Australian wildlife | aussiebirder

Birdwatcher, Birder or Twitcher, which are You?

Posted by aussiebirder on September 15, 2018

Posted in: Australia, Australian Birds, Australian wildlife, Bird watching, Birding, Birds, Birdwatching, Fauna, Holidays, migratory waders, National Parks, Nature, Nature reserve, rainforests, Royal National park, Sydney, Uncategorized, wildlife. Tagged: Birder, Birdwatching, Twitcher. 13 Comments

Aussiebirder birdwatches an Eastern Yellow Robin – truly ‘a bird in the hand’

It has been a couple of years since I visited this topic, and I continue to meet many people who ask me to explain the difference, it is timely that I reiterate, but with more information from more of a counselling and lifestyle perspective.

A group of tourists have an unexpected sighting, a family of Tawny Frogmouth

Most people in our community are only familiar with the term Birdwatcher and what that entails. A person who actively seeks out birds to view them and study them as a recreational pursuit. This title or description, to most people, could be used to generically include all who look at birds as a past-time both recreationally and ornithologically. However, to us who pursue birdwatching as a recreational pursuit and have done so for several years or more, birdwatching is but the first stage or introduction, where interest in birds and their presence begins to ignite a delight and desire within us for more…

Glen, acclaimed naturalist, birdwatching a male Regent Bowerbird

We start to include looking at birds as part of our nature/bush walks and family picnic experiences, this begins as the birds make their presence known or demonstrate some unusual behaviour and we start to have an awareness that the birds are there, and for the first time in our life we start looking for them and expecting them to be in particular places because we have seen them in the same places when passing. Picnic areas and car parks are some of the best places one can see and get close to Australian birds, as they have learned that humans have food.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo at the Royal NP – they know how to get a free feed

However, it is better to feed them their own food if you can.

Hand feeding seed to wild Eastern Crimson Rosella

The Cafes can be good birdwatching places also…

Australian Raven drinking milk at Cafe in the Royal NP

Pied Currawong at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Cafe also drinking milk

For me personally, photographing nature and beautiful vistas was my prime delight for most of my early years, producing My Beautiful Series and the website by that name which many of you may have followed but was recently deconstructed. When my interest turned to birds more specifically, after a visit to Lord Howe Island years ago, in search of the Red-tailed Tropicbird, a whole new interest took my heart. I took less interest in landscape and nature photography and more in photographing birds. I was transitioning into the next stage and becoming a Birder.

Red-tailed Tropicbird in flight

Red-tailed Tropicbird

Red-tailed Tropicbird in flight

A large percentage of Birdwatchers become Birders, a term which is mainly used by Birders themselves to describe their passion or differentiate themselves from others with greater or lesser enthusiasm in the recreational vocation. A Birder is a person who deliberately and passionately pursues birdwatching, particular bird species and bird habitats to actively engage with and view birds in their native habitat. The birder studies the birds and seeks to gain an active practical knowledge of bird species, their appearance, their call, their food, their habitat, their breeding, their migratory patterns and their peculiar characteristics. You could possibly use the term a recreational ornithologist.

For me personally, I call myself a Birder, along with my wife. The change to Birding meant a change in my camera lens from 18-250mm to 100-400mm. It also meant purchasing some books on where to find various birds including several different kinds of Bird Field Guides, taking interest in native bird conservation groups such as Birdlife Australia, joining a local bird observer club and checking on latest local sightings on eremaea birdlines or ebird websites. Many an avid birder, but not me, wear bush camouflage clothing, and purchase camouflaged binoculars, telescopes and camera lenses. Another sign is that the equipment used becomes more expensive some moving to high powered lenses including tripods and telescopes.

I started meeting other people, singles and couples, armed with binoculars and cameras with long lenses like mine. I would usually greet them and get right to the point by asking the question ” Are you a Birder?” or ” Are you into Birding?” The conversation would then include latest sightings and what was seen so far on the current walk. It could include name sharing of Birders we may share in common. You know your family know when all your gifts for whatever occasion have something to do with birds.

