Backyard Birds of the Feathered Variety

OttawaMike · **Posted:** Sat Apr 03, 2010 05:24:47 am

A few miles from my home, on the road to the nearby little town of Perth, there is a swamp with a number of tall dead trees. Often, you will see people stopped on the side of the road with fancy photography equipment because one of those trees contains the nest of a pair of bald eagles - quite scarce in this part of Canada.

Today, one of the eagles landed on what's left of the ice about 200 yards off my waterfront. I grabbed my camera, but unfortunately it was taking off as I returned. I did get this shot, though:

Draccae · **Posted:** Thu May 06, 2010 09:23:06 am

There is a bird attacking a snake in my tree right now. I was sitting here reading and heard all of this commotion outside. The snake was trying to attack the nest and when the mother came back and started in on him and now he is trying to get down again to the ground again.

It's a very weird day, there is a totally odd creature in the garage too, I left the door up, so hopefully he leaves. :!:

iomoon · **Posted:** Thu May 06, 2010 09:34:27 am

Draccae,

your snake looks like a red racer. Though not poisonous, they can move very fast and bite!!
They are mean sob's.

Draccae · **Posted:** Thu May 06, 2010 09:38:37 am

Eww. Well, I have the dogs in at least and I don't plan on messing with it. I just hope it doesn't try to eat my Koi tonight. :shock:

KevinHedley · **Posted:** Thu May 06, 2010 10:14:47 am

And they say Australia is a land of dangerous animals :lol:

iomoon · **Posted:** Thu May 06, 2010 10:38:57 am

Kevin, west Texas is pretty safe really.
All we have are bears, mountain lions, coyotes, javelinas, several species of rattlesnakes and cottonmouths, scorpions, centi- and millipedes, lots of wasps and killer bees.
No problem that a boot, rolled-up newspaper or 45 automatic couldn't handle.

KevinHedley · **Posted:** Thu May 06, 2010 11:21:58 am

Thanks Jim :!:

And to get this thread back on topic, wasn't that the setting for Hitchcock's The Birds

OttawaMike · **Posted:** Fri May 14, 2010 05:18:55 am

One of the local Herons that visit my dock frequently:

KevinHedley · **Posted:** Fri May 14, 2010 17:16:53 pm

Thanks Mike

Can anyone confirm what type of Heron it is? I managed a good look at a Great Blue Heron in Kennybunkport many years ago and I suspect that is this bird. Would be nice to be sure.

OttawaMike · **Posted:** Fri May 14, 2010 17:56:39 pm

I'm not a bird watcher at all, so I have no idea what type of heron it is. There are a few of them in the area, and they seem to like to walk along my dock for some reason. I'll try to get some better photos, but they're shy. As soon as I open the door, they tend to take off.

makielb · **Posted:** Wed May 19, 2010 12:21:59 pm

It is a Great Blue Heron. The overall bluish-gray cast and the dark top-knot nail it! Additionally, in Canada there are essentially two choices the other being Great Egret which is strikingly white. Hope this helps.

OttawaMike · **Posted:** Fri May 21, 2010 16:03:50 pm

Well, nice to know what it is. Thanks!

It came back for another visit yesterday:

OttawaMike · **Posted:** Fri May 21, 2010 16:04:22 pm

OttawaMike · **Posted:** Fri May 21, 2010 16:04:50 pm

KevinHedley · **Posted:** Fri Jul 09, 2010 12:18:27 pm

Not from my yard, but it may as well have been as they are here all the time and drink from our bird bath.

It is from the ABC News website.

KevinHedley · **Posted:** Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:15:33 pm

My camera is not good enough to get a decent picture but here is a Grey Fantail seen in my backyard last weekend.

A delightful bird, often encountered in the lightly timbered country nearby. They will follow you along the track for some distance, unless there is a nearby nest. In that case they will challenge you rather loudly.

(From the Australian Bird Image Database)

MargoZ · **Posted:** Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:31:04 pm

Kevin- you may be able to advise on this.

Yesterday my place was inundated by crows. They were attacking all of the garbage bins waiting out for collection and very cleverly managed to open quite a few and redistribute the contents about the street.

There would have been about 30 at the height of their invasion and they were squawking all over the place (I thought Graham Kennedy must have come back from the grave at first).

I can't remember ever having seen even a crow in the area before and it is very much a white cockatoo stronghold.

What do you think the story is?

MargoZ · **Posted:** Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:32:28 pm

BTW the cockies are back today and not a crow to be seen (but then again- no garbage bins either)

KevinHedley · **Posted:** Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:55:47 pm

That is a mystery I cannot solve :roll:

, but ....

If you think back I believe there would have been very few (if any) Sulphur-crested Cockatoos in your area twenty or thirty years ago. They have moved across the ranges in that time. The same thing has happened here in Canberra.

As for the crows (probably the Australian Raven but I also call them crows) I can remember a time (almost certainly the 1950s) when we had two or three days with hundreds of crows flying by at any one time. A week later they had vanished and no one could explain where they had gone and why they had suddenly appeared in such numbers.

I think if you visit some of the timbered areas close by, you will find that the crows are 'resident' there. In the days when each Council had their own garbage depot the crows were the main scavengers - these days there are very few such areas left but the crows have been almost replaced by Ibis.

norvic · **Posted:** Wed Aug 25, 2010 04:39:05 am

Here's a couple of this spring's pictures that I only just took off the camera! Ok, so one's a pheasant and one's not a bird, but it thinks it is and eats most of the bird food. The owl is a chain-saw sculpture, slightly past its best.

GlenStephens · **Posted:** Sat Oct 02, 2010 18:10:34 pm

We had a BBQ lunch outside today, and one of the kookaburras cunningly swooped in and grabbed a huge hunk of bacon off the hot BBQ while Margo was standing there.

It was red hot and they took ages to work out how to break it up and cool it down. :lol:

The currawong atop the umbrella tried to sneak in and grab the remnants!

norvic · **Posted:** Thu Nov 25, 2010 00:15:54 am

A bump for the thread but without pictures*. It's now 2C in mid-Norfolk, and over lunch I hosted 11 species, with never less than a dozen birds on and around the feeders. I topped up the seed feeders this morning, and may need to again tomorrow! If it's like this now, what will winter be like. Bang! something just hit one of the downstairs windows; no sign of it so a glancing blow.

* it's not bright enough to get anything worthwhile, even at 1pm.

jeremy29 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 23, 2011 20:50:46 pm

A young Crimson Rosella

jeremy29 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 23, 2011 20:51:37 pm

A cute Blackbird that lives in my garden and has been here for at least 4 years

jeremy29 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 23, 2011 20:52:14 pm

A Pied Currawong

KevinHedley · **Posted:** Fri Dec 23, 2011 21:08:51 pm

**sigh***

I live very close to Jeremy. I have the same birds but not the photographic equipment and expertise.

:mrgreen:

jeremy29 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 23, 2011 21:20:50 pm

Hi Kevin

I set up my camera on a tripod in my bedroom one morning and got these. I should use a tripod more often!

portbelly · **Posted:** Thu Jan 12, 2012 17:52:43 pm

Birds & Koalas

The crows that attacked a koala bear for straying too close to their nest.

Rude awakening: The koala's snooze is brought to an abrupt end by the pecking of swooping crows
The koala had been sleeping in a eucalyptus tree, when the crows swooped.

They peck at it's head but it fights back, lashing out with his sharp claws.

Preparing for take-off: The koala plans its escape route

Then it launches itself from its perch high above ground, jumping from branch to branch.

Defeated: Looking slightly confused, the koala takes up position on a new branch,
but then slips and plummets to its death.

portbelly · **Posted:** Thu Jan 12, 2012 18:46:09 pm

The two Scaly Breasted Parrots are back, been absent for a couple of weeks.
Don't know their proper name, I will leave that to the experts.
I just love to feed and shoot them from the hide in by shed.
These are so tame and take no time at all to come to me.

KevinHedley · **Posted:** Thu Jan 12, 2012 19:48:39 pm

Beautiful photos portbelly and they are beautiful (and noisy) birds.

They are Scaly-breasted Lorikeets (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus) which are common throughout most of eastern Australia on the coasts, hinterlands and nearby mountains.

portbelly · **Posted:** Thu Jan 12, 2012 20:22:58 pm

KevinHedley wrote:

Beautiful photos portbelly and they are beautiful (and noisy) birds.

They are Scaly-breasted Lorikeets (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus) which are common throughout most of eastern Australia on the coasts, hinterlands and nearby mountains.

Thanks Kevin, don't find them as noisy, aggressive or BIG bullies like the Rainbow Lorikeets. They attack everything in their way even the big male Magpies, the Kookas, Butcher Birds and all.

Halimah · **Posted:** Sat Feb 04, 2012 04:02:20 am

I took these in the back an apartment complex where I once lived, this is the 1 thing I miss about that place. (ducks ARE birds, right? :lol:

) I had some of geese as well but I can't seem to find the pictures; they would come up to my door and we would engage in a staring contest with each other. there was a beautiful bright red cardinal that hang around my window where I am now, but, every time I would reach for my camera he would leave; haven't seen him in a few weeks.

