Archive for the 'General' Category

New Holland Honeyeater

We have several rather insipid looking red hot poker flowers in our garden at the moment. The New Holland Honeyeaters think that they are great. They come frequently during the day for a feed. I managed to capture a good shot of one of them a few days ago.

Click on the photo to enlarge the image.

Related articles:

• Great Birding Moments: Noisy Miner – this shows a better photo of the flower
  

Have you put in a bid yet for the painting of the flamingo?

This special auction has – as I write this – exactly two days to run.

All proceeds from this auction on Ebay will go towards helping the flamingo recently bashed at the Adelaide Zoo.

UPDATE: The auction has now ended.

I recently had a media release from an Australian artist concerned about the plight of the flamingo that was recently bashed at the Adelaide Zoo. Here is what he said:

Artist moved by flamingo’s plight
Australian artist auctions work for bashed bird

In an effort to raise money and awareness for the half-blind, 70-something-year-old greater flamingo that was attacked at Adelaide Zoo at the end of last month, Australian artist Patrick Christie is auctioning the number one print of his most recent work, PINK. Christie’s hand-embossed, limited-edition giclee print features three flamingos.

All proceeds from the auction will go to Adelaide Zoo to benefit the greater flamingo in its recovery and care. Those wishing to bid on the unframed H75cmxH50cm pen and ink on paper print can do so on eBay from 12noon AEST on Friday 14 November 2008. The auction closes 10 days later. The numbered print is hand embossed, signed, and finished with an original detail of a hand drawn flamingo by the artist. Bidders can now view the print on the artist’s website at http://www.patrickchristieink.com until the end of the auction period.

The attack on Greater 1, as the flamingo is known, occurred on the afternoon of 29 October and nearly killed the bird, according to its handlers. Four youths, aged 17 to 19, were later charged with animal cruelty and remanded to appear in court. Greater 1 suffered serious injury to the beak and head, causing blood to seep into his airway, as well as concussion.

Christie was putting final touches on PINK, his pen and ink drawing of three flamingos, when he heard the first report of the attack on Greater 1. He felt moved to take action to help the bird and raise awareness about responsible interactions with animals.

“The needless pain and grief suffered by Greater 1, and those animals and carers close to him, is very disheartening. As citizens of our natural world, we all have the duty to ensure we interact with every animal in an appropriate and responsible manner. It’s about respecting life. Teaching children to handle all animals with care. Gently stepping in when we see or hear of any animal being mistreated,” said Christie.

Greater 1, the flamingo, continues his rehabilitation at Adelaide Zoo.

“Greater 1 is on the road to recovery,” said Adelaide Zoo CEO Dr Chris West. “Initially losing weight and not eating, the keepers at Adelaide Zoo closely monitored him, concerned with his loss of weight. Over the last few days he has started to eat regularly, again preening himself and appearing comfortable back in his home with his friend the Chilean Flamingo,” said Dr West.

Media Enquiries:

Christopher Totten
Patrick Christie Ink
Communications Manager
Email: christopher@patrickchristieink.com
Mobile: 0405 990 646

The auction on Ebay is underway with some very generous bids so far. If you wish to bid on this auction please go to the relevant web page. You have until 24th November 2008.

UPDATE: The auction has now finished.

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

Quite often I find eggs lying on the ground in our garden. On more than one occasion I’ve wondered “Whose egg is this?” Last week I had such a request from a reader of this blog. Diana said:

I was just wondering if you could help me out, I’ve found a pure white egg, it was still warm and I couldn’t see a nest around. It’s only about as big as my thumb, what do you think it is? What should I do? Do you think it will hatch and if it does how will I care for it?

My reply unfortunately was less than helpful.

I am sorry but from your description it is almost impossible to tell what species of bird the egg belongs to. Where in Australia was the egg found? Where in relationship to trees, shrubs or buildings? What birds were around at the time? What are the common birds in your area?

There are so many variables that I couldn’t even begin to have a good guess. Eggs are often found on the ground and this is the result of a variety of events. We have some very active cuckoos in Australia which lay their eggs in the nests of other species. The baby cuckoos instinctively push other species eggs out of the nest before they hatch so that they get all the food. (Greedy, heh).

Other species steal eggs from nests to eat – crows, ravens, magpies, currawongs and many others. This is so that they may survive – it is the natural order of things, not cruelty. Sometimes these birds drop the eggs while carrying them.

Some species – especially pigeons and doves – make nests that are so flimsy that the egg simply falls through the bottom. The nests are so insignificant you might not even see them in a tree.

You are best advised to throw out the egg. Hatching it is a specialty job for the birds – or people who keep birds who have special incubators. Even if you did manage to hatch it, feeding the baby is far more demanding than a human baby – and we know how demanding they can be.

When you say it was as big as your thumb – did you mean you thumb nail? If so, it is possible it was a honeyeater’s egg – but which species is very hard to tell.

Sorry that I cannot give you any more help than that.

I know that this must have been frustrating for the reader, but it is really hard especially doing it at a distance via email – even with a photo. Goodness – it is even hard when one has the egg in hand.