The Australian Galah

Australian parrot known as the Galah

We have many beautiful parrots here in Australia. Most people living here would have noticed several species of parrot in their everyday lives, even if they are not birders (bird watchers). One of the most easily recognised of Australian parrots would have to be the Galah. It was once called a Rose-breasted Cockatoo, a much more poetic name than Galah, in my opinion.

Over recent weeks, the Galahs around our home and garden here in Murray Bridge, South Australia, have been going stir crazy. We usually have small flocks of 5 to 50 Galahs fly over our house every hour or so. Sometimes the flocks can range up to 500 or more birds together. That is a spectacular sight. And noisy, too.

 Frequently they will land in one or more of the trees near our house, creating quite a noisy racket. In the last few weeks, they have been behaving in an erratic way, flying around and around, squawking loudly and wheeling around in the air above our property. I am not sure what has got into them. In the past, this behaviour is common during rainy days, but we haven't had one of those in a while. Strange.

Australian parrot known as the Galah

The photos I am showing today are from another time. These shots were taken from our cabin in one of the caravan parks in Mudgee, New South Wales. We were on our way home and it was a balmy evening. My wife and I sat on the deck of the cabin enjoying a late afternoon cuppa, just before we had our dinner. I noticed a Galah in a nearby tree, lit up beautifully by the setting sun. a few moments later, the female popped her head out of a hollow in the eucalypt tree. I figured that they were nesting and the were probably preparing the hollow for their eggs.

You can read more about Galahs here, and read more about Australian birds on my other site, Trevor's Birding.

Australian parrot known as the Galah

Australian parrot known as the Galah

Rainbow Bee-eaters come visiting

Rainbow Bee-eater

One of my favourite Australian birds would have to be the Rainbow Bee-eater. This colourful bird with the rainbow colours is widespread through much of mainland Australia. We occasionally have them in our garden in Murray Bridge as visitors. They rarely stay more than a few minutes. I have heard and seen them on a few occasions over recent weeks.

This has not always been the case. Many years ago - probably about 20 or so years ago - they could be counted as a breeding species on our five-acre block of land. On several occasions, they made their small nest at the end of a 30-40cm burrow in the sand. These nests were made in the banks on the side of the road running down the western edge of our land. In more recent years, they have just been occasional visitors.

Rainbow Bee-eaters arrive in southern Australia in the spring months around September and October. During our spring and summer months, they dig their nests, often in the sides of roads, culverts or in the banks of creeks and wash-outs. They raise their young and then migrate back to northern Australia and Papua-New Guinea in the late summer or early autumn, usually around March or April.

Despite their name, Rainbow Bee-eaters eat more than just bees. They will catch a wide variety of insects on the wing. When they do catch a bee, they will alight on a branch of a nearby tree and proceed to remove the stinger of the bee by banging it on the branch. I guess that they just don't want their lunch to bite them.

You can read more about Australian birds on my other site called Trevor's Birding.

Rainbow Bee-eater

Diamond Firetail Finches, Capertee Valley

Diamond Firetail

On our visit last year to Sydney, we came home a different way. Instead of travelling straight home to Murray Bridge, we detoured via Lithgow, Mudgee, Dunedoo, Cobar and Broken Hill. From Lithgow to Mudgee we detoured through the Capertee Valley, one of the birding hotspots in Australia. This was my first visit to the valley. I was disappointed during our brief visit. I didn't see some of the rarer birds known to inhabit this amazing landscape of towering sandstone cliffs.

When we stopped for afternoon tea at the small village of Glen Alice, I was pleased to see a solitary Diamond Firetail Finch, the one shown in today's photos. This beautiful member of the finch family is good to see anywhere and we even have this species as an occasional visitor to our garden. This was the only occasion I saw this finch on this particular five week holiday in New South Wales. It was a fitting addition to my bird list for the trip, and one of the highlights of the day.

Diamond firetail

Diamond Firetail

Birding in the Capertee Valley in New South Wales

Capertee Valley, New South Wales, Australia

On our way back from visiting family in Sydney last year, we decided to take a different route. We love travelling in Australia and we especially love exploring new routes and new places. One such place I had longed to visit was the Capertee Valley, just north of Lithgow and only a few hours' drive north-west of Sydney.

We left our son's home after breakfast and travelled up through the Blue Mountains and past Katoomba. This is a lovely part of Australia and there are many wonderful places to stop along the way. We only stopped briefly for morning tea because I wanted to make the most of the birding opportunities in the Capertee Valley. This has been a magnet for many birders over many years. The scenery is also quite spectacular, as you can see in today's photos.

Capertee Valley, Australia

I actually misjudged the distances and time needed to fully explore this area. To make a full exploration of the region, and to actually get to see many of the wonderful birds resident in this area, birders need to spend at least a full day here, preferably several days to a full week. There is so much to see.

