After a month or two with little or no birding it was great to finally get out there again taking some photos. With work, the rainy weather and two floods going through the property in the last two months I have been unable to get many photos. This is a collection of the few shots I got over the last few months from around the property.
Each year the Varied Sittellas come to the property. This is usually just before the rain comes and they are only seen on the property for a few weeks and then they move on once again. This year was the largest flock that I have seen pass through since I have lived here. There was about 40 individuals in the group this year.
 |
| Varied Sittella |
 |
| A Varied Sittella lifting bark looking for food |
 |
| Another Varied Sittella |
 |
| A Varied Sittella ready to take flight |
Another bird that seems to come and go around the property is the Leaden Flycatcher. They can be seen and heard for most of the year except for Winter. This year they also seemed to be more common than usual. Unfortunately they always perch close to the top of the big gums though so obtaining a good photo is difficult.
 |
| Leaden Flycatcher in flight |
 |
| Two male Leaden Flycatchers |
 |
| Leaden Flycatcher cleaning itself |
For the three years I have lived at the property I have heard a bird calling on a regular basis but usually in hard to access parts of the property. This bird can also be heard on moonlit nights where it can call for hours at a time. I often wondered what the bird was. Finally a few weeks ago several of them began calling out in the trees not far from the house. It took quite a while to even locate them in the tree tops and I was surprised to find that they were Brush Cuckoos. It is actually the first time I have seen them, even though I have been hearing them call regularly for years. While I watched them I noticed they are not a very social bird. If they weren't sitting very still they were attacking each other quite ruthlessly.
 |
| Brush Cuckoo |
 |
| Another one of the Brush Cuckoos |
All three of the birds in the next two photos are regularly seen on the property, especially during the wet season. One solitary White-necked Heron is only ever seen at a time. The Pacific Black Ducks are very common and can be seen any day. They range from groups of 4 or so up to 40 or more.
 |
| White-necked Heron and a Pacific Black Duck |
 |
| White-faced Heron |
The Scaly-breasted Lorikeets are also very common on the property. I'm pleased that they are much more common than the Rainbow Lorikeets here. As the numbers of Rainbow Lorikeets increase in an area, sadly the number of Scaly-breasted Lorikeets decline as they are smaller and not as aggressive as the Rainbow Lorikeets.
 |
| Scaly-breasted Lorikeet |
 |
| The same Scaly-breasted Lorikeet |
Around all the dams and creeks the Purple Swamphens can be regularly seen or heard. They are very numerous around the property all year round.
 |
| Purple Swamphen |
Another common resident here are the Fairy-wrens. Since the floods there are definitely less around. I'm not sure if this is a direct effect of the flood or if possibly the Sparrowhawk that has moved in since the floods has been catching them in large numbers. They can still be heard any given day but there numbers have deteriorated. Hopefully over the coming months their numbers increase once again.
 |
| Juvenile Male Variegated Fairy-wren |
This Sparrowhawk moved onto the property after the floods. We have regularly seen the Grey and Brown Goshawks on the property which cause a lot of problems with the free range poultry, but they only seem to catch the poultry when they have chicks. After the chicks fledge, which they did nearly two months ago they seem to leave the animals alone. This Collared Sparrowhawk on the other hand has been harassing all the birds in the aviaries and all the poultry that are in pens. As soon as it spots me it flies off and lands in the trees in the distance. Hopefully he leaves them alone soon.
 |
| Collared Sparrowhawk |
The Varied Trillers were first sighted about 6 months ago and have now taken up residence in one corner of the property. There numbers have nearly doubles since I started observing them. They can be seen regularly in this part of the property.
 |
Female Varied Triller
|
More updates and pics regularly.
If you're interested in my blog
check out my site below by clicking on the link.
Australian Birds KEUNEA PHOTOGRAPHY
No comments:
Post a Comment