The TJTwitter

[Goldfields]

First bird here is a Southern Boobook. Second bird is a Brown treecreeper, and the third is a Crested Pigeon(and young).

[Goldfields]

I need to ID this first one, he's just put Curlew but I think it's the Little Curlew. The second is the Eastern Rosella, very common here in this area. Ditto for the third bird, the Galah.

[Goldfields]

Grey Fantails are lovely little birds, we usually get one flitting around the garden every Winter.The second bird, a Jacky Winter, is slightly smaller, and also inhabit the forest over the road. Third bird is a Nankeen (Australian) Kestrel.

[Goldfields]

Little Pied Cormorant.
Magpie. It's best feature I think is the beautiful carolling, the worst would be if one gets territorial and starts swooping anyone who goes near its nest. Fortunately that has not happened here, not enough people to bother them.
Masked Lapwing, or as it is often named, a spur- winged plover. Note the yellow spurs on the wing. This bird is very protective of its young and or eggs and will swoop and try to hit you with that spur. More photo's another time. Have to feed my dogs.

[Goldfields]

Masked Woodswallow.
New Holland Honeyeater.
Noisy Miner.

[Goldfields]

3 colorful birds now.
Purple Swamphen.
Purple-crowned Lorikeet.
Rainbow Bee-eater. This is the most amazing of the 3. It nests in burrows in dam banks, they used to nest at a neighbor's farm a mile away. In flight they are sensational because their wings are quite long and the underneath is, well.... they say rufous, to me it looked a lovely shade of apricot. Their unusual call draws your attention too. Obviously bees and dragon flies are not safe when they are around.

[Goldfields]

Red Wattlebird.
Red-capped Robin.
Red-rumped parrot.

[Goldfields]

Hope you are all spotting the babies?
Richards Pipit.
Rufous Songlark.
Rufous Whistler.

[Goldfields]

Sacred Kingfisher, and isn't he beautiful? This bird is a casualty of the water being piped to stock troughs and towns now instead of in open channels. I've seen them along the channels in the forest opposite our place when they were running, but they won't be there now. Sad!

Silvereye. One wonders did baby choke on that grub? LOL.

Sitella. -So many cute little birds.

[Goldfields]

Striated Pardalote.
Stubble Quail.
Sulphur-crested cockatoo.

[Goldfields]

Black Swan.
Tawny Frogmouth.
Tree Martin.

[Goldfields]

Weebill.
White-browed Woodswallow.
White-faced Heron.

[Goldfields]

White-fronted Chat.
White-necked Heron.
White-plumed Honeyeater.

[Goldfields]

Only two to go. I should have photo's here from another friend too, just can't recall if they are in this computer or my old one.
Willie Wagtail.
Yellow-rumped Thornbill.

[hazelrunpack]

OMD, GF!!! If I ever come to Australia, do you think I could cajole, bribe, coerce your friend into taking me along on a birding trip? Any of these would be lifers for me...half of them I've never even heard of!!!! Awesome shots!!!! Tell him I'll bring my own blind! And a spare!

That red-capped robin took my breath away and I'm sorta partial to the white-browed woodswallow, as well, but they're all awesome birds!!!

[ownedbycats]

I second Hazel's wish for a birding trip led by your friend. They are amazing at finding nests, it must take a lot of patience to find all those nests and then spend time watching for a picture. Thank you for sharing, those are gorgeous birds. It's amazing how many species there are out there. Sadly, our species, too, are fighting for space in a world increasingly crowded by humans, but they manage to hang on and adapt in surprising places. We actually have bald eagles and red wings nesting in our city, I have seen our version of kingfishers on the river, and just a week ago I saw a great horned owl. (of course, none of these were obliging enough to pose for me.)

[Goldfields]

He is a great birder, that's for sure. He knows in which trees (the biggest) over in the forest that the Peregrine Falcons and Wedge-tail Eagles nest too, and probably on whose farm the Brolgas live and dance - that is a secret though, they don't want people annoying them. I don't know where he came accross the red-capped Robin, Hazel, I haven't seen it locally myself. I'm sure both of you would get on wonderfully well with him. Let me see if I can find more Aussie birds for you.

