aussiebirder

My wife and I recently spent some time exploring the coastal areas of the south coast of our state which were gravely affected by the devastating bushfires of the recent years. The resilient bush is bursting forth out of the blackened forest, and some of the millions of birds, those not incinerated, the survive rs, were present to greet us. Thankfully many species of bird seem to be repopulating, as they once again procreate and raise their young.

It is also remarkable, how quickly the recovery and rebuilding of human infrastructure, lost in the fires has taken shape. We visited the Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Gardens near Batemans Bay, where everything around the visitor centre ( they managed to save that building) was totally destroyed. They have since rebuild many of the garden facilities, though the blackened trees and fences still tell their tale. The gardens have become my most recent book sellers for the south coast.

While we were enjoying a morning coffee and cake outdoors at a Cafe there in a nearby town we were greeted with Red Wattlebird attempting to gather food scraps from tables to feed its nest parasite baby cuckoo a juvenile Eastern Koel, while its own juvenile hunts for food by itself. The juvenile Koel looks like the female bird which is unusually beautiful in contrast to the black male. I say unusual because the male is usually the prettier of the most other bird specie pairs. The juvenile Red Wattlebird lacks its wattles.

The Koel kept making its monotonous begging cry, as young hungry birds do, keeping the adult wattlebird busy trying to feed it. Unfortunately my photos were blurry in my attempt to quickly catch the feeding action. Wattlebirds are common choice for dropping eggs from the adult female Koels after they have migrated back here during Spring. The adults will return with their fledged offspring to New Guinea, deserting the wattlebird which raised it, around early to mid Autumn to escape the cold.

We stayed at a time share apartment near the forest and these were some of the birds that visited us in the nearby trees to our balcony. Click on photos to enlarge.

While we were out birding we saw several Superb Fairy-wren going into their eclipse moult from their breeding plumage, as Summer breeding period finishes.

Nearby we saw this pair of what appeared to be female Superb Fairy-wrens preening together, though they may have been youngsters. They were soooo cute.

A surprise find on the grass below our balcony was this lone female White-backed Australian Magpie which are normally found further south towards Victoria and SA. Our local eastern normative race is the black-backed Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) with the White-backed race (Gymnorhina leuconota).

Have a wonderful week and may you enjoy the birds and their surroundings with some mindful moments. Check out my Mindfulness of Birding pages if you have not done so previously, as well as the other pages features on my Home Page.

The most important aspect of communication is not speaking but listening. Active Listening is the most difficult aspect of modern communication in a world encouraged to selfishly and sometimes disrespectfully speak their own point of view, often disregarding both the feelings and true sense of what the person is trying to convey.

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” – James 1:19 (NIV)

“To answer before listening— that is folly and shame.” – Proverbs 18:13

“let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance.” – Proverbs 1:5

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