Fantail Cuckoo – Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER

Little Journeys: On the Road Again

November 12, 2020Posted in Australian Hobby, Birdsaspoetry, Dusky Woodswallows, Fantail Cuckoo, K Road Cliffs, Little Visits, Purple-crowned Lorikeet, The Office8 Comments

Life I love is taking pictures with my friend.

Here we are a week or so out of a nearly 4 month lockdown. Depends of course where you start counting, but we were in one of the ‘naughty’ suburbs, so our privileges were removed a bit earlier than the rest of the city.

For EE and I, a run down to “The Office” was always going to be high on the must do first list.

So given a halfway decent burst of sunshine and we were off.

The one thing that we noted first was the amount of grass that covered normally bare areas. A distinct lack of large kites, Black and Whistling, and how well some of the smaller scrub birds had done getting an early nesting in.

So in no particular order.

Purple-crowned Lorikeet pair.
Sad to report that the old branch has since parted from the tree trunk, exposing the nest, and they have moved on somewhere else. They have been loyal to this spot for at least the past four seasons.

Purple-crowned Lorikeet. Protecting its nest from marauders

Little Lorikeet. This one led me a merry chase through the leaves. I could hear it, but it just wasn’t easy to see.

Happiness is… A White-browed Scrubwren with tucker for its young.

Looks like the Dusky Woodswallows has swept in while we were in lockdown and already had a clutch of young on the wing

Most interesting find of the day. Juvenile Fantail Cuckoo waiting to be fed.

Fantail; Cuckoo and its hosts, White-browed Scrubwrens.
The adult Cuckoo must have been very clever as I always find these little birds among the most wary.

Higher up the track on the cliff line, a pair of Australian Hobby are re-nesting in a familiar spot. More to come on their progress I think.

The age old battle of David and Goliath. The immovable object v the irresistible force.
Both have much at stake with young to be fed.

Photographic Essay: On the Road Again

October 21, 2020Posted in Australian Hobby, Dusky Woodswallows, Fantail Cuckoo, Little Lorikeet, Purple-crowned LorikeetTagged Australian Hobby, Dusky Woodswallows, Little Lorikeet, Purple-crowned Lorikeet8 Comments

Our first real day out after 4 months of Lockdown.

The title of the blog says more to my hairstyle than it does to the fact we were out and about.

At the moment, Willie Nelson and I have similar hairstyles. 🙂
So hum a few bars of “I’m on the Road Again, life I love is making photos with my friend, and I’ can’t wait to be on the Road Again.”

Where else would we have started than a trip to “The Office”.

As it turned out not a bad choice for a day out. We loaded up IamGrey and with a sandwich and a cuppa it looked to be a good day.

Here is a quick selection from the day.

First up for the day. Purple-crowned Lorikeets. Each time I find these little birds I always come away feeling better about life and the world in general. They have such calming attitudes

This pair have a nesting site that is regularly used. I was really happy to find them out enjoying the sunshine

Another pair of Purple-crowned have a solid branch for their site. This one is blocking the hole so that marauding Rainbow Lorikeets will not bother its young.

There has always been a steady number of Little Lorikeets at the Office.
I was hoping they might be nesting, but this one did not seem to be interested.
It took me quite awhile to find it amongst the canopy. For all their bright colours they are muted in the shadows of the leaves and blend in so well.

A recently fledged Fantail Cuckoo. Another score for EE.
It sat for quite a time, as we ate our sandwich and enjoyed the Earl’s good blend.
It no doubt has been hosted by some unfortunate thronbill or wren.
It took off to a bush, and I followed to see where it had gone.

Not the best photo I ever made, but does show the activity.
The young bird quite happily called in “Scrubwrenese” and within a few moments a White-browed Scrubwren arrived with food, followed immediately by a second one.
So perhaps the Scrubbies have been host to this rather large youngster.

After following a lot of calling noises we located a pair of Australian Hobby that have settled into nesting. The local Red Wattlebirds have taken exception to the visitors and kept up a running battle with both birds.
No doubt their numbers will diminish when the young Hobbys are hatched.

The never ending battle.
Wagtail on Raven

And so humming a few more bars of Willie Nelson’s tune, we headed back to IamGrey and home.

Passing time with inflight shots

August 9, 2015August 9, 2015Posted in Black Kite, Black-shouldered Kite, Fantail Cuckoo, Western Treatment PlantTagged Black Kites, Black-shouldered Kite, Crested Pigeon2 Comments

We’ve been sitting in our mobile hide (the little i20), near a tree that has a Black-shouldered Kite nest and the female in residence.
As is typical of her species, the nest is just below tree top and hidden well in among the fine uppermost branches. Once she is under the canopy she is gone!

He off course is on hunting duty, and every so often turns up with a nice fresh mouse. So all we have to do is point the camera, (attached, I might add to the WImberley Gimbal head), and wait either for him to arrive and/or her to emerge or reenter.
Now, if you’ve ever watched them, the first thing you’ll recall is that it can be a long long long time inbetween feeds.

Sometimes even she gets a bit anxious and sends out some pretty interesting Kite calls just to make sure he gets the message.
So we wait.

And of course in the waiting is the challenge. So we, well at least I, keep the shorter 300mm f4 PF on a second camera and practice my flight shots on anything that spins past.

So here are a few from the other day.