It was not till on our Honeymoon that my wife and I first seriously understood the term Twitcher, which is when one takes birding to the next level. When we shared with a lady how we met and found out later we were both Birders she gave us a copy of the movie The Big Year and said it was a must see for us. If you have not seen it is is as humorous as it is sad, starring the three funny men, Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black but depicts a nonfictional story from a 2004 book called The Big Year. In a nutshell a Twitcher is a person who has an active addiction to Birdwatching and has become an obsessed Birder. These people seek out particular birds including rare bird species at any cost to themselves, their relationships and their health. They may devote a whole year to tick off a list and try and see the most birds in that year.

From the movie ‘The Big Year’ available on DVD – 3 Twitchers on their Big Year

The term originated in the 1950s in reference to a British birdwatcher Howard Medhurst who would get showing nervous shaky behaviour when he started thinking of and pursuing a rare bird. His mate would say he is ‘on the twitch’. He is thought to have started the idea of travelling long distances purely for the purpose of seeing a particular bird species. Read this interesting article on the origin of the term ‘twitcher‘. Some have said it comes from the term tick hunter as they would be trying to tick off their list of birds to be seen, These people have taken the joy of birdwatching to an extreme, where it can become a quite competitive task, rather than a delightful enjoyable experience. Watch the above mentioned movie to learn more.

The above mentioned person may need personal counselling to rectify their behaviour when it starts to place important life relationships and care for one’s self and others on a lower priority to their bird quests. Sadly, as the movie shows, as with any addition, the lies that are told, the moody behaviour with its accompanying anxiety, is ultimately destructive, and also to those in relationship with the Twitcher. It is said that the natural hunter instinct of man is enacted in the process.

It easy to get overly passionate about birding – the hunter instinct

I have to confess that there was an occasion where I almost crossed over, and this can so easily occur as we begin to become passionate about our new found hobby, if we do not check our behaviour at regular intervals, or have not been trained to do so. People living stressful lives, driven to achieve, with extreme goal orientation, are more prone to become Twitchers. I pulled back as I saw I was being consumed by my obsession to find new birds, and I listened to my wife tell me the changes that she was seeing in me that were not healthy for our relationship. I thank God I pulled back and saw what she saw, and established guidelines for my behaviour.

I pulled back from almost ‘crossing over’ – almost becoming a Twitcher

I have drawn up my own comparison here for you to consider. I pray this will be helpful, even if only for one Birder on the brink of crossing over for I speak from experience, but not just as an almost victim, but also as a self assessing family counsellor. Please note: My definition of Twitcher may not agree with all who call themselves Twitchers. My main purpose is to highlight healthy from unhealthy behaviour, as the term Twitcher encompasses many displaying addictive behaviour.

Birdwatcher	Birder	Twitcher
Thinks about birds occasionally and does not distract from normal life.	Thinks about birds daily, possibly talks about them, this may only occasionally distract and interfere with normal life, but rarely.	Thinks about birds most of the day and takes up most of their conversation, and may interfere and distract them from normal life on a regular basis.
Seeks birds occasionally when on an outing, not necessarily to reason for the event.	Seeks and pursues birds recreationally on a regular basis, birds being the prime purpose of the outing.	Seeks birds and pursues them as the prime focus of thir life, always thinking of the next encounter and how & where they will view them.
May or may not use or even be aware of an ebird app. This will have little impact on weekend plans unless the sighting is nearby and unusual.	May use an ebird app at least once a week or more to help plan a weekend birding adventure, and may travel several hours or more to location but minimise cost.	Will most definitely use an ebird app and other means to access live and recent sightings. This will help determine their next day. They may travel long distances at great cost.
Weekends away & recreational walks may include bird watching, Binoculars may be optional unless kept in the car. Only done outside work hours.	Weekends away and day trips prime focus on finding birds. Always brings binoculars and camera. Only outside work hours with very infrequent day off during the week.	Any time during the week when rare birds and rare sightings seen, may interrupt normal work week and family functions to pursue birds on a regular basis.
Stress level Low to Moderate – seeing birds adds an interesting dimension to the outing and assists in lowering stress levels. They share their delight with those with them.	Moderate stress level – birding a healthy distraction from busy & stressful life. Excitement or disappointment with pursuit of birds mostly lowers stress levels but can at times be stressful. They love sharing their delight and knowledge.	High stress level – driven with high expectation and personal achievement. Addiction is stressful causing anxiety lacking peace. Hence the ‘twitch’ in Twitcher. Can be very selfish, guarded, not wanting to share.