Halimah · **Posted:** Sat Feb 04, 2012 04:03:30 am

portbelly wrote:

The two Scaly Breasted Parrots are back, been absent for a couple of weeks.
Don't know their proper name, I will leave that to the experts.
I just love to feed and shoot them from the hide in by shed.
These are so tame and take no time at all to come to me.

my gosh, simply beautiful

norvic · **Posted:** Tue May 29, 2012 00:28:19 am

Unusual visitor yesterday - maybe not in some parts of the world, but certainly in East Anglia

Slightly over-exposed because it is so sunny and the patio is light stone.

And from a month or so ago, the other extreme, the wood pigeon just looks like we all felt!

norvic · **Posted:** Tue May 29, 2012 00:30:10 am

And our most colourful residents, the Yellowhammer (we have the pair, though only the male shown here) and Goldfinch which here looks a bit fierce!

KevinHedley · **Posted:** Fri Jun 15, 2012 14:00:51 pm

This Wedge-tailed Eagle is on a card sent to me as a gift by muruk some time ago.

The Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax) is Australia's largest bird of prey. It has a wingspan of up to 2.27 metres (7.4 ft) and can often be seen in the sky here in suburban Canberra.

Canada stamper · **Posted:** Fri Jun 15, 2012 14:24:46 pm

A mallard duck enjoying our pool one morning this week...

Last week he was there with a female, but she wasn't around this particular morning.

KevinHedley · **Posted:** Sat Jun 16, 2012 20:13:28 pm

Another card received from muruk. This one show the Laughing Kookaburra.

norvic · **Posted:** Mon Jul 02, 2012 20:53:01 pm

KevinHedley wrote:

This Wedge-tailed Eagle is on a card sent to me as a gift by muruk some time ago.

The Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax) is Australia's largest bird of prey. It has a wingspan of up to 2.27 metres (7.4 ft) and can often be seen in the sky here in suburban Canberra.

I dispute that this is of "the backyard variety" :lol:

- unless you have a very big back yard full of prey?

KevinHedley · **Posted:** Mon Jul 02, 2012 21:31:22 pm

norvic wrote:

KevinHedley wrote:

This Wedge-tailed Eagle is on a card sent to me as a gift by muruk some time ago.

The Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax) is Australia's largest bird of prey. It has a wingspan of up to 2.27 metres (7.4 ft) and can often be seen in the sky here in suburban Canberra.

I dispute that this is of "the backyard variety" :lol:

- unless you have a very big back yard full of prey?

I have stood in my backyard on many an occasion, looked up with binoculars and seen one or a pair of these beauties.

Anyone who disagrees with my backyard definition has a choice - argue with the wedgies talons or beak. :twisted:

norvic · **Posted:** Mon Jul 02, 2012 22:09:31 pm

KevinHedley wrote:

Norvic wrote:

I dispute that this is of "the backyard variety" :lol:

- unless you have a very big back yard full of prey?

I have stood in my backyard on many an occasion, looked up with binoculars and seen one or a pair of these beauties.

Anyone who disagrees with my backyard definition has a choice - argue with the wedgies talons or beak. :twisted:

OK - 'flying over' counts

Must get pictures of our local barn owl.

norvic · **Posted:** Tue Aug 14, 2012 00:36:31 am

Very tame, quite young, long-tailed tits

MargoZ · **Posted:** Fri Aug 17, 2012 00:59:19 am

A lovely female king parrot was feasting outside the bedroom window -unfortunately not a great picture because I didn't want to scare her off but I've included a stock photo to show what she really looked like.

Kathy Young · **Posted:** Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:40:03 am

We had breakfast together,he was very noisey.

MargoZ · **Posted:** Sun Oct 21, 2012 14:52:50 pm

A brush turkey visited the back yard this morning ... handsome brute!

KevinHedley · **Posted:** Wed Dec 12, 2012 11:55:05 am

An occasional, and very welcome, visitor to our backyard is the Willie Wagtail. Yesterday we thought we had such a visitor but it turned out to be a Satin Flycatcher which is not seen here very often. Lo and behold, later in the day we did have a Willie Wagtail in the backyard.

These photos are courtesy of Canberra Birds, with the Wagtail first, followed by the Flycatcher.

Possum · **Posted:** Fri Feb 01, 2013 18:32:52 pm

Our visitor today....

birder · **Posted:** Sat Feb 02, 2013 01:43:29 am

Pair of Grey Hornbills (Ocyceros Birostris) visited us some time back:

birder · **Posted:** Sat Feb 02, 2013 01:44:09 am

..and a close-up

birder · **Posted:** Sat Feb 02, 2013 01:44:48 am

and a silhouette :


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