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Some Mid-North Coast Birds – Raptors

Last week my wife and I visited my four grandchildren on a round trip of the mid-north coast and Hunter Region of NSW. We sighted several raptors among other birds which were not plentiful this time of year in the colder months. While walking along the beach front near Newcastle Beach without my camera, as I pushed my wife in […]

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A Riverside Walk – Warm Winter Weather

We have been blessed with some warm crisp Winter days emerging from quite cold mornings. We are thankful for the warm sun as it relaxes and cheers us as the day progresses. My wife and I decided on a riverside walk along our local Georges River leading into Botany Bay. Being it Winter we do not expect to see many […]

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Joint Bird Mobbing Party – The Powerful Owls

Thankfully my wife and visiting grandson managed to have a walk in our local nature reserve on a day that rain was predicted, but unexpectedly turned out to be a beautiful sunny winter morning. On our walk we were told by other birders that our Powerful Owl was quite visible, so we quickly made our way to the nesting tree, […]

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Honeyeaters – Australia Has The Most Species !

This week my focus is on Australia’s 76 + species of birds we classify as Honeyeaters or Nectar eaters, which makes it the country with the largest variety of species for this classification of passerine, having almost half the world’s 186 species. Many of these birds live in very arid dry desert like regions of the vast Australian continent. There […]

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A Quiet Winter Walk

Taking a walk in our local Nature Reserve my wife and i noted how quiet the Winter forest was in the non breeding season when many of the birds are feeding much quieter than in the Summer breeding months. We wondered how much quieter it might become if the H5 Bird Flue, which has now entered Australia’s south west, spreads […]

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Birds Taking Time-Out – Reflect On These Things

This week I introduce my third book release Reflect On These Things – Practical Meditations Gleaned from Australia’s Amazing Birds. Unlike my previous two books, this is distinctively a Christian teaching book. As you can observe from the cover of my new book the Australian Pelican is resting alone on a quiet section of the river. Birds take time-out to […]

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Sharing the Love – The Mistletoebird

This week I focus on a bird that is endemic to Australia yet I seldom post but is quite unique and remarkable in how it spreads the Mistletoe which is an obligate hemiparasitic plant. Mistletoe grows and hangs from tree branches having been sown from the faeces of the Mistletoebird where the seeds of the fruit have been rubbed onto […]

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Birding on Norfolk Island – The Critically Endangered Norfolk Island Green Parrot

This week we focus on Norfolk Island, an island under the rule and serviced by Australia, even though it sits some1,677 km (1,042 miles) away from Sydney out in the Pacific Ocean. The English first used it as a penal colony and later abandoned. In 1856 was settled under Queen Victoria’s rule as a new home to relocate rebel Pitcairn […]

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Seasonal Nectar Provision – The Eastern Spinebill

Taking another walk through our local park and meeting several birding couples was a great delight. It was great to see the male Powerful Owl with the remains of last night’s Possum prey. The male usually eats the head and keeps the body for the female and nestlings, finishing off any leftovers. Click on image to enlarge it. It was […]

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Birding Date at the Zoo – Regent Honeyeater

It was a beautiful crisp Autumn day once more and my wife suggested that we visit our local Taronga Park Zoo overlooking the beautiful Sydney Harbour. After catching the train into the city we took a ferry across the harbour, past the bridge, opera house and islands to the other side where we bussed up the hillside to the zoo […]

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Nesting Time Again – Return of the Powerful Owl

Yes, it is that time again when the Powerful Owl nests annually in the same tree in our local Nature Reserve. We knew to start looking about now and we were pleased to spot the male already watching the nest from the same vantage point as previous years, always with a direct line of sight to the nest. The sun […]

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Beautiful Tiny Birds – The Firetail Finches

Last week my post featured the amazing Zebra Finch, one of the most studied birds in the world, Finches are primarily small seed eaters (granivores), being mainly grass seeds. Though they do need some green grass or leaf to balance their diets. This special group of Finches is featured having a bright red tail which makes their tiny bodies visible […]

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A Beautiful Autumn Day – The Zebra Finch

It is most enjoyable to experience a week of lovely mild sunny blue sky Autumn days, a change from the unseasonable weather on the past months. We have been told we are heading toward a year bringing drought, heatwaves and bushfires possibly worse than previous years. My wife and I decided to have a day out together so we headed […]

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Autumn Riverside Walk – The Oystercatchers

On another of our beautiful warm crisp Autumn afternoons my wife and I took a walk along the rivers edge in Botany Bay to see if all the migratory waders had flown north for the winter, and yes, the beaches were bear and only gulls remained on the beach where they were often seen. We had missed viewing their breeding […]

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Autumn Fruits – The Satin Bowerbird

Last weekend my wife’s family and us had a annual birthday celebration away. We were in the beautiful Blue Mountains. While we were there we watched daily as a family of Satin Bowerbird fed from a fig tree in a next door property. There was much toing and froing by Satin Bowerbirds, Pied Currawong and the occasional Australian Magpie. Most […]

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An Autumn Bird Walk with a Friend – The Scarlet Honeyeater

We finally received a really lovely warm Autumn afternoon for a walk, so my wife and I asked a friend of hers to join us for a bird walk down our usual National Park track. After a tasty burger lunch from our local award winning burger shop we drove to our usual parking spot and commenced our walk. We did […]