Watching The Birds

[Stosh]

Actually those are goldeneye ducks , I googled up the pic ,,,

Edited February 27, 2014 by Stosh

[Marblehead]

Yeah, I have watched a couple documentaries about the ducks. Amazing little critters.

 

I somehow have accumulated a large flock of sparrows over the winter. I would guess there are at least three dozen of them hanging out in my immediate area and coming over to eat. Probably a good breeding season last year.

 

My red-headed woodpecker is back in the area. He must have gone South for the winter.

 

The bird I call a greyjay, I think I will have to re-name it. It comes over all the time but doesn't go the the bird feeder. Instead it goes to the cat bowl and eats cat food. Catbird it is.

 

And it's almost time for the birds to migrate to wherever they migrate to so I might be seeing some different ones soon.

[Nungali]

Ugh ... catbirds ... they make a horrible sound - one does it right outside the kitchen window

 

 

 

 

In the last couple of weeks I have had a bell bird invasion.

 

Loud call for a small bird.

 

 

Edited February 28, 2014 by Nungali

[Marblehead]

Sounded like both were males proclaiming territory.

 

My catbird (greyjay), in the morning, will sometimes perch on the power lines coming to my property, jump straight up into the air, flapping his wings and announcing his presence. He sometimes manages to jump up nearly three feet, straight up and then a perfect landing back down on the power lines.

 

Last year I put up a new, smaller feeder, mainly for the purpose of reducing the number of pigeons visiting. My red-headed woodpecker has returned from his winter vacation and the first time he came over to check for sunflower seeds (that's all he seems to eat of what I put out) he couldn't figure out how to land and perch on the feeder and just hovered there a few seconds trying to figure out how to land. He did this twice and then gave up. The next day I saw him fly up and make a perfect landing on the perch of the feeder, get his sunflower seed and take off with it.

[Stosh]

Nugali

That catbird sounds just like a crying baby to me , ours is a lot more like a cat mew ( not meow) , and yes that would be very annoying . But on the other hand I love that bell bird ! it sounds like wind chimes ( i thought they made more 'bonging' sounds)

 

Does that grey jay have any big white blotch on his open wings perchance? Mh

[zerostao]

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gray_Jay/lifehistory

 

I had been curious about mh's gray jay. florida seemed like a strange place for one to show up at, but florida is a strange place indeed, and many that are naturally out of place there , still find their way there. cat bird makes more sense.

 

[Marblehead]

Does that grey jay have any big white blotch on his open wings perchance? Mh

Not very big, but yes. He really is a pretty handsome fella. And I swear, when he looks at me it seems he is looking at me eye to eye. And very sure of himself.

[Marblehead]

I had been curious about mh's gray jay. florida seemed like a strange place for one to show up at, but florida is a strange place indeed, and many that are naturally out of place there , still find their way there. cat bird makes more sense.

Mine have a different head coloring than those in the video. I have looked them up and the ones in the video are the true greyjay. That is why I am still open for a different name for them. They are of the Jay species, I am sure of that.

 

But regardless, I still enjoy watching them.

[Nungali]

Nugali

That catbird sounds just like a crying baby to me , ours is a lot more like a cat mew ( not meow) , and yes that would be very annoying . But on the other hand I love that bell bird ! it sounds like wind chimes ( i thought they made more 'bonging' sounds)

No ... that one seems to orignate from the teengares around here

 

[Nungali]

Well... something is definitely going on around here ... changes:

 

An invasion of horrible large flying foxes roosting nearby (use to feed here but not roost and swarm.

 

The bellbirds moving in.

 

The currawongs leaving.

 

A kookaburra claiming the most friendly currawongs perch beside the kitchen window (never seen that here in 20 years).

 

Return of Magpies around the cabin seeking food ( but not the original long-lasting 3 (who disappeared some time back) ; Mum, Baby and Rodney ( rod-knee ; the one with a stiff unbending leg limp) .

 

And this morning a large flock of ? with an unfamiliar call that nested in the whole grove of trees around the cabin and made a racket.

 

<quick search> ahhh .... these guys :

 

 

At least they are the native ones and not like those Indian Invasive minors.

[Marblehead]

And they took off, looking for some water to wash that bread down with.

 

The catbird does that half the time, it will get a couple pieces of cat food then fly over to the bird bath and get a couple swallows of water.

 

We cannot live on bread alone, there needs be wine to drink.

[Nungali]

I was feeding the fish this morning ... squatting down very close to the water checking out what the water snails were up to and one of these little guys flew in and landed right in front of me, a lot closer than arm's reach

 

 

He thought about a bath ... turned and looked at me ... a few moments of eye to eye ... we looking right into each others eyes and then he flew off

 

I often get these guys in the bird bath ;

 

 

 

but red one's are rarer.

[Marblehead]

The red one is beautiful. Nice set of colorations.

[Stosh]

I was feeding the fish this morning ... squatting down very close to the water checking out what the water snails were up to and one of these little guys flew in and landed right in front of me, a lot closer than arm's reach

 

 

He thought about a bath ... turned and looked at me ... a few moments of eye to eye ... we looking right into each others eyes and then he flew off

 

I often get these guys in the bird bath ;

 

 

 

but red one's are rarer.

Great pix ! did you take them ? If so you should go pro for sure . What are they?

The above looks amazingly like an orange cheeked wax bill ( from africa) - I got one as an exotic escapee local , and the closest I can get to the blue one is a black throated blue warbler. again local.

[Nungali]

Nah .... I wish

 

I googled red finch NSW and picked the pick that most looked like him, 'red-browed finch' .

 

Blue one is male superb fairy wren I also get a red fairy wren here, but thats rare;

 

 

 

I am in the yellow bit.

