This is the final post for this series featuring several more lifers and the important cultural and spiritual connection between one bird species and the people of the Torres Strait Islands just north of Cape York, which we visit after finally standing on the very Tip of Cape York, Australia’s most northern mainland point. This is the sign that awaits […]
This week we travel further north up Cape York Peninsular through the town of Laura to the Lotus Bird Lodge where we stayed in a special retreat accommodation by the small lake known in Australia as a billabong where thousands of water birds of many species gather during the dry season and harmoniously dwell together, resting on and by the […]
As my granddaughter is spending a few days with us during her school vacation, so I will share a brief post of Australia’s only endemic crane which is known as the Brolga, which we saw on several occasions during our adventure north on the Cape. This name is derived from the Indigenous Gamilaraay word burralga for this bird. We were […]
We continue our exploration of Far North Queensland in Cairns before leaving on our journey northward. We saw juvenile and adult Nankeen Night Heron walking around at night with the Bush-stone Curlew. Click on images to enlarge them. The most common raptor we saw circling over us most of the time up here was the Black Kite and the occasional […]
We have been away up Far North Queensland on a tour of the Cape York Peninsula right to the very Tip of the Australian mainland. We even went further to the Torres Strait Islands with a premium touring company called Outback Spirit which we have toured with on previous occasions. My wife was hoping to see the Palm Cockatoo, which […]
Last weekend we spent the morning with a younger couple of ‘novice’ birders as they described themselves. This was our second outing together, and focused on Mt Annan Botanic Gardens in the hope that the endangered Swift Parrot flock, wintering here, which I had posted several weeks ago, were still present in the eucalypts of this park. Before we got […]
Finally a blue sky and a chance to walk again, though much damage had been done to tracks still filled with puddles of water from the intense rain in the recent week. I thought I would check out the nesting hole again where the resident Southern Bookbook Owl had been lodging, preventing the resident Powerful Owl from nesting again as […]
As the cold days of rain continue into weeks and now months with the occasional break birding has become challenging to say the least. However on a recent weekend we did have an afternoon of sunshine to explore our local bird reserve along the bay in search of the birds that Winter-over every year. These include the Bar-tailed Godwit and […]
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’ […]
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 […]
This is the final post in the series of our recent stay in South Bruny Island, Tasmania at Inala Nature Reserve. One of the birds we would have seen at Inala if it were Spring and Summer, when it breeds there in the Tasmanian Blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus pictured here), would have been the Critically Endangered Swift Parrot or ‘Swifty‘ […]
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 […]
Last week my wife and I travelled to South Bruny Island, Tasmania in search of the tiny, rare endangered Forty-spotted Pardalote which is now only found in small groups in the far south-west of Tasmania, Australia’s island state. After catching the car ferry across from Kettering, south of Hobart we drove from the North Island onto the South Island to […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]