Birds (feathered ones)

[xkxlxm]

I would like to start a thread on birds ... sightings, stories etc ... mainly on our native birds but I guess it would be unavoidable to mentioned the introduced pest species. I am very much an amateur bird watcher.

[GasoLane]

Yeah, why not........... But if you go Birding in my backyard all you get is mobs of Lorikeets and Sulphur Crested's ............ with the occasional Currawong in Winter

[Citroënbender]

Originally Posted by xkxlxm

I am very much an amateur bird watcher.

I don’t hide to spot them like a twitcher, but will follow a chorus of noisy miners to see what unusual bird (or possum) they are haranguing. I like the various owls and frogmouths particularly. As my neighbourhood is steadily depleted of trees, more species are coming to visit.

[Tonz]

we have a youtube channel and facebook page regarding Osprey

https://www.facebook.com/portlincoln...7UObBNW3FeMfkw

through knowing the right people the local group has trackers on 3 different birds and just received approval for 4 new ones this season.

[asagaai]

In our previous house in Newcastle, we had a bush house backing onto reserve with owls, frogmouths, Kookaburras, Rosellas, magpies etc.

Then moved to our clifftop house on Lake Macquarie, and we now have rosellas, kookaburras, sulphur crested Cockatoos, kites, and massive white bellied sea eagles, the eagles sit on a treetop on edge of cliff on edge of lake and other birds go beserk.

Anyway, my wife and I went on a gamepark drive in an open jeep in South Africa, and the guide said - anyone here birders. He was an avid birder, and driving along shouted excitedly "theres an X" and there was a tiny scungy little brown bird the size of an australian minor. And he kept calling out about birds and they were grey, dull brown, and tiny.

And my wife muttered to me- "he should come to Australia, now those are birds"

[xkxlxm]

Noisy miners: it's only in the last couple of years that they have arrived in my area. On the ABC two or three months ago I saw a bird show; at a park/reserve in the St Kilda area they had a dead pardalote which they fixed to a tree branch, played a pardalote recording and the dead bird was swamped by noisy miners ...

Several months ago in the back yard there was a dead kingfisher - killed by noisy miners??? (I have never seen a kingfisher here before/after that and the only time I have ever seen another was on a footbridge hand rail across the Darebin Creek in Alphington ten [?] years ago.)

[Tonz]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-...coln/101343128

[Charliewool]

Not native here…
But regular visitors at our last place







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ford71V8]

Our eldest boy has a similar fascination with birds, and they to him.
Daughter and son look after a special needs boy once a week and they walk the same park. Birds come to him. She showed us a video of him only a few nights ago, handfeeding a kookaburra which flew down to sit by him. Apparently this happens with a few maggies also.
He moved out (flew the coop) and one of his first things to purchase was a birdcage and put a budgie in his lounge.
His grandad used to be similar....my wife tells a story of when she was small and watching their cockatoo walk behind her dad all the way to the local shop.

[roKWiz]

Great thread, being an avid mountain biker, bird watching is second nature along with native, plant and animal spotting. The Slater's bird guide is always in our Camelback's marked out with dates as to what we see.

One we are desperate to see in coming months is the rare Regent Honeyeater which will feed and nest only in Ironbark forests between Wagga and Chiltern.
Early Spring is the time they start to flower which bring them in.

Little red cap Firetails are enjoying the dying Cootamundra Wattle bloom atm.

[Charliewool]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Great thread, being an avid mountain biker, bird watching is second nature along with native, plant and animal spotting. The Slater's bird guide is always in our Camelback's marked out with dates as to what we see.

One we are desperate to see in coming months is the rare Regent Honeyeater which will feed and nest only in Ironbark forests between Wagga and Chiltern.
Early Spring is the time they start to flower which bring them in.

Little red cap Firetails are enjoying the dying Cootamundra Wattle bloom atm.

Serious bird watchers are an amazing species, themselves…
We had two lots of bird watching renters stay with us in Costa Rica. Firstly a Canadian couple, secondly 3 Germans..
The Germans paid 2 weeks rent and informed us they were venturing up into the rain forest mountains to search for the elusive Resplendent Quetzal…
They disappeared for days! They also had more camera gear than Channel 9!
I reckon both lots of renters only spent 1/2 their time actually sleeping at our joint, curled up in swags up the mountains the rest of the time!
To travel THAT far, and pay ALL that money, simply to take photos of some rare bird… THAT is bordering on an obsession?

https://www.misticopark.com/blog/cos...-in-costa-rica

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Charliewool

Serious bird watchers are an amazing species, themselves…
We had two lots of bird watching renters stay with us in Costa Rica. Firstly a Canadian couple, secondly 3 Germans..
The Germans paid 2 weeks rent and informed us they were venturing up into the rain forest mountains to search for the elusive Resplendent Quetzal…
They disappeared for days! They also had more camera gear than Channel 9!
I reckon both lots of renters only spent 1/2 their time actually sleeping at our joint, curled up in swags up the mountains the rest of the time!
To travel THAT far, and pay ALL that money, simply to take photos of some rare bird… THAT is bordering on an obsession?

https://www.misticopark.com/blog/cos...-in-costa-rica

Funny aren't they.
Down at Glenrowen, the local Caravan park gets booked out when the (rare??) Torquise Parrot appears.
I stayed there a couple of times watching these strange types, dressed in fatigues, laying on the ground with mega dollar camera's clicking away at this little bird.
Problem is you can drive out the gate and nearly bowl hundreds of these stupid birds as they always want to fly across the path of your vehicle.

