
White-winged Choughs, Geranium, South Australia
Yesterday I was asked to drive from Murray Bridge to Pinnaroo via Karoonda in the Murray mallee region of South Australia. A local courier company needed some parcels urgently delivered in the morning and I was available. I used to do relief driving for this company.
I enjoy doing driving jobs like this because it gets me out of my office and away from my computer for some fresh air. It also enables me to look at the birds along the way. After I’d delivered all the parcels I took a leisurely pace on the way home, stopping a number of times to actually get out and stretch my legs and do some birding.
One of the things that impressed me on the outward journey was the number of White-winged Choughs in the region. It seemed that I was seeing a flock every kilometre or so along the way. It is my guess that this species tends to be found along the country roads in this region for several reasons.
- The roadside vegetation allows foraging opportunities for the birds, more so than many of the open farm paddocks nearby.
- The roadside vegetation provides excellent nesting sites in the many trees lining the route.
- The rain run-off from the roads gathers in puddles and gutters long enough for the birds to build their mud nests.
At the point where I stopped for lunch on a dirt side road I found a family of choughs, some of them posing for my camera nicely (see photo above).
Brown-headed Honeyeaters
Brown-headed Honeyeater
Brown-headed Honeyeaters are one of the smallest honeyeaters found in Australia. They are about the size of a House Sparrow and are certainly the smallest honeyeaters in our garden. The White-plumed Honeyeaters are not much bigger.
While I would probably classify this species as a resident species in our garden, they do tend to come and go quite frequently. We see or hear them most days, then several days might pass without a sign of them. I guess they tend to have quite large territories around here.
The individual shown in the photo above is unusual. It was alone while feeding at the flower (click on the photo to enlarge the image). Earlier in the day – before I grabbed the camera – several others had been coming to feed on this bloom.
Brown-headed Honeyeaters are quite gregarious. When they come to our bird baths they often come in a small flock of 10 – 15 all crowding around looking for a drink. When it is bath time, they will often line up on a nearby branch and wait their turn to have a dip. I guess that they are very polite birds.
One thirsty parrot
6 Comments »11th February, 2010; Category: Bird baths, Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Parrots and Lorikeets, Photos
Mallee Ringneck Parrot
This week I’ve migrated from my office to our sun room because of the heat. The office isn’t air conditioned and the sun room is lovely.
This gives me the opportunity to keep an eye on several of our bird baths. During the hot weather the bird baths play an important role in attracting bird life to our garden.
Yesterday I had excellent views of one of our resident Mallee Ringneck parrots. It had come in to have a good drink. This one didn’t have a bath as they sometimes do. Quite a few species really start splashing the water everywhere, just like a mini-sprinkler. Don’t they know we have strict watering restrictions here in South Australia?
Related articles:
- Thirsty times for the birds
- Time for a bath – includes a complete list of birds that have visited our bird bath – and some animals too.
Stirring times for the garden birds
Brown Falcon, Monarto Zoo
We were having breakfast out on the back veranda this morning when there was a sudden stirring of the garden birds. All the smaller birds like the honeyeaters went scurrying for cover in all directions. Their warning calls filled the air.
Just as suddenly the cause of the kerfuffle became apparent. A Brown Falcon came swooping low through the trees and bushes quite close to the house and where we were sitting. The bird continued on through the mallee scrub at the back of our house, unsuccessful in its quest for a tasty meal. It flew off before I could get a photo, so I’ve used a photo of one taken last year at Monarto Zoo about 10km west of our home.
The Brown Falcon we saw was considerably browner than the one shown in the photo. There can be quite a few variations in plumage colours between individuals, from the colours shown above through to almost a chocolate brown in the dark phase. All very confusing really.
Common Blackbird nesting
Common Blackbird sitting in nest
Just before Christmas we stayed for a few days in my brother-in-law’s holiday home in Christies Beach just south of Adelaide. It was a week of lazing by the pool, reading and sleeping after a very demanding and busy year.
I wasn’t intending doing any birding while I was there, so the birds came to me. My b-in-law has a car port attached to the house and enclosed on three sides. One of the cross beams supporting the roof was too enticing for the local resident Common Blackbirds. They’d made a very cosy nest in the corner right up against the roof. We had several days of very high temperatures while we were there so it would have been very cosy indeed!
Common Blackbirds are very opportunistic and creative when it comes to choosing a nesting site. We’ve often had them nesting inside our garden shed – in some empty plant pots. Some of my readers have told me about nests in pot plants – even those with plants in them, nests in hanging baskets and nests in all sorts of locations.