Red Wattlebirds breeding
Spring must be here.
Birds are nesting or have young everywhere.
Yesterday I wrote about the resident New Holland Honeyeaters nesting in our garden quite close to our house. Today it is the turn of another species of honeyeater, the Red Wattlebird. Over the last week or so I have been watching their nest near the driveway. This one was some 4 metres up in a mallee tree; the New Holland Honeyeater’s nest was less than a metre above the ground.
Newly fledged Red Wattlebird
The baby wattlebirds have been chirping from the nest for some days. Today they ventured out of the nest for the first time. They are not yet confident flyers but they make up for this with their incessant chirping. This is to attract the parents to the spot to which they have awkwardly fluttered.
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Red Wattlebird
New Holland Honeyeater nest
Nest of a New Holland Honeyeater
Birds can be very sneaky at times.
We were having breakfast in our sunroom this morning. As we ate, my wife observed a New Holland Honeyeater flying to what appeared to be a nest in a nearby bush in our garden (a Meleleuca lanceolata). A closer inspection of the bush revealed a dainty nest with two eggs.
Right under our noses they had built this nest and laid the eggs without us noticing.
Amazing.
This gives us a good opportunity to observe the progress of the nest and the young as they hatch. The trick will be to keep away and not inspect the nest too often. I do not to disturb them, seeing it is so close to the house.
New Holland Honeyeater
New Holland Honeyeater
Bird Rescue: New Holland Honeyeater
From time to time we have birds crash into one of our windows. This is a regular and common problem throughout the world it seems. It is one of the dangers presented to our bird life by our modern forms of architecture, from the humble country cottage like our home through to large high-rise buildings and everything in between.
New Holland Honeyeater
In our situation, we have several large picture windows that perfectly reflect the surrounding garden at certain times of the day. Birds flying along see what they think is a continuation of the garden, but in fact they are seeing a reflection. Crashes into the glass are inevitable.
In most cases, the affected birds sit still for a few moments before flying off, probably with a headache and very puzzled expression on their faces. We have had the occasional death and this is always regrettable and sad.
Yesterday it was the turn of one of our many New Holland Honeyeaters to suffer momentarily. I heard the thump against the glass and went outside to investigate. The poor bird was on the ground not moving. At first I thought it had died, but then I noticed shallow breathing.
New Holland Honeyeater
I put the unfortunate bird on a nearby garden table and left it to recover. A few minutes later it flew of, hopefully a little wiser. While it was recovering I took advantage of having a bird at close quarters for several photos.
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Bath time
While working in my wife’s plant nursery yesterday we were delighted to see several New Holland Honeyeaters up close. We had just had the watering system on and so the plants were all quite damp. The honeyeaters came in for a feed only to find all the leaves dripping with water. They both then proceeded to have a bath, scrabbling and cavorting amongst the wet foliage with droplets of water spraying in all directions.
It was a delightful little encounter.
The photo below was taken quite some time ago. I didn’t have the camera with me yesterday.
New Holland Honeyeater
Great Birding Moments #10 Noisy Miner
5 Comments »30th July, 2006; Category: Honeyeaters
Noisy Miner
Last week I went for a stroll through the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. I was pleased to get several good photos of a Silver Gull, a Dusky Moorhen and some Pacific Black Ducks on the lake near the restaurant area. I then walked around the lake where I could see some Red Hot Poker flowers lighting up the gardens. Not much else was in flower which is to be expected in mid-winter.
As I was taking some very nice shots of the flowers a Noisy Miner came to feed on the flowers. This was within 2 metres of me and it didn’t seem to mind me moving around trying to get the best angles and the best light on the subject. I love it when birds seem to be posing for me!
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Noisy Miner