Chilterns accommodation is the same with the previously mentioned Regent Honeyeater.

[.:4:.]

So this isnt overly interesting. Yes owls and a few nocturnal birds can see in the dark, the majority cant. Hence why birds arent really around after dark.
So my olds had a holiday house in culburra beach. Drive south from sydney, get to nowra and turn left. So about 30 minutes from nowra. In the warmer months, one stretch of road with bushland both sides, at night it wasnt uncommon at all to wang atleast 1 bird on that stretch. Reason being, the road surface was warm so insects loved it. Tree lined stretch of road so birds sat in there, cars with high beams on or people with spotties. The birds could now see the insects in the dark, go for a feed and pow.

[Citroënbender]

It’s good that people like yourselves (@Charliewool) are effectively supporting “citizen science”. Who trusts a government report on wildlife - it’s odds on to be skewed in favour of something undesirable?

[xkxlxm]

I was just looking at a grey butcher bird in a neighbour's tree. They must be related to kookaburras (?). They have an over-size beak (but with a hook on the end) and they will sit in a tree for a while, just watching. Often alone, sometimes in a pair.

This morning in the park I was watching a grey fantail. There was also another grey bird - not sure what it was - and a wattlebird came along and chased one or both away. Wattlebirds are a bit aggressive.

I can hear some noisy miners outside right now.

[.:4:.]

I used to work in a twin tower setup in chatswood. So 2 buildings with a common basement and foyer 21 storeys high.
There was a peragrin falcon living on the roof of 1 tower. Over the years it had offspring. But it lived on 1 tower but ate on the other. So doing lightning inspections on the roof of the tower it ate on, heaps of carcases and feathers etc. Also heaps of rubber rings with numbers on them. The lightning protection guy picked up a bunch and told me what those are. They were from homing pigeons. So he took them and called it in, apparently its illegal for a person to harm a homing pigeion, but no laws towards predatory birds eating homing pigeons.
On the roof where the falcon lived. Doing inspections up there. It would inspect. So swoop but stay 3 to 5 meters away. Do that for 2 minutes then sit and watch. This thing had big feet and scary tallons.
The only time i saw that bird aggressive towards people was a video of the window washers taking the bmu over the side of the building it lives on and it was dive bombing the bloke in the cradle.
Only funny story about that bird, so the top floor of the building it eats on was vacant. The lady incharge of leasing was telling me she had a very interested client untill the falcon popped its head up on one of the outcrops with the head of a rosella in its beak.

[xkxlxm]

In the Melbourne CBD there are a couple of falcons up on one of the tall buildings; there might be a camera view you can find on the net.

https://www.facebook.com/MelbourneCBDPeregrineFalcons/

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

. This thing had big feet and scary tallons.

Wait till you see a Wedgetail Eagle up close.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Wait till you see a Wedgetail Eagle up close.

Ill pass on that. Its bad enough when i peragrin falcon just wants an inpection. Im no avion expert, but i beleive when the dive bomb another bird like say a homing pigeon, theyre one of the fastest in the world.
My apprentice at the time, knowing about the falcon and seeing about from inside refused to go on the roof with the lightning protection guy and myself. But after we came down was showing me videos off the youtube of eagles vs mountain goats. Food chain stuff really. Mountain goats are heavy, but the eagles drag them off the cliff face and drop them. Its savage but interesting about the adaptive hunting method.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

Ill pass on that. Its bad enough when i peragrin falcon just wants an inpection. Im no avion expert, but i beleive when the dive bomb another bird like say a homing pigeon, theyre one of the fastest in the world.
My apprentice at the time, knowing about the falcon and seeing about from inside refused to go on the roof with the lightning protection guy and myself. But after we came down was showing me videos off the youtube of eagles vs mountain goats. Food chain stuff really. Mountain goats are heavy, but the eagles drag them off the cliff face and drop them. Its savage but interesting about the adaptive hunting method.

There's a cliff walk around to Pearl Baech from Ettalong. We would ride this single track to get to Patonga mountain bike trail and do a loop back to Phegans Bay where we lived once. The Falcons there were beautiful to watch.
Once we came upon a fledgling that had fallen down from the nest, we wrap him in a towel we had which didn't have our scent on, so I could clamber up the cliff face and stick him back in while there was no sign of momma. We waited as momma returned and just simply fed the little bugger with the others non the wiser.
They say the parents will always reject the young if handled by humans but we disproved this there and then.
The old Pacific Hwy around Calga (mid week) is the perfect place to spot a Wedgetail on the ground feeding. Massive birds. We were lucky to see this several times riding there.

