Guest speaker
Today I was the guest speaker at the Mallee Aged Care, a group which meets in the local soccer club rooms every fortnight. The organiser invited me – and my wife – for lunch and after that I gave a one hour presentation, talking about Australian birds. I illustrated my talk with photos of our lovely birds. Most of the photos have been shown here on my blog over recent years.
While many in the group were hard of hearing, all said they could hear me clearly – it must be the remnants of my teacher voice at work.
All said they enjoyed the talk very much and learned so much about our birds. One lady even started taking notes on a paper napkin!
I’ve done similar talks to various group before, and the requests are becoming more frequent as word gets out. It’s something I enjoy and I not only love sharing about Australian birds, as a former teacher I love imparting knowledge about them with any who will listen. Friends and family know this and often ring or ask about something they’ve seen birds doing.
An offer too good to refuse:
I am prepared to go anywhere to talk about Australian birds. If it’s interstate just provide the air fare and I’ll be there. What the heck – I’ll even fly overseas to talk about Australian birds.
Emu, Monarto Zoo, South Australia
The Trillers are here
White-winged Triller (male)
There has been an interesting development in the bird life in our garden this last week. The male White-winged Triller is still around every day. calling endlessly and in between calls, feeding on the various caterpillars and other tasty morsels available on our trees and shrubs.
Today he has been joined by a female. She is a duller brown colour, not the striking black and white of the male. So far I’ve not been able to get a photo of her. I saw them feeding together in the same tree. I will be watching for any interesting developments between these two over the coming days.
Related article:
- What a thriller – it’s a White-winged Triller
- White-winged Triller visit
- A cave, some lunch and many songlarks
- Great birding on the Hay Plains NSW
White-winged Triller (male)
Pangarinda Arboretum, Wellington, South Australia
Pangarinda Arboretum, Wellington, South Australia
A few weeks ago I took off a few hours from my writing to take my wife to Pangarinda Arboretum at Wellington East, about a half hour drive south of our home in Murray Bridge, South Australia. This is one of our favourite picnic spots, so we packed a lunch and the makings for a cuppa.
The arboretum has been set up by the local residents in conjunction with the local council. Many thousands of trees and shrubs have been planted over the last decade or so. Many of these plants are now flowering. I enjoy taking photos of the native plant flowers as well as the birds. ON this occasion the birds were rather quiet and were not being very cooperative about posing for my camera, so I turned my attention to the flowers instead.
Pangarinda Arboretum, Wellington, South Australia
Pangarinda Arboretum, Wellington, South Australia
Pangarinda Arboretum, Wellington, South Australia
Possible Galah nesting attempt
Galahs at nesting hollow
The beautiful Galah is a very common bird around where we live in Murray Bridge, South Australia. Flocks of several hundred are a common sight in the summer months.
Over the last few weeks two Galahs have been investigating a hollow in an old growth mallee tree near our house. This hollow is in clear view from where we often have meals on our new back veranda. The tree is about 30 metres away.
I hesitate to call them a “pair” because I haven’t actually seen them mating. I have strong reasons for calling them as such because one is a male and the other is a female and they are displaying typical nesting behaviour. (The female has a red eye, the male a dark brown eye.)
This pair has been hanging around this hollow for several hours every day now for many weeks. Both often go into the hollow to check it out. I can’t tell if they are actually enlarging it or not. They allow us to get quite close to the tree without flying off.
Then last week while we were having lunch they started breaking small leafy twigs off the tree and taking them into the hollow to line their nest. Seems fairly conclusive to me.
The only downside it that we will have to put up with some very noisy little neighbours later in the year. Baby Galahs can be very demanding and very noisy.
I’ve taken quite a few photos. Below is a selection of the best of them. Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
Galahs at nesting hollow
Galahs at nesting hollow
Galah at nesting hollow
Galahs at nesting hollow
Galahs at nesting hollow
Happy bird-day to my blog
Australian Pelicans, Mallacoota, Victoria
TODAY MARKS THE FOURTH BIRTHDAY OF THIS BLOG ABOUT AUSTRALIAN BIRDS.
Happy birthday to my blog.
It has just passed the 950th article about Australian birds and is going from strength to strength as far as readership is concerned. Over 600 readers per day, from over 100 countries, and several thousand comments from interested birders worldwide.
Thank you to all of my faithful regular readers. Welcome to all of my new readers.
Thank you also to those who take the time to leave a question or a comment. You are valued. I especially appreciate those who say how much they enjoy this blog.
To celebrate this special occasion I invite readers to leave birthday greetings in the comments section. And while you are here, don’t forget all those other articles reaching back over four years now. Browse through the archives, click on the categories in the side bar or look through the many articles listed in the contents section.
To celebrate I’ve featured some of the best photos from the last year. Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
Laughing Kookaburra, Lane Cove National Park, Sydney
Blue-faced Honeyeater
Galahs at a hollow
Male Flame Robin, Mt. Macedon, Victoria
Little Penguins, Adelaide Zoo
A Silver Gull eyeing off our lunch
Male Gang-gang Cockatoo, Botanic Gardens, Canberra