We stopped a short distance east of the village of Capertee for a picnic lunch. It was just after midday - not the best time of the day to be birding in Australia on a warm day. While we ate our lunch, I saw zero birds and only heard one in the distance - possibly one of the treecreeper species found in this area. We were off to a bad start. Driving slowly down the road the countryside opened up from forest to farmland. We started seeing a few Australian Ravens, Australian Magpies, White-winged Choughs and occasionally a few Galahs and Magpie Larks. I managed zero photos of these birds; they were too far away.

Eventually, I decided to stop to get a few photos of the magnificent sandstone cliffs bordering the valley. They were spectacular in the afternoon sun. As I was taking these shots - those shown above and below - a solitary bird flew from the grass and landed on a fence post about 50 metres from me. With the good zoom lens on my camera, I managed a photo, but it is far from good, even for identification purposes. I think it is an Australasian Pipit which is found in the area.

Australasian Pipit?

Over the next few hours, we explored some parts of this beautiful valley. Some of the photos I took are shown below. I will write again next week about some other birds I saw that afternoon.

For more stories about my sightings of Australian birds, and for more photos of them go to my other site Trevor's Birding.

Capertee Valley, Australia

Capertee Valley, Australia

Capertee Valley, Australia

Capertee Valley, Australia

A day at the beach

Silver Gull, Pt Elliott, South Australia

Recently my wife and I celebrated another milestone in our lives together. To mark the occasion we went driving down south from our home to the lovely South Coast of South Australia. This is just over an hour's drive from our home in Murray Bridge.

Our first stop was at the Milang Bakery to buy some lunch. We enjoyed eating our lunch on the lawn overlooking the nearby Lake Alexandrina. The mighty Murray River - Australia's largest river system - runs into this lake before moving out into the Southern Ocean.

After lunch, we explored Hindmarsh Island. This inland island is near Goolwa, and we stopped at a picnic spot on the island overlooking the Murray Mouth. There were plenty of pelicans, cormorants, a few ducks and several species of ibis as well as a few Cape Barren Geese, one of our rarer bird species.

For afternoon tea we had a cup of tea accompanied by some homemade biscuits. I choose a lovely spot overlooking Horseshoe Bay at Pt Elliott. This is a popular holiday destination for many people, and also with day-trippers like ourselves. While we were having our cuppa and enjoying the view, a Silver Gull posed nicely on a nearby interpretive sign. It stayed long enough for a series of photos, almost as if it was posing especially for me.

For dinner that night we went to one of our favourite restaurants in Victor Harbor. It was a fitting end to a relaxing day.

You can read more about Australian birds and see more photos of them on my other site, Trevor's Birding.

Silver Gull

Horseshoe Bay, Pt Elliott, South Australia

Horseshoe Bay, Pt Elliott, South Australia

Australia Day

Budgerigars

Today is a special day here in Australia. It is Australia Day, our national holiday which commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney on this day in 1788. The fleet of ships carried many British convicts and soldiers. These people made up the bulk of the first settlers in Australia. Over the coming years, many more shiploads of both convicts and free settlers came from England and other parts to settle in this new land.

Over the years since then, there have been many waves of both emigrants and free settlers from the British Isles, Ireland and many other parts of Europe. This includes my own ancestors who fled religious persecution in the 1830s and 1840s. Many of these settled in other parts of Australia, including here in South Australia.

In more recent times, we have seen many refugees come to our land. These have come from many parts of Asia as well as Africa. I count among my friends some wonderful people who have fled terrible conditions in their homelands, including war, to make Australia their new home. On Australia Day, many of these people new to Australia take on Australian citizenship.

I hope that these new people to our great land appreciate our beautiful land, our wonderful wide open spaces, our huge areas of grasslands and rolling blue mountains, as well as our amazing array of birds native to our country.

Today I will show only a small selection of this beauty to be found here in Australia.

You can see more photos of our beautiful birds, and read more about them on my other site, Trevor's Birding.

Emu

Lorikeets

Galahs

Australian Pelicans

Nice pose Silver Gull

Silver Gull, Pt Elliot, South Australia

Earlier this week my wife and I celebrated another anniversary. We usually try to do something special on this day and this year we decided to go for an all-day outing. After an early morning phone call from our grandchildren, we set off on a drive via Milang, less than an hour from home. Milang is on the northern shore of Lake Alexandrina here in South Australia. The longest river system in Australia, the Murray River, flows into this lake before heading out to the Southern Ocean.

At Milang we visited the local bakery to buy some Cornish pasties and a lamington for our lunch. We took our lunch down to the lawned area between the lake and the caravan park. While we ate and had a cuppa, we enjoyed watching a few children and dogs playing nearby. The birdlife was not particularly abundant, except for a large, noisy flock of Little Corella parrots in the nearby trees.

