CONGRATULATIONS to Trevor’s Birding for 1000 posts
CONGRATULATIONS.
Congratulations to Trevor’s Birding blog.
This article marks the 1000th post on this blog.
It has been quite a journey, from a hesitant start on another platform through to the introduction of photographs and on to this point. It has taken a little over 4 years with plenty of interesting articles – I hope. The readership has steadily increased to over 20,000 visits per month – and growing. The readership also extends to over 100 countries every month so we are getting around. Only wish I could visit all those countries to watch the birds there!
To celebrate I would like to list the most popular articles over the 4 year period based on the number of comments:
- Baby Magpie (255 comments)
- Common Blackbirds (176 )
- Pesky Plovers – dealing with swooping birds (174)
- Do Blackbirds swoop ? How to deal with aggressive bird behaviour (107)
- Crested pigeons as pet birds (66)
- Eastern Rosella (61)
- Great birding moments #5 Crested Pigeon (53)
- Welcome Swallows (53)
- The problem with Common Blackbirds (49)
- Australian Magpies (47)
Why not visit some of these articles and read some of the comments?
Feel free to add further comments of your own. (Note: first time visitors will need to be moderated before the comment appears.)
Now that we’ve reached a thousand articles, why not dig deeper into the archives? You can access the archives by clicking here or on the link called ‘Archives‘ at the top of each page. You can also search for particular topics via the categories on the sidebar, or through the search box at the top of each page.
Photos:
Over the life of this blog I have shared thousands of photos. I take every opportunity to add to my collection. Later this week I might feature my favourite photos. In the meantime here is my all time favourite photo taken on holiday in Victoria earlier this year.
Australian Pelicans, Mallacoota, Victoria
Two milestones for this birding blog
This blog has reached a special milestone.
Last night I approved the 3000th comment from my readers.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the success of this blog. You have made it what it is – a vibrant community of birders and bird lovers. In the last few months when I have been very busy writing my novel, readers’ questions have appeared here and other readers have jumped in ahead of me and answered the query or question. This interaction between readers makes writing this blog so worthwhile.
Many readers have also said nice – and sometimes flattering – things about the photos and the articles. Thank you all for your generous praise. I’m truly grateful.
I believe that this blog is fulfilling something of a great need in educating people about Australian birds. I’ve lost count of the number of readers who have commented that, in searching for information about Australian birds, this was the only site where they found answers. That pleases the teacher in me – I was a teacher for 35 years before retiring in 2004. I am now a full time writer.
Musk Lorikeet
Another important milestone
In November this blog also achieved another important milestone. For the first time it exceeded 15,000 different readers for the month. That makes it all worthwhile, and very satisfying that it is reaching such a wide audience.
Thank you to all of my loyal readers and the many people who have contributed comments and asked questions.
Red Browed Finch
Help needed with Silvereye research
Silvereye
I recently had a request for help with research on Silvereyes in Australia. If you are able to help, please contact Dominique directly at the email address at the bottom of the article.
Hello Fellow Australian Birders!
I need your help!
My name is Dominique, and I am a PhD student currently studying at the University of Melbourne. I am investigating how urban noise affects song learning, development and evolution within a native Australian bird species. The species I have chosen to focus on is the Silvereye (Zosterops lateralis). I have chosen the silvereye for a variety of reasons: it occurs commonly in both urban and rural environments, its behaviours (especially acoustic) have been well documented, and we have good knowledge regarding its genetics.
The first part of my project will involve travelling to various sites around Australia, capturing silvereyes for morphological and genetic analysis, releasing them, and recording the songs of individuals in that population. I am using paired sites in order to compare urban vs rural birds, and I am hoping to cover a relatively large geographical range, in order to observe any geographical effects on song, as well as environmental. I will be staying in each place perhaps for a week or so doing data collection, before moving on.
Although there is good data available on the distribution of silvereyes in atlases, I need the help of birders across Australia (yes, that’s YOU!) to locate resident populations of silvereyes: areas where individuals might be able to be recorded and caught reliably.
I would like to specifically focus on the following areas: Southern Victoria, Southeastern South Australia, Eastern NSW, Tasmania, and Southeast Queensland. Therefore, I am asking if anyone knows of any silvereye populations that tend to hang out either in city parks, or rural areas.
If you have any knowledge that could help me with this project, or any further questions about my research, please do not hesitate to contact me. I would like to thank you in advance for your help, and I hope to hear from you soon.
Dominique Potvin
d.potvin@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
Birding can be an arresting hobby
Flowers of Eucalyptus porosa
I was almost arrested this morning.
Let me explain. We went for our normal early morning walk down the road along one side of our property. Part of this walk takes us past the external fence of the local prison complex. We think nothing of it every morning.
Along this stretch we had excellent views of about five Purple-crowned Lorikeets feeding on the flowers of the local mallee trees known as Eucalyptus porosa It’s a shrubby form of gum tree and quite common in this area. The photo above shows the flowers.
The lorikeets were quite unconcerned with our presence. In fact, I was able to watch one feeding at head height about a metre in front of me. It would have made an excellent photo with the first rays of morning sunlight highlighting the colours.
I was both pleased – and annoyed. No camera! And I do not yet have a photo of this species. Usually they are high up in the foliage feeding – or streaking across the tree tops at speed. Here was the ultimate photo opportunity – and no camera.
Ten minutes later we were home. I grabbed the camera and hopped in the car and drove to the same spot. Of course, Murphy’s Law – they’d flown off. All I managed was several shots of the trees and flowers. Then it all turned pear shape. Remember – this was right next to the boundary fence of the prison.
My actions immediately attracted the attention of the ‘boundary rider’ on his quad bike. Over recent months the prison has had a spate of people on the outside throwing tennis balls filled with drugs over the fence RIGHT WHERE I WAS STANDING! Talk about being a bit stupid. I had some quick explaining to do. He immediately reassured me that I certainly didn’t look like a drug supplier.
Whew! Talk about birding being a dangerous hobby!
Anyway – all’s weel that ends well! Except that I still don’t have a photo of that species!
Maybe next time!
Related articles:
- Lorikeets and flowering trees
- Rainbow Lorikeets
- Close views of Musk Lorikeets
- Great Birding Moments # 17
- Great Birding Moments # 19 Budgerigars
Flowers of a Eucalyptus porosa
Birding is a great hobby
Rainbow Lorikeet
Birding is a very cheap and relaxing hobby. You can pursue it almost anywhere . I once made a list of birds seen in church – through a nearby window – go figure. I’ve also made a list of birds heard while still in bed (while camping). I’ve even made lists of birds heard while sitting on the toilet.
You could say I’m a little obsessed.
As for being a cheap hobby, you don’t need any special equipment. Sure – you can buy expensive field guides and handbooks. The Handbook of Aussie birds (7 volumes) will set one back over $3000. Binoculars can cost from $125 to many thousands of dollars. Camera gear and travel can add considerably to costs – I spent over $6000 a few years ago to see and handful of species new to me on the slopes of Mt Everest (read about that on my travel blog).
But birding can be as cheap as looking out of the window to see a beautiful finch or wren hopping around the garden.
The hobby is whatever you want to make it.
If birding appeals to you can I suggest reading my series called How to be a Birder?