A long absence from birding
I have been absent from posting new photos and articles on this site for several months.
Sorry about that. Life got in the way.
Earlier this year my wife and I went to Sydney to look after our two very energetic grandchildren during the school holidays. That was fun but also very tiring. On our return, we had many visits to stay with our daughter in Clare in the mid-north of South Australia. Over the period of several months, we helped her to pack up all of her belongings. They are now in storage in a shipping container on our property.
She recently flew to Ethiopia to take up a two-year teaching position at an international school in Ethiopia. Although she hasn’t updated in in a while, you can follow her adventures on her site called Rose’s Travel Jottings.
During all this travelling, packing and cleaning I had very few opportunities to go birding. I had even less time to take photos and to write about the birds I was seeing. On top of all that I had computer problems (aaarrrgh) and then another trip to Sydney to care for the grandchildren. We love them dearly, so that is not a hardship, though opportunities to go birding and to do much writing are limited when we are with them.
Life is nearly back to normal, so you can expect more regular posts here in the coming months. I am also planning on publishing regular monthly newsletters with extra articles and information not appearing here on this blog. You can subscribe to this newsletter below.
Good birding.
Trevor
PS My computer is now back and running okay.
A special call in the night
Southern Boobook owl
A few night ago we were suddenly aware of the familiar call of a Southern Boobook owl quite close to our house. I only took a few moments to locate it in the large tree next to our clothes line. I didn’t bother getting out the camera to get some photos because the last time I saw one in our garden I got the photo shown above. It is quite possibly the same bird.
It has been some time since we heard a Boobook in our garden; usually we have the television going at night and that tends to drown out the night sounds. On this occasion we had both been working on cleaning out the office, so the television was off. Perhaps we should do that more often!
Much to our delight we heard it calling again the following night. It would be lovely to be able to call it a resident bird present nearly every night, instead of just an occasional visitor every few years. It is quite welcome to move in and can have all the mice it can catch while it stays.
Further reading:
Happy Christmas
A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF MY READERS.
Thank you all for visiting this site over the last 12 months.
There’s more to come in the coming year.
Today I feature some of my favourite photos from 2013.
Sacred Kingfisher
Dusky Woodswallow
White-browed Woodswallow
White Stork, Morocco
Male King Parrot Adelaide Zoo
Red-collared Lorikeet at Adelaide Zoo
Sun Conure, Adelaide Zoo
Up close and personal with a king
Male King Parrot Adelaide Zoo
We have many colourful parrots in Australia. In fact, our land is aptly called “The Land of Parrots”. One of the more colourful parrots native to Australia is the King Parrot. Sadly, I’ve only seen this species on a handful of occasions. I should spend more time visiting my grandchildren in Sydney because my son tells me that they often fly through or spend time in their garden in Artarmon. I’ve missed them every time I’ve been there!
The bird shown in today’s photo is up close and personal. It was easy to get this photo because it was taken in a walk through aviary in the Adelaide Zoo. Moreover, the keeper had just fed the birds and it was more interested in eating than what I was doing. Added to that was the zoom facility on my camera.
Nice shot, I reckon. What do you think? Leave a comment or two, please.
More Crested Pigeon photos
Crested Pigeon
Yesterday I shared four photos of a Crested Pigeon taken recently in our garden. Today I show another four photos of this lovely species which is a resident breeding species here.
Crested Pigeon
Crested Pigeon
Crested Pigeon