Later in the afternoon, we parked on top of a lookout hill above Horseshoe Bay in Pt Elliot. While we were having another cuppa and a few homemade biscuits, a Silver Gull landed on an interpretive sign just in front of our car. It obligingly posed for me while I took some photos. Silver Gulls are the most common species of gull in Australia. They can be found all around the coastline and along most major waterways, near lakes and swamps, even far inland. Even though many people just call them "Sea" gulls, they are frequently encountered far from the sea, but never far from water.

You can read more about Australian birds, and see many more photos of them on my other site Trevor's Birding here.

Silver Gull, Pt Elliot, South Australia

Silver Gull, Pt Elliot, South Australia

Silver Gull, Pt Elliot, South Australia

Ku Ring Gai Wildflowers Gardens in Sydney

Laughing Kookaburra

My wife and I travel to Sydney several times a year to help look after our grandchildren, ages 8 and 5. Although they are very energetic and tire us out, we love being with them and getting to know them. On a visit last year, we took time out to go on a family picnic. One of our favourite places to visit would have to be the Ku Ring Gai Wildflower Gardens in the suburb of St Ives.

These gardens consist of two main parts: a planted garden of Australian native plants, with the rest being natural scrubland. The scrubland section is the largest part and gives the visitor a good impression of what this part of Sydney was like in its natural state, before settlement by Europeans.

The whole area is covered by walking trails which are easy to negotiate. In springtime, many of the plants are flowering. Even at other times of the year, you can find something flowering. Where there are native flowers the observant visitor will also find plenty of native birds, many of them feeding on the nectar of the flowers.

I have seen a good range of honeyeaters in these gardens, including Eastern Spinebill, Scarlet Honeyeater, Crescent Honeyeater, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Lewin's Honeyeater and both Red and Little Wattlebirds. One can also see a range of parrots, including Galahs, several species of cockatoos and lorikeets, finches, doves and pigeons, pardalotes, thornbills, robins, swallows, fantails and scrubwrens. Australian Brush Turkeys are often seen in the picnic areas, but seeing a Superb Lyrebird is a little bit harder, but they have been seen in these gardens from time to time.

You can read more about Australian birds, and see more photos of them on my site called Trevor's Birding.

Lunch snatching Kookaburras

Laughing Kookaburra Lane Cove National Park Sydney

 Earlier this week I wrote about one of our visits to Sydney earlier this year. During one of our breaks from looking after our grandchildren, ages 8 and 5, we drove across town to the Lane Cove National Park. This lovely park is only a quick ten-minute drive from my son's home. The main feature of this park is the Lane Cove River flowing through it. Houses and commercial areas crowd in on the park on all sides, but the remnant bushland still maintains a good variety of native Australian plants, birds and other wildlife such as reptiles, insects, and turtles. Delightful picnic areas have been provided by the park's staff.

Speaking of turtles, on this particular visit we set up our folding chairs, opened up our picnic lunch boxes and were about to eat lunch. My attention was drawn to several Long-necked Turtles sitting on a log near the water's edge. I handed my binoculars to my wife so that she could have a closer look at them sunning themselves on the log.

Long-necked Turtles on a log, Lane Cove River

As soon as she had taken the binoculars, a Laughing Kookaburra swooped out of a nearby gum tree. It flew down to her chair and snatched a part of her sandwich sitting on the table on the side of her chair. It flew off a few metres with its booty, settling on the grass nearby to eat my wife's lunch (see photos). It was immediately joined by another kookaburra who claimed its share of the food.

In an ironic twist to this tale, we saw plaques attached to all of the picnic tables in this park. The rangers had placed these notices for all visitors to read. "Please do not feed the birds and animals," they said - or words to that effect. perhaps they should add a notice for the wildlife: "Please do not snatch human food."

For more stories about and photos of Australian birds, visit my other site Trevor's Birding.

Laughing Kookaburra Lane Cove National Park Sydney

What a turkey

Australian Brush Turkey

Twice over the course of this year, my wife and I have travelled to Sydney. We go there to visit our son and to look after our wonderful, energetic grandchildren, ages 8 and 5. From our home in Murray Bridge, South Australia, it is a pleasant two-day journey. Along the way, we try to stop in places where I can observe a good range of birds.

Australian Brush Turkey

While we are in Sydney, there are a few places we like to visit, places we have enjoyed during past visits. One of these favourite places would have to be the Ku Ring Gai Wildflower Gardens in the Sydney suburb of St. Ives. These gardens have a good range of native Australian plants which have been planted there. My wife always enjoys looking at these and taking photographs of anything flowering. I have included some of my photos of flowers below.