 

Sometimes I see things (usually insects) that I cant identify and sometimes haven't been identified yet ? ; like that little black shiney scorpion whose body segments (and claws) appear to me made up of spheres stuck together ... looks like a 1950's robot. There is also the little caterpillar that abe sails down off a tree branch by its rear end and spins a web fishing net and holds it out with its front legs and as the wind blows the web, it moves across the surface of the water and scoops and strains things up in the net and eats them. When an areas done it winds up a bit and waits for the tree branch to swing in the wind and over a new fishing spot and lowers itself down to catch some more .

 

Yeah ... not a bird ... but still pretty amazing .

 

I dont like the local rainforest ' King crickets' ( Anostostoma australasiae )

 

 

 

 

 

They come out in the wet season and start crawling around.

 

I was digging out a road drain on the property once and dug up a ridiculously big one one once with nippers longer than half the length of my little finger ... no thanks ... a butcher bird who was watching me swooped in and did battle with it and then flew off with it . Thanks for that

 

 

 

 

IN New Zealand they have the Weta

 

 

 

 

 

OHHH .... F * * K OFF !

 

.... uggh ... no thanks .... I stick with the birds

[Stosh]

^{Is that humongous cricket some species of weta ? Its amazing , and nifty , and yes I too can see it as creepy under some possible circumstances. But mostly amazing.}

^{'Insects in general' is too huge of a subject for me You really need to get serious about them if you want to identify down to species ,, but here , the number of dragonfly species ITHINK is only around 120 , so theoretically there could be a very comprehensive book or e resourse , that should cover it. I havent found what Im looking for yet in those terms, it seems like , for a given subject , the mindset of those interested , by virtue of being interested in SUCH, creates a pervading influence , so that one will find just one type of presentation regarding the subject. The general habit , is to toss up a smattering of the species , just one picture to identify it , and some factoids I cant really use.}

^{The picture is worth a thousand words thing,, doesnt do the trick , you need the words to point out that which is salient , since the genders are dimorphic , and even the emergent flying final version, still changes coloration as it matures ( over several weeks) they can shift from overall yellow , to green, or entirely blue etc. so you really need a comprehensive series ,, ( otherwise you would only be able to identify a given species only 20% of the time EVEN if the species is covered in the resource and the rest of the time it would be an UNK.. The same is similar for the birds as you may have noticed.)}

 

^{Is that too cryptic ? Ive got about 35 or forty local species now Ill attatch one from this weekend.}

^{But the birds are still my first interest.}

 

^{Why is it that everywhere ELSE always seems to have the most colorful birds?}

^{Isnt australia mostly a reddish desert? Shouldnt everything be red?}

Edited March 4, 2014 by Stosh

[Marblehead]

Nice Dragonfly!

 

I still have coloration in the brids that visit. Brown for the sparrows and wrens ( or finches or whatever they are) grey for the catbird, blues & purples for the pigeons, red for the cardinals and blue for the bluejay.

 

I haven't seen any dragonflies here lately. Too cold I guess.

[zerostao]

who is in the catbird's seat?

"in the catbird's seat" has always been a curious idiomatic little saying.

'in the hawk's seat' or 'in the eagle's seat' or 'in the owl's seat' or any other bird?

why the catbird?

[Marblehead]

The catbird is very territorial. It is also very fearless.

 

Two summers ago I watched one chase a cat that had gotten too close to its nest down the street.

[Nungali]

^{Is that humongous cricket some species of weta ? Its amazing , and nifty , and yes I too can see it as creepy under some possible circumstances. But mostly amazing.}

 

? I was told it was 'just' a cricket ... its called a cricket. The head is one solid armoured ball . I found a frog once with the jaws and head (empty shell) still attached to its leg ... had to use needle nosed pliers to pull the jaws apart and get it off .

 

^{Why is it that everywhere ELSE always seems to have the most colorful birds?}

^{Isnt australia mostly a reddish desert? Shouldnt everything be red?}

 

 

 

 

I live in that dark triangle, middle of east coast.

[Stosh]

By the way , I know that map says 2012, but ar you sure thats not a miocene map ?

At the very least is not the term 'shrubland' is slightly euphamistic, is it not? Like calling 'greenland' ,,well,,,umm Green land.

 

ooH YOU LIVE IN A DARK TRIANGLE ! Very mysterious

[Stosh]

Nice Dragonfly!

 

I still have coloration in the birds that visit. Brown for the sparrows and wrens ( or finches or whatever they are) grey for the catbird, blues & purples for the pigeons, red for the cardinals and blue for the bluejay.

 

I haven't seen any dragonflies here lately. Too cold I guess.

Thanks , I like it , Im thinking of getting a stackable achromatic macro-filter lens set .

( Its like eyeglasses for your camera so you can get closer with a strong lens)

Theyll be out and about shortly , only a few species stay in the air through Feb.

But I dont know what you mean by ,, the phrasing ...'have coloration' ???

[Nungali]

By the way , I know that map says 2012, but ar you sure thats not a miocene map ?

At the very least is not the term 'shrubland' is slightly euphamistic, is it not? Like calling 'greenland' ,,well,,,umm Green land.

 

ooH YOU LIVE IN A DARK TRIANGLE ! Very mysterious

 

 

Aussie shru bland :

 

 

 

However:

 

[Marblehead]

But I dont know what you mean by ,, the phrasing ...'have coloration' ???

I meant to say that there is not only one single color of bird, like only sparrows (brown).

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

Chatter, my magpie familiar, visited me once more whilst staying at my aunts.

 

He won't visit me at my current home, there's no trees.

 

It's rather sad.

...