Birding is an enjoyable experience most of the time. It is good and healthy to be passionate about people we love and things we love to do, but only when we have control of our passion, not allowing it to take control of us. Addiction encourages and paves the way for demonically inspired behaviour, which is physically, emotionally, socially (relationally) and mentally destructive. When I look at Jesus I see a man who was passionate for the good of others (unselfish love), having a totally balanced character, always in control of his person. Jesus was man as God had intended him to be, growing in all 4 aspects of life – healthy mind(pure loving thoughts with emotional stability), body(stature or health), spirit (with God) and relationships(with man). He trusted God’s Holy Spirit to guide him through life.

“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” – Luke 2:52

May your week be peaceful, satisfying, full of joy and enjoyable birding experiences.

If this is your first visit to my blog, why not check out my birding website pages from my Homepage.

Also check out my book you can purchase here online with secure PayPal or at any of these places. Check out the promo below.

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

Taking Birding to the Next Level – Races and Subspecies.

Posted by aussiebirder on September 8, 2018

Posted in: Australia, Australian Birds, Australian wildlife, Bird watching, Birding, Birds, Birdwatching, Fauna, National Parks, Nature, Nature reserve, Outings, Sydney, waders, water birds, wetlands, wildlife. Tagged: races, subspecies. 13 Comments

In our early years of bird watching, becoming birders, my wife and I would excitedly seek out new species which birders term lifers (having been sighted in the wild for the first time). I like to distinguish for my own sake a true lifer from a species I might view for the first time in a zoo or avery. This was the case with the rare and elusive Regent Honeyeater pictured above, notice the leg band. Because many of the birds in the wild now are banded, being ex zoo release birds, it is difficult for you to know if I shot this in the wild, but no, this was shot at Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney. Click on photo to enlarge.

Regent Honeyeater feeding on Grevillea flower at Zoo.

I had photographed this bird many times at Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney, where the birds are bred as a conservation effort in captivity, then banded, and released into the wild in their breeding areas. It was not till last year, that I photographed several non-banded birds in the wild that I was satisfied that I had a true lifer. See below…

Regent Honeyeater in Capertee NP

Regent Honeyeater in Mugga Ironbark blossom

Regent Honeyeater feeding on Ironbark blossom

As novices, my wife and I excitedly sought out holiday locations with the view of including birding as a vital part of our time-away. Many a committed birder knows the frustration of spending much time and money pursuing particular new or rare birds only to come home disappointed, this occurred many times with the above bird before I finally found it in the wild. Notice the more beautiful plumage and more classic bare skin around eye with the wild non zoo bred bird at the top of the page.

Regent Honeyeater eating from Ironbark blossom

Our mission together was to passionately engage as many new species of our beautiful and varied Australian birds as possible, eventually covering most of our country and surrounding islands. One book initially assisted us in seeking good birding locations, a well written and easy to follow book a friend gave me as a gift one year: ‘Best 100 Birdwatching Sites in Australia.’ by Sue Taylor. This is a book we highly recommend to those, like us, pursuing birding as an enjoyable recreation.

Sue Taylor’s book cover

Interesting enough, and long before I received this book, the front cover depicts the location and bird that originally hooked me into birding as a hobby and recreation. Yes, the Red-tailed Tropicbird (my trading logo and avatar) on Lord Howe Island, where I travelled to see this ‘backward flying bird’ as I first called it.