[Rallye Sport]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Wait till you see a Wedgetail Eagle up close.

Awesome bird, had an up close experience with one recently.

We've been getting plagues of white Corella's on the golf course. I don't have a problem with them as such, with all the housing development going on in the area they've got no where else to go. They are destructive though and will destroy a whole green in a matter of an hour.
We hired a wedgie and its handler to give them a scare. We brought him out onto the fairway and with one flap of its wings all hell broke loose as thousands of corella's scattered for their lives. Its worked a charm, we get him back once a fortnight and fly an eagle shaped kite if they start getting destructive in the meantime.

[stock1991]

male peregrine, in falcons, in most birds of prey the females are always bigger

[xkxlxm]

During lock down I ventured out on a back road past Bacchus Marsh towards Ballan. Virtually no traffic. There was a dead kangaroo, a biggish one, on the side of the road with an eagle taking some free food. I stopped, the eagle flew to the fence on the other side of the narrow road and I stuffed around too long to get a photo before it flew off. I dragged the kangaroo as far as I could off the road.

It's not uncommon for me to see dead raptors on the side of the Western Highway. I guess they get hit by cars as they come down to eat something or as they take off. I saw one three or four weeks ago. It would be interesting to stop and see what they were but I don't really want to see it.

Sometimes I will stop to throw dead rabbits as far away from the road as I can.

[ford71V8]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Wait till you see a Wedgetail Eagle up close.

I'll say...wow.
Story time.
I was driving to and from Woomera for work many years ago. Had hired the then new EL Falcon station wagon.
Driving home one late arvo and came across some roadkill sitting on the road. I would sound the horn on approach to scare off all the birds feeding...beep beep and they would scatter. This time though they unusually flew towards me rather than away. Then it was like a movie scene. There was this shadow that came across and then this eagle landed on the road next to the dead roo. I slowed right down, I had never seen a bird so large (ok, emus). This eagle put one foot on the roo and friggin stared me down. I was very much WTF?! I drive slowly towards and then past thus bird and it just glared at me, turning its neck as I crawled past.Think of the height of the passenger window of a Falcon wagon....this bird was standing and looking in at me. I was a bit freaked out, not gonna lie, intimidated by a bird alone in the outback
That was some time ago, and Ive never forgotten it, and never seen another that size or close up since

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

I'll say...wow.
Story time.
I was driving to and from Woomera for work many years ago. Had hired the then new EL Falcon station wagon.
Driving home one late arvo and came across some roadkill sitting on the road. I would sound the horn on approach to scare off all the birds feeding...beep beep and they would scatter. This time though they unusually flew towards me rather than away. Then it was like a movie scene. There was this shadow that came across and then this eagle landed on the road next to the dead roo. I slowed right down, I had never seen a bird so large (ok, emus). This eagle put one foot on the roo and friggin stared me down. I was very much WTF?! I drive slowly towards and then past thus bird and it just glared at me, turning its neck as I crawled past.Think of the height of the passenger window of a Falcon wagon....this bird was standing and looking in at me. I was a bit freaked out, not gonna lie, intimidated by a bird alone in the outback
That was some time ago, and Ive never forgotten it, and never seen another that size or close up since

Huge buggers when their wings extent for take off.
One of the ones we encountered was right at the top of old Pacific Hwy climb up from Mooney Mooney bridge. We had ridden a pretty good place from the bottom challenging each other, just as we topped the crest, a wedgey had been feeding on roadkill so we unfortunately startled it. To take off they need to face into the wind which was from behind us so it seemed at the time , it was about to attack us. Turns out it needed the space as a runway to gain lift. It would have missed us by around 3 mtrs over our heads. Another reason why they are likely to be hit while on the ground.

Such a great place to ride at the time due to the road being closed due to landslide, they took years to fix at Cheero Point, was a sanctuary for wildlife.
Down at the bottom of the climb (near Mooney Mooney bridge) is one of the straightest and most beautiful blue gum tree.
Probably still my all time favourite tree we have spotted.

[Tonz]

over this way, if your driving around 70 -75kph and on dirt roads don't be surprised to have a pigeon/dove, fly in front of your windscreen. I've had one did it for about 800meters, then they simply swing off to the side.

[xkxlxm]

Yesterday I took a train trip out west ... I saw what was probably an eagle being chased by a smaller bird but it was a bit far from the train to be sure; I saw some smaller raptors, probably kites or hobbies (looking at my book). On the way back I saw a pair of similar grey/white-ish birds; also three yellow tail black cockatoos and a New Holland honey eater.

[290GTP]

We found a very water logged Osprey behind our backyard last year during an Eastcoast low. He couldn't fly anymore than a few metres at a time & was clearly exhausted. The missus managed to throw a blanket over him & we called Wires who took him away saying that his chances of survival were slim.

Anyway, about a week later the same bird (not the feathered one, the one from Wires) rings us to let us know that the Osprey has made a full recovery & would we like to watch him being released down at the beach near our place. Hell yeah.

Got some real crappy pics from my phone.

[xkxlxm]

That would have been very satisfying to see.

[roKWiz]

So glad you saved him.