Mooching around Mallacoota, Victoria
No Comments »9th March, 2009; Category: Pigeons and Doves
Caravan Park, Mallacoota, far eastern Victoria
Last January we had a holiday in Sydney and then drove to Melbourne via Canberra and the south coast. From Eden we drove on towards Mallacoota along a section of the coast we had never visited before.
Our first impressions of Mallacoota were very favourable. The town is on a river estuary and the setting is quite charming. We plan to return here with our caravan some day and stay for a week or more. We intend avoiding the summer holidays. As you can see in the photo above, the caravan park on the foreshore is wall-to-wall tents, caravans, boats, bikes, cars and 4WDs. Not my idea of a quiet holiday spot.
After a very nice meal of seafood in the hotel bistro, we decided to go for a long walk around town in the cool of the evening. I was hoping to get a good list of birds for this area and some photos would have been a bonus.
It was with delight and a little surprise that the first bird I saw upon leaving our motel room was a Common Bronzewing pigeon, shown in the photo below. I am quite used to seeing this species feeding on the sides of roads or flying rapidly across the road in front of the car while driving. I am used to seeing this bird out bush and relatively remote, or least quiet, places. But here was this individual feeding on the lawn a few steps from the back of the motel. It was one street from the main shopping strip and a busy spot. This bird was cautious but not over alarmed by our presence. It was a nice sighting and one of only a handful of this species seen on the entire journey of about 3500km.
Common Bronzewing pigeon, Mallacoota, eastern Victoria
Early morning walk
No Comments »22nd February, 2009; Category: Murray Bridge, Parrots and Lorikeets, Pigeons and Doves, Ravens and Crows
I’m just back from an early morning walk. It was about 15C, crisp fresh, no breeze and cloudless. A perfect morning for a walk.
As I was going along I was aware of several dozen Little Ravens calling nearby. I’ve been aware of many ravens calling near our home over the last week or so. It’s something they tend to do several times a year. They will gather in large numbers, often 30 – 50 or more and commence calling raucously for ten or twenty minutes or more. After a protracted chorus of their calls, especially near the house, one can feel a little annoyed; it can be a penetrating call up close.
Little Raven
I also observed about a dozen Crested Pigeons sitting on the power lines or feeding on the ground. Several of them were giving their elaborate bowing, bobbing and tail fanning display to prospective mates. This species seems to be always breeding around here. Probably why there’s a growing number of them.
We occasionally have lorikeets land to feed in the trees in our garden but more often they just fly over, very rapidly and very noisily. This morning a flock of 10 Purple-crowned Lorikeets went screaming overhead as I walked along, did a 360 turn wheeling around to check me out (or maybe the mallee tree on the side of the road) before streaking off to find another tree in blossom. It’s like having a miniature squadron of fighter jets fly over at close range. The photo below shows a related species, the equally noisy Musk Lorikeet which we also get here from time to time.
Musk Lorikeet
Peaceful Dove
Peaceful Dove, Cleland Wildlife Park
When working in the garden we often take a break for morning tea. We take our cuppa out on to the front veranda where have several comfortable chairs. This gives us a good view of part of the garden and the surrounding trees. It is a very relaxed form of birding, for sitting quietly we can often observe the birds going about their everyday activities. This includes visits to the nearby bird bath.
Several days ago we were enjoying our cup of tea when a Peaceful Dove came into the garden. We could hear it calling but couldn’t see it. It flew off before I could locate it. This species is common and widespread in the district but it does not often visit our garden which is a shame. We love hearing its gentle and soothing “doodle-doo” call.
Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
Peaceful Dove
Peaceful Dove, Cleland Wildlife Park
While working in the garden yesterday we heard the unmistakable call of a Peaceful Dove. I started searching it out but was unable to locate the individual before it flew off. In my experience their call can have a ventriloquial quality. It can sound like it’s about thirty metres away, until one realises it is sitting in the tree above you.
Peaceful Dove, Cleland Wildlife Park
Peaceful Doves are widespread and relatively common around where I live – except in our garden. They only come to visit a handful of times every year. This is a pity, because we love hearing its soft doodle-doo call. It’s far nicer than that brain numbing call of the introduced Spotted Turtle Dove.
Spotted Turtledove
Crested Pigeon nesting
Crested Pigeon
About three weeks ago I was walking the estate. (We live on a five acre block on the edge of town.)
As I passed a row of Hakea francisiana bushes I checked thoroughly for any bird nests. These bushes, which are about four metres high, often host pigeon or honeyeater families.
Sure enough, a Crested Pigeon was sitting on a nest. I quietly crept away, knowing how easily pigeons can be disturbed from their nests. Sadly, when I checked back last week, the nest was abandoned. Even sadder was the half grown chick hanging from a fork in a branch. It was dead.
Hakea francisiana
Something must have disturbed this young chick which then tried to escape, only to hang itself. The culprit could have been an Australian Magpie (they are feeding young at present), a Grey Currawong ( who will take young from a nest to feed its own), a Brown Falcon (which has been harassing the local birds recently) or even a Little Raven.
On another sad note, today when working in the scrub I found the wing of an adult Crested Pigeon. There was no evidence of who had taken this poor creature.
Nature in the raw can seem so cruel. But then – I could name a few humans who are not exactly innocent of cruelty.