On a holiday to Western Australia, after visiting my son in Perth, we ventured down to the Margaret River region on the bottom South West tip of the continent. It was here that we started to realise and consider something we had not noted previously. My wife, the spotter (binoculars), would occasionally say to me, the shooter (camera), “Take this bird, I think it is different from ours!”. What she meant was the bird in question was also found in our local area, but it had some noticeably different characteristics to the trained eye, which she could observe better with binoculars. As you can see below it can be difficult to note any fine delineating characteristics between the south west WA race longirostris

and the eastern NSW, we see at home race novahollandiae

Back home, processing our birding treasures from the holiday, I discovered from consulting my field guides, my wife was correct. We had opened another exciting door and challenge to our birding experience, taking it to the next level. We had entered the field of seeking the various subspecies or races of particular Australian bird species. A race (subspecies) as it is termed in the ornithology books, is a morphologically distinct group of birds that can interbreed within the same species. This is where the captured still image is vital so morphological details of each bird can be studied in detail at home on the computer allowing race distinctions to be detected allowing correct classification.

New Holland Honeyeater Eastern race NSW

New Holland Honeyeater SW WA race.

These birds look very similar, sometimes identical, but there are differences in appearance, which are usually found groups geographically located by location. For example, I noted the race differences of the Masked Lapwing I featured from my recent Far North Queensland post comparing them to our local Sydney Masked Lapwing race. Primarily, the facial mask differed slightly in each of the two locations, northern Australia and southern Australia.

Masked Lapwing Northern race.

Good field guides list the various names of the current races, the morphological differences and their geographical location on the map of the country. Notice I used the word current, as ornithologists today are constantly reclassifying birds using more complex and scientific (genetic) means, than previously was the case. Older field guides will vary in the naming of some birds. In Australia several species of bird, found also in neighbouring countries, have been reclassified into new specifically geographic subspecies beginning with the name Australian or Australasian… Two recent examples as Purple Swamphen if found in Australia, is now Australasian Swamphen and the Darter in Australia is now called the Australasian Darter. The species Anhinga anhinga (specie name followed by subspecie/race name) has a subspecies (race) of Anhinga melanogester which is the Oriantal/Indian Darter BUT NOW Australia has its own subspecies Anhinga novaehollandiae. The Latin race name means New Holland (the Dutch name for Australia), since they were the first Europeans to discover it in 1606).

Australasian Darter

Australasian Swamphen

One of the first honeyeaters to be named (scientifically described) was the New Holland Honeyeater (discussed above) as it is one of the most prolific coastal honeyeaters in Sydney and all around the rugged Australian coastal scrublands of southern Australia. This species alone has 5 races within Australia in five geographical locations both on the continent and also Tasmania and its islands. This was the bird I wished I had photographed more when in SW WA, on my wife’s suggestion. Here are photos of three of the 5 races, see if you can see the distinguishing characteristics.

Tasmanian

SW WA

Eastern NSW

Australia has over 70 species of honeyeaters, more than anywhere else in the world, as well as the world’s largest in size. The great challenge at the next level is to track down and identify (using good observational skills) the various races within each of these species. Then of course, there are the many other bird species with subspecies. It must have been quite an exciting experience for the early European/English naturalists to find so many varieties of similar birds to their homeland birds which only have one species with no subspecies. Here are but a few…

Eastern Spinebill

Helmeted Friarbird

Yellow Honeyeater

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Brown Honeyeater

White-throated Honeyeater

Eastern Spinebill

New Holland Honeyeater

White-cheeked Honeyeater

Red Wattlebird

Noisy Friarbird

Lewin’s Honeyeater

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Noisy Miner

Striped Honeyeater

Scarlet Honeyeater

Scarlet Honeyeater male

Red-headed Honeyeater

Australia has 19 species of Robin of which these are but a few…

Pacific Robin male

In some cases more than one race of a particular species may exist in the same location as another, making it all the more challenging. An example of this was in our recent trip to Far North Queensland where we saw two different subspecies (races) of Little Shrike-thrush in the same location. They looked quite different morphologically.

(race rufogaster)

(race parvula)

For example, when we were birding in Britain we saw A Robin, A Cormorant and An Oystercatcher just to name a few for example. In Australia we have several if not many different species of these birds with the same species classification, and some of these even have several subspecies. In the Cormorant family we share the the Great Cormorant (Black Cormorant) with Europe but in addition have four others unique to Australia, the Little Black, the Little Pied, the Pied and the very rarely seen Black-faced Cormorant from the wild Southern ocean.

