Thread: Love where I live!

Time you found that camera old fella

Originally Posted by wheelinround

Time you found that camera old fella

Our "entertainment budget" is about $13 per week... and goes to buying seed for the feeders on our deck.

I suspect that we are single-handedly responsible for the plague proportions of Crimson Rosellas in our neck of the woods. It can be hilarious, watching a swarm of newly fledged Rosies squabbling over seeds in the feeders, yet none of them actually know what to do with this "new type of tucker." While their parents have beautiful, ringing tones in their calls, the fledgelings sound like squeaky toys.

Almost as entertaining are the Red-browed Firetail Finches. Those blokes live their lives in super-fast-forward, never still, always in nervous motion. I've tried taking video footage with my 25fps vidcam and the footage looks like they've been filmed in stop-motion!

There a few transient King Parrots who are regular callers, less frequently are a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets.

Plus our resident omnivore: Maggie, the Scourge of Skinks. (Who happens to be a Currawong.) At some stage she must've broken her wing, as she always holds it in a 'dropped' position and while she will glide out of a tree, she will literally hop across the yard and back up into the tree!

Oh... and the odd trio of Sulfur Cresteds, the mongrels. Loud, raucous, pillow stuffings. Wouldn't mind the bird so much if it didn't do so much damage here.

All this to background music of Kookas and an occasional Whip Bird. 'Tis good for the soul.

At first I thought the feeders may attract the less savoury wildlife... rats & mice (we lost too many aviary birds to 'em in the past) but luckily we have also been provided with a clean-up crew on night shift; Blossom the Possum. It's surprising how efficiently she cleans the husks from the feeders and the deck; now, if only I can teach her to mop up afterwards...

13$ per week? Woooorth it!

I start my day with a cup of coffee while I feed the kookaburra if he turns up (small piece of mince), with some for the butcher bird if he's there, and seed for the crimson rosellas, crested pigeons, peewees and the occasional eastern rosella and king parrot. The shanghai comes out for the indian mynahs and sulphur crested cockatoos. They just have to see it and they're away.
In winter, the rainbow lorikeets feed in the Gordonia outside my bedroom window, and the magpies sound like angels gargling. A previous generation of magpies used to stroll through the workshop, but the latest are content to forage outside.

My grandparents used to live at Dundowran in the 1990s, and I regularly used to birdwatch through that area - it was (is) a fantastic place for birdwatching. My highest number of species in one day for the Dundrowran/Hervey Bay area was 104 spp., out of 187 for a 7 day trip (my father would regularly top 200).

Then they moved to Mackay, and the number of species I would see went up regularly over the 200 mark.

If it weren't for the bloody cats we would have really good bird life even though we're in an inner city Perth suburb. We notice more birds in our trees since we have had dogs since they keep the cats out.

We occasionally have a morning maggies and a warbling chorus loud enough to wake anyone that is not used to it. We also get flocks of sulphur crested and black cockies in summer and autumn and in spring the Black Swans and other water bird on the small river lakes are breeding. Sometimes there are flocks of pink and greys feeding in the local parks. There is also the odd parrot around

There are other species here that I didn't mention.

Pee Wees.crested pigeons, willy wagtails, magpie geese, wood ducks, black ducks,
blue faced honey eaters, kookaburras, tollawongs.

I've seen swallows but not here, seagulls and a type of kite that I didn't recognize.

There are plenty of egrets and ibis in the general area also.

Must get the Binoculars out and start some dedicated searching!