[Goldfields]

Here is a link to more Aussie birds. If you click on the photo of the Blue-faced Honeyeater you can then just keep hitting next.

http://www.photographsofaustralia.co...s_MG_7414.html

We see the Blue-faced honeyeater here at a certain time each year, when food is available here of course. Has a very distinctive call.
Would you believe it, my neighbor shoots Rainbow Lorikeets if they start getting at his fruit trees. Consequently I have only ever seen one here.

What this site calls an Australian corella is actually a Little Corella, as opposed to our local Long-billed corella.

Each page of photo's might have to be treated this way, hope you enjoy them.

[hazelrunpack]

That's a nice site, GF. I like your friend's pics better though!

[Goldfields]

Yes, they're good in that so many show the type of nest they build.

[pbpatti]

Thank you GF for posting all of these pictures of Austrailian native birds. You have aome very beautiful birds.

[Goldfields]

Glad you like them , Patti. My Golden Whistler is hanging about. I saw him flitting around the rose bushes, so I hope he likes eating aphids. Here he is on the weeping mulberry, which is just coming into leaf.

[hazelrunpack]

Very striking, GF!

[Goldfields]

Found another site you may like to try for magnificent photography of Aussie birds.

http://www.pbase.com/peterbray/australianbirds

[hazelrunpack]

I've actually heard of Peter Bray! Thanks for the link, GF.

[hazelrunpack]

What an awesome morning!! It was raining lightly so I left the camera inside (which always means good birds ) when I went out to fill the feeders. First thing I saw as I rounded the corner of the fence was a woodcock!!! It was moseying around poking into the mole runnels for worms. Since it was in no hurry to leave, I ran up for the camera. Eventually, I got to within 15 feet of it before it wandered into the thickets. Then I heard a titmouse...always a pleasure to hear because we see them so infrequently. I was trying to take a picture of a downy woodpecker and a chickadee sharing the suet and just as I snapped the shot, a red-breasted nuthatch and the titmouse both landed on the feeder, too! whoot whoot At almost that same moment a wild turkey cackled about 20 feet away in the dogwood and made me jump...and about 30 seconds later, while I'm still looking for the turkey, a ruffed grouse saunters out of the raspberries and starts poking around where the woodcock had been earlier! Add an additional tufted titmouse, 10 or so fox sparrows, dozens of juncos, a swainson's thrush and 2 pine siskins and...well...let's just say hazel is a happy camper today! So excited that I put the blind up again after having retired it for the year. Not sure if the pics turned out, but I'll post some if they did. I have to get some pic photo files off my hard drive before downloading any more, though, so it might be a while...

[Barkingdog]

Originally Posted by Goldfields

Only two to go. I should have photo's here from another friend too, just can't recall if they are in this computer or my old one.
Willie Wagtail.
Yellow-rumped Thornbill.

WOW that was amazing ! Great photos and I loves the one of the babies being
feed. Thank you for sharing this .

[ownedbycats]

Wow! Hazel. what a busy morning. can't wait to see if the photos turn out. Hopefully the photos turned out.

[hazelrunpack]

Some of the pics weren't too bad considering the awful lighting! Here you can see the woodcock probing for worms:







It's working in the soil that was disturbed by moles, so it's having an easy time getting that beak into the ground!

[hazelrunpack]

And here are the two shots I was able to salvage of one of the titmice. In the first shot, I was trying to get a decent shot showing the downy woodpecker and the chickadee sharing the suet, but when the red-breasted nuthatch and the titmouse () flew in, I couldn't resist taking the shot!



You can just barely see the chickadee's tail on the backside of the suet, so it's a 4 species shot...of sorts!

And this one is the only titmouse shot that wasn't too awfully blurred! Dang, I'd forgotten how quickly they move!!