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Winter Nesters – Rainbow Lorikeets

This post explores more birds from our Mt Annan bird dates. It is interesting how varied particular bird species nesting seasons are, especially for the Rainbow Lorikeet which may nest in Spring Summer or Winter Spring depending on the present food supply and prevailing weather conditions. We found several nests in old eucalypt trees near areas of flowering Grevillea ‘Superb’ […]

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“Birding is Like a Box of Chocolates, You never know what you’re gonna get.”

After our previous post on the Winter migration of the Critically Endangered Swift Parrot to our local Mt Annan Australian Botanic Gardens where we did actually see and photograph them, we decided a five days later to revisit the park for another birding date bringing our picnic lunch. It was another amazing crisp, cool though warm sunny blue sky day […]

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Finding the Endemic Birds of Tasmania

During our stay on South Bruny Island and also in the forests surrounding Hobert we managed to see many of the endemic birds and several of the endemic animals, which was a great delight for us. Endemic meaning they are only found in this part of the world and no where else. we saw one other lifer, the Tawny-crowned Honeyeater […]

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Unusual Winter Bird Finds

Taking another quiet walk with God in my local Nature Reserve the quietness was once again observed in the 10° cool sunny morning where very few were out and about. The Southern Boobook we saw the last few weeks was not present in its nesting hole, nor were the Powerful Owl that were about to nest, and no one has […]

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A Quiet Cool Winter Walk

It was a cold clear morning about 10° C when I took a solo walk and talk with God along the track of our local Nature Reserve. I was curious to see if the Powerful Owl had shown up again and whether the Southern Boobook I posted last week was remaining in the nesting hole., and it was, but the […]

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Winter Wonders – Southern Boobook

A cool brisk sunny Winter’s morning and we went for a walk in our local Nature Reserve to check out the activity at the owl nesting hole, as this year there appears to have been some disruption to the Powerful Owl (Australia’s largest owl) having its usual nesting hole now inhabited by the Southern Boobook (Australia’s smallest owl). It was […]

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Now You See Him, Now You Don’t – Superb Fairy-wren

The early winter months down here are very quiet in our local parks, having fewer bird species and almost no current wildflowers to feed the many nectar eaters. However, our insectivorous birds including the Superb Fairy-wren, Grey Fantail, Eastern Yellow Robin, Golden Whistler, White-browed Scrubwren, Brown and Striated Thornbills and the Magpies, continue to thrive during this period. Several of […]

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Autumn Birds – The Southern Boobook

In my last post I gave a glimpse of Australia’s smallest owl, the Southern Boobook (also known as a Mopoke), peeping from a nesting hole, which it had occupied before the Powerful Owl had a chance, since the Powerful Owl normally nest there each year at this time. It was only that the sun was shining directly into the hole […]

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Surprises in the Quiet Autumn Forest.

Finally, there came a day when I could walk in our favorite reserve after days of rain. While it was still overcast and my wife was busy teaching English for Living, I decided to take a walk alone and chat with God in the quietness of our Autumn forest, which is characteristically the most bird few month of the year, […]

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A Perfect Team – The Australian Shelduck

This week following our Federal Elections we learn how important team work is to achieving our goals. I have previously referred to the excellency of the male Australian Wood Duck as a father and how he stays with the one female to breed and live for a lifetime. And how he faithfully remains with her throughout the life long process, […]

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The Food Snatchers – Clever Birds

Several of Australia’s endemic birds are known for their boldness, opportunism and ability to learn techniques often copied from other birds they have observed to steal food from the hands of unsuspecting picnicers. This has been our experience here and that of many others. So this is my topic for this post. We took my second grandson while he was […]