Happy Bird-day to me

Happy Birthday to me.

Yep – another year has rolled around. Another digit notched up on the calendar. I didn’t treat myself to a few hours of birding today, but I did have a great lunch with my family.

I managed to get in about an hour of casual birding yesterday afternoon. My daughter took me to see a play in Adelaide (Ying Tong: a walk with the Goons). On our way home we detoured to Belair National Park about twenty minutes south of the city. We had a very pleasant hour with some lovely nibbles and a cuppa.

I didn’t take all that much notice of the bird life and wasn’t suitably attired to go crashing through the undergrowth. Far too many people around too; it’s a popular park being so close to the city.

We used one of the tables next to Playford Lake which is near the entrance. On the lake there were quite a few Pacific Black Ducks, Australian Wood Ducks, Eurasian Coot and Dusky Moorhens. An Australian Magpie sang for his afternoon tea but that was not coming from our table. (The cheese was too nice to throw away.) I was certain it was imitating a Kookaburra at one stage. Oh, yes, I saw several Laughing Kookaburras, plenty of hopeful Noisy Miners near or table (they didn’t get any cheese either) and a constant chorus of Striated Pardalotes chirping in the trees all around. Several Galahs flew overhead and several small groups of Adelaide Rosellas zipped through the trees.

The only highlight of the hour was a sighting of two – dare I say pair? – of Rainbow Lorikeets going in and out of a tree hollow. I wonder if it was a nest?

Rainbow Lorikeet, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney