Trevor's Birding

Crimson Rosella in Murray Bridge

No Comments »3rd October, 2013; Category: Garden birds, Murray Bridge, Parrots and Lorikeets

Crimson Rosella

Crimson Rosellas are a common parrot of the eastern states of Australia. Here in South Australia they are largely confined to the south east of the state. A hybrid race called the Adelaide Rosella is common parrot of the Adelaide region, including the Mt Lofty Ranges and the mid-north of the state.

In recent years they have gradually expanded their range east towards our home here in Murray Bridge. I am seeing them here more and more often, including regular visitors to our garden.

To my surprise, we recently had two Crimson Rosellas briefly visit our garden. This is the first that we have observed in nearly 30 years living here. In today’s photos I show the two birds seen – one an adult quite significantly deeper in colour than the Adelaide Rosellas – the other in juvenile plumage.

This interesting observation raises several questions:

Is this species expanding its range along with the Adelaide Rosella?
Were these two birds aviary escapes, after all, they are relatively common cage birds in our area?

Further reading:

Crimson Rosella (immature)

Crimson Rosella

Apostlebirds in South Australia

No Comments »1st October, 2013; Category: Bush birds

Apostlebird

Whenever we camped at or visited Lake Hattah in the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park in Victoria we always looked forward to seeing the family of Apostlebirds occupying the camping ground. They are gregarious and noisy, often bossing other species out of any food scraps we may drop on the ground.

As we drive over to visit our family in Sydney we start looking for this species along the road between Hay and Narrandera. On most trips we get good views of them crossing the road in front of our car as we speed along.

As a result of these regular sightings we have become rather attracted to these interesting birds. Part of this fascination is that they make a bowl shaped mud nest; very few Australian birds construct their nest with mud. The other fascinating aspect of this species is that they are relatively uncommon here in South Australia.

For some years I have known of a family living around the gardens and grounds of the Peterborough Hospital in the mid-north of the state. My sister-in-law is the cook at the hospital, and she has told me that these bold birds will even come onto the veranda and into through the doors of the wards which open onto the veranda. Over recent years we have visited our relatives a number of times, and despite searching the area I have failed each time to see these birds – except once many years ago.

Many years ago I did manage to record Apostlebirds near the township, but this was in the early 1980s and again in the 1990s. Even earlier than that I saw them during a family picnic at Dawson Gorge, about 30km north-east of Peterborough.

In recent months, however, there have been a growing number of reports of this species in other spots in the mid-north, including Gladstone, Laura, Stone Hut and more recently at Watervale. On a recent visit to my daughter in Clare we went for a drive through this area. As we drove through Gladstone, I was pleased to see two Apostlebirds fly across the road in front of the car.

It seems that this species is expanding its range here in South Australia.

Further reading:

Ouch! That hurt!

No Comments »19th September, 2013; Category: Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Pardalotes

Striated Pardalote

This morning I was sitting in our sun room doing some reading while I had a cuppa. There was a sudden thud on the window near me – a sound we hear a little too frequently.

Window strike.

Every few days we hear a bang on one of our windows. Unfortunately, some of our garden birds see the reflection of the garden in the glass of one of our windows, and mistakenly thinking they can fly straight ahead, come to a sudden, head splitting halt. Most birds suffer mild concussion briefly before flying off, a little sadder but hopefully wiser for the experience. The occasional one does not survive the impact. [Sigh].

This little Striated Pardalote shown in today’s photo was the latest hapless victim. I picked him up and cradled him in my hands for a few minutes, showing off his beautiful colours to some visitors who happened to arrive during my rescue. I placed the bird on an outside table, took several photos and left him to recover. Within minutes it had flown off.

I hope his headache didn’t last long.

Get out of my patch

1 Comment »6th September, 2013; Category: Bird Behaviour, Garden birds, Honeyeaters, Parrots and Lorikeets

Eastern Rosella in Eremophila youngii

We normally have a few Mallee Ringneck parrots hanging around somewhere on our 5 acre property. In the last few years we have also had one Eastern Rosella keeping them company. We don’t see it every day but frequently enough to keep us happy – after all, it is a handsome looking bird.

This particular parrot has taken a liking to the flowers of several of our Eremophila youngii bushes – you can see the flowers in today’s photos. All the bushes have a pink carpet of flowers surrounding their trunks.

Earlier this week we were enjoying watching the rosella eating while we had our breakfast. A sudden flurry of flapping wings and snapping beaks and the parrot flew off at full speed – its tail closely pursued by an very aggressive Red Wattlebird which in turn was followed by a New Holland Honeyeater.

Both of these honeyeater species spend large proportions of their day also feeding on the flowers, so they seemed to be objecting to this interloper elbowing in on their patch. In reality, while both honeyeater species feed on this bush, neither tolerates the other for more than a few seconds. It is an all out territorial war.

And I forgot to mention that both honeyeater species are in breeding mode, so their tolerance level is at its lowest at this time of the year.

Further reading:

Eastern Rosella in Eremophila youngii

Happy 8th Birthday to Trevor’s Birding

No Comments »3rd September, 2013; Category: Blogs

Male Flame Robin, Mt. Macedon, Victoria

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY

Trevor’s Birding site is 8 years old today.

Wow! In that time I’ve seen a lot of birds, travelled and birded in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Dubai, Ethiopia, Morocco and Spain. I have photos of hundreds of birds, many of them shown here on this site. I’ve written over 1500 articles using over 300,000 words about birds and my readers have contributed over 5000 comments. That’s amazing.

But wait – there’s plenty more where that came from.

I’m actually having trouble keeping up writing about the birds I see and photograph. So I’ll just keep on writing and taking photos. So keep on coming back, everyone.

As a treat, today I thought I would just share a few of my favourite photos for your enjoyment.

Australian Pelicans, Mallacoota, Victoria

Galah, Murray Bridge, South Australia

White Stork, Morocco

Village Indigobird, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia