Have been ‘self-isolation birding’ early-mornings (…and very-locally) but am ‘surprised‘ at the quality of the media that I’ve been able to capture before the ‘sound of civilisation‘ begins every week-day recently.
How many species?
Recorded some ‘bird-audio’ today and captured a 30-second clip of a Leaden Flycatcher, however I can also hear at least 9 other species….can you name them all (…or hear any more?)
Happy Babblers!
This grey-crowned babbler was ‘foraging’ with 5 friends, within a metre of the front door this morning, why do they always seem to be ‘enjoying’ life so much?
Check before mowing
Saved a Tawny Grassbird family from ‘disaster’ today, the paddock was going to be ‘slashed’ to remove the rampant ‘cobblers-pegs’ weed (Bidens pilosa) ….that which he is ‘perched’ on!
Soon to be heading ‘north-bound’ waders
In early-March I received the opportunity to assist in a count of wading-birds at high-tide at Manly Marina in South-east Queensland. The birds will soon be heading northwards to their ‘breeding-grounds’ in Siberia and north-east Asia and many are starting to moult into their ‘breeding-plumage’. I was asked to help find and photograph ‘flagged’ birds to assist the ongoing-migration analysis with Arthur and Sheryl Keates of the Queensland Wader Study Group (QWSG) (…please note that Manly Marina roost is a ‘restricted area’ and is only accessible by ‘invite’)
Hope this post has given you ‘inspiration’ to assist further with the conservation of the many ‘globally-threatened’ wader-species, they face many issues and need our help………..please investigate Birdlife Australia (Wader Study Group) , Birds Queensland or Wader Quest amongst others.
Finches at Draper (SE Qld) January 2020
Had a great day with friends at “The Crossing”, a property near Draper last Sunday , of the 60+ species seen these two finches allowed the best-footage.
Albert’s Lyrebird at Lamington Jan 2020
Ran into a couple of Albert’s Lyrebird near the O’Reilly’s Guest-house last week , filmed this one at the start of the Border Track, unfortunately the cicadas were also ‘singing’…..
There were plenty of bowerbirds, this one had a bath near the main-reception.
Also close to the reception a ‘tuckeroo’ tree provided fruits for the Paradise Riflebirds, sadly the male wasn’t as ‘extrovert’.
Channel-billed Cuckoo
Birding in a ‘Heatwave’
Today was a ‘hot-shocker’, apparently over 40° Celsius after lunch, fortunately Tania (the ‘home-owner’) had realized the consequences and put plenty of ‘bird-baths’ out. At around one PM, I was surprised to hear a Spectacled Monarch calling nearby and observed a nice adult bird arriving to ‘quench’ his thirst.
Soon more species arrived and I had 3 Little Wattlebirds, Lewin’s and Brown Honeyeaters, Pacific Emerald Dove and a pair of Australasian Figbird.
Spectacled Monarch 
Spectacled Monarch 
Little Wattlebird 
Australasian Figbird 
Pacific Emerald Dove 
Brown Honeyeater
Unfortunately the species that I wanted to come and have a drink with me, were present in the garden but obviously not thirsty. Five Grey-crowned Babbler seemed to be more interested in ‘chatting-and-foraging’.
All was not lost however when another of our ‘regulars’, an Eastern Whipbird appeared, but it still had to wait a while while a Spangled Drongo refreshed itself.
Spangled Drongo 
Eastern Whipbird
Later, the Whipbird found one of the water-points in the back-yard and agreed to be filmed there instead.
Surprisingly the hot northerly winds changed to the south around 4 pm, it was certainly a ‘relief’ for me, and seemingly for the birds too as they stopped visiting almost immediately. Maybe this might encourage a new birding group on Facebook (Birdbath-Birding?) as I suspect there will be many more forty-degree days before this summer is over, and our wild birds will need all the assistance they can get to survive the heat. Take a look at the Ebird list and see what other species I recorded, also apologies for the poor-quality pics but the available light was very changeable (…and I’m not a ‘photographer’ either 😉 )
Lewin’s Honeyeater 
Grey Shrike-thrush