The gardens also include a large area of natural bushland. This area is a good representation of the natural habitat which existed before European occupation. While much of the surrounding area has been cleared for housing and industrial use, there are still many remnants of original bushland left. In these areas, the native birdlife can be very easy to see and photograph.

While we were having a cuppa one of the resident Australian Brush Turkeys came right up to where we were sitting on one of the garden seats in the picnic area. I am sure it was hoping to get a share of our biscuits. We disappointed it: we do not feed our native birds as human food is not suitable for them. So, in its frustration, it decided to get something for itself. It tried opening up my camera bag looking for some tasty morsel. Seeing that my camera bag was on the ground right next to where my son was sitting was no deterrent to this bird. Obviously, they are quite accustomed to people and are not at all frightened by our presence. Not having any luck with us, it wandered over to another spot where some other people were having a barbecue. They took pity on it and gave it something from their picnic food.

You can read more about Australian birds on my other site Trevor's Birding.

Ku Ring Gai Wildflower Gardens Sydney

Ku Ring Gai Wildflower Gardens Sydney

Ku Ring Gai Wildflower Gardens Sydney

Birding on the move

Musk Lorikeet

After a long absence here - I am now back. Sorry about that. Life happens.

Earlier in the year my wife and I travelled to Sydney to stay with our son and his family. While there we have the delight of looking after our two grandchildren during school holidays. Soon I will get around to showing a few of the photos taken on that trip. Mind you, a four-year-old and a seven-year-old are not easy to look after and the birding excursions were limited. I am so thankful that both of them are starting to take an interest in birds. I wonder where that came from?

On our way to returning home to Murray Bridge, we called on our daughter in Clare in the mid-north of South Australia. Over the next two months, we had many trips to and from Clare. These trips were to help our daughter pack up all of her belongings ready for storage at our place. All of her furniture and most of her books and clothing and personal belongings are now in storage in a shipping container in our paddock (see photo below).

During this busy time I had very few opportunities to go birding, or to take photos of birds, and certainly not much time or energy to be writing posts here on this site or on my other site (Trevor's Birding). The photo of  Musk Lorikeet (above) was taken during one brief break from packing and cleaning. 

Every day we were staying with our daughter we heard dozens of Musk Lorikeets feeding in the eucalyptus tree overhanging her back garden. This species is a common parrot here in South Australia and they can be very noisy when feeding. This often happens with loose flocks of many dozens in the one tree. While it is hard to see the green feathers of the bird in the photo, blending in with the leaves, the red feathers on the forehead and crown show up brilliantly.

By the way, I case my readers are curious about it, my daughter's belongings are being stored here at our home while she teaches in Ethiopia for the next two years. Although she has not updated her site since her last visit there a few years ago, you can follow her adventures on Rose's Travel Jottings here. She is planning on updating her travel site regularly. 

And I hope to update this site every week too. 

More and still more Peaceful Doves

Peaceful Dove

We have lived in our home now for over 30 years and during that entire time I have kept lists of birds seen. I have done this every month over that period of time. It certainly gives an interesting picture of the bird life in our garden, and on our five-acre block of land surrounding the house.

Peaceful Doves are quite common and widespread in the Murray Bridge, South Australia area where we live. Despite this, we rarely saw this species in our garden until about five years ago. Gradually, they have become more and more frequent visitors. Over the last year, they have become almost daily visitors. I could almost call them a resident bird in our garden, meaning that we see or hear them every day.

Late last year we saw two of them mating and we are sure that they nested somewhere nearby, though we never found the nest. Over recent weeks, we have been seeing up six birds at a time, often near or at our bird baths. I would like to think that this is one family of birds resulting from last year's breeding season.

You can see more photos of Australian birds, and read more about them on another of my sites called Trevor's Birding.

Peaceful Dove

Peaceful Dove

Topsy the Crested Pigeon

Crested Pigeon with extra long feathers

Over the last few months, my wife and I have been amused to see an unusual Crested Pigeon coming almost daily to the bird baths in our garden. We have many Crested Pigeons in our garden and on our five-acre block of land, but this one individual has caught our eye.

We can easily identify this individual due to its extra long feathers in its crest - see the photos to see what I mean. Some of the feathers are almost twice the normal length. I am not sure what has caused this, but we have called this bird "Topsy".

Many people here in South Australia wrongly call this species "Topknot" Pigeons. I grew up calling them this. Only in more recent years have I reverted to the correct and official common name of Crested Pigeon. There are Topknot Pigeons in Australia but this totally different species is confined to the eastern states.

You can read more about Australian birds and see more photos I have taken on my other site Trevor's Birding.

Crested Pigeon with extra long feathers

Crested Pigeon with extra long feathers

Crested Pigeon with extra long feathers