Great Cormorant

Little Black Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant

Pied Cormorant

Black-faced Cormorant

To conclude, the scientific approach to birding is that nothing can be taken for granted (assumed) from a distance, only careful observation and attention to detail will reward the astute birder with exciting discoveries and findings at the next level. This observational skill, accompanied with the latest bird field guide will bring an added appreciation for the wonderful variety of creatures even within a single species and how Intelligent Design could only be the origin of such an interdependent complex and beautiful system by a thoroughly awesome and amazing intelligent Creator. Here then is my source of knowledge, wisdom and understanding, as I seek His embrace and His best for my life.

“How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” – Psalm 104:24

“For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” – Proverbs 2:6

Have a wonderful week birding! We did not do any birding this week but we do give thanks for the good rain that has blessed us this last few days and hopefully will bring our birds back to breed.

If this is your first visit to my blog, why not check out my birding website pages from my Homepage.

Also check out my book you can purchase here online with secure PayPal or at any of these places. Check out the promo below.

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

For our final leg of our journey, and for this series, we drive down from the Atherton Tablelands and make our way to Cairns, the major tourist city for Far North Queensland, with its famous birding stretch known as the Esplanade Boardwalk, which runs along the waterfront through a beautiful bird rich reserve. This walk sports tree birds feeding in native fruit trees on one side and shorebirds, waders and sea birds on the other. We walked from our accommodation onto the waterfront reserve where we strolled with camera clicking for a couple of kilometers toward the town centre. Interesting sculptures and artworks were also along the reserve.

The very first bird to draw our attention with its very unique call, was the Black Butcherbird, which is only found up here in the top end of Australia. It was deep in the sub canopy of a very large fig tree, in quite poor light. Butcherbirds get their name because of their tendency to hang their prey of small reptiles and birds from the forks of trees or impale them on branches, though they are essentially insectivorous. Notice the hooked beak. Click on photos to enlarge them.

Black Butcherbird

All along the reserve lined with fruiting rainforest fruit trees the sounds of frenzied feeding was heard from several species of birds aggressively and noisily feeding. The main bird is the Australian Figbird. The far northern race (subspecies) has a much brighter red eye ring than our southern race, and a more yellow throat and chest, but the female looks much the same for both races being brown with a bluish grey eye ring.

Another frenzied feeder was the Metallic Starling with its beautiful shining metallic plumage and bright red eye..

I had a little trouble working out who this one was. Was it a cross between a female Figbird and an Oriole, no, it actually is a immature Metallic Starling. Note the red eyes.

The Dusky Honeyeater, another bird found only up here, was checking the flowers for nectar with its long curved beak. This video has been slowed to half speed.

On the large lawn area of the reserve we saw a small flock of of the tiny finch like Nutmeg Mannikin grazing on the grass seed. They grazed in family units often, two adults and one or two juvenile. The juvenile lacks the patterns on the chest and front of body.

Nutmeg Mannikin

Juvenile nutmeg Mannikin

Nutmeg Mannikin

Nutmeg Mannikin family

Nutmeg Mannikin

Nutmeg Mannikin adult

Nutmeg Mannikin

As we walked along the waterfront we were blessed with the fact that it was low tide coming in, as the shore birds, which included migratory waders that had not returned to Alaska to breed this season. The Bar-tailed Godwit was out first encounter foraging on the mud flats.

We were elated to find a small flock of Whimbrel a fare way out by the shore, many were sleeping but some exploring in the late afternoon sun.

I only managed one good shot at this Eastern Reef Egret in dark morph as it flew over.

The occasional Caspian Tern was also present.

Caspian Tern with Gull-bill Tern

Caspian Tern with sleeping Gull-bill Tern

Our greatest find was the Gull-billed Tern, another bird found only up the north end, Breeding plumage has the black cap on the head and non-breeding just a black mark on the eye.

This Great Egret gave a beautiful landing…

and then watched this pair of Australian Pelican glide just above the water line and land with its friends to hunt below the water.

There were some Sandpiper way out near the waterline, but I could not identify what kind they were. They are always difficult being so many so similar.

It was also a thrill to see the Black-fronted Dotterel pair in the late afternoon light…

Lastly, the Sacred Kingfisher, a beautiful bird often seen on the mud flats…

Before we left we took a walk along the Jack Barnes Mangrove Boardwalk near the airport where some very fast and tiny birds were seen. Here one can see several different species of mangrove in the one place. Lovely Fairy-wrens are also reported to be seen here, but not on the day we where there. These birds were too fast

mangrove flower

Before I finish I would recommend a book to my Aussie birder friends, that I recently read, called ‘Where Song Began’. Tim Low, the author, has extensive experience as a biologist with Australian animals and birds and has rubbed shoulders with many of the world’s ornithologists and conversationalists. If you can read without letting the ‘millions of years’ evolutionary hypothetical reasoning get to you ( interesting enough, Tim mentions how the postulations of these so called scientists constantly change regarding the origins and evolutionary history) you will learn many interesting facts about our birds. What is interesting and scientific, is Tim’s observations and information he has gathered about Australia’s birds and how through the years up to today we can understand better why our birds are so different to those of the northern hemisphere. One interesting truth that he shares near the end of the book is how the early so called Naturalists (European settlers including John Guild) would wantonly kill with rifle so many birds, and steal their eggs in the name of scientific study, which of course was a hypocritical disaster. Many shot our birds and animals, some to extinction, and many depleted to the extent that they now do not exist in places in any great number. The good news is that man, the hunter, has traded his rifle for a camera and binoculars and can now shoot the birds and animals without causing their demise. Now most people actually feed the birds and water them instead of eating them and shooting them for sport, feathers and taxidermy. An interesting and enlightening read for every Aussie birder. This is a Penguin publication.

Have you checked out my website for interesting facts on birding from my menu on Homepage?

Have you checked out my Special Sightings page and seen my latest Powerful Owl photos?

Have you checked out my book ‘What Birds Teach Us’ on my Birdbook page. You can buy your copy here online through secure PayPal, or send me an email via my AboutUs page to buy several copies, as it makes a great Christmas or Birthday gift for all ages?

The lesson I learned for this week came from reading Tim Low’s book mentioned above. It was an interesting exercise to read a book heavily steeped in a philosophy I do not hold to and yet despite this, be edified and taught from Tim’s many scientific observations. The art of gleaning truth is much needed today more than ever in our humanistic society. Many of our youth today have become accustomed to believing information simply because it is on the internet, and so conclude it must be true, but that is far from the truth. God warns me in his Bible in these ‘last days’ to be alert and wise and not caught sleeping in the complacency of popular opinion as the ‘prince of this world‘ deceives and confuses the minds of God’s beloved children.

“For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” – Proverbs 2:6 (NIV)

The good news is that we I not been left alone and helpless but God has provided for me as I partner and bond my life to Jesus, God’s Son. Jesus tells me:

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” – John 16:13

Have a wonderful week and please pray for a break in our drought, as some inland towns have no water and food for their stock, and over 80 bushfires are burning many out of control, possibly more will start in the strong winds of today!

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

Travelling further north in Far North Queensland we spent a night at Mission Beach where it is known one would see the world’s most dangerous and Australia’s second largest flightless bird, the Southern Cassowary. All visitors to the top end are warned ‘Be wary of the Cassowary’ not so much because of the bony head piece or casque, but because of their huge clawed feet with three toes, the innermost having a huge claw which it uses to attack. After tearing open the victim they jump on them. They have been known to bang on doors and break glass to get entry, or to attack their own reflection.

It is one of the few birds that can and has killed humans and animals when provoked. We were at Mission Beach on the weekend of the Cassowary Festival, but not one bird could be seen. However there are signs all along the road warning of recent Cassowary crossings. A friend gave us a tip off to go to nearby Etty Beach and that is where these photos came from. A pair quite tame birds, did the rounds for food in the caravan park, hiding out on nearby private property. This video shows how tall they can stand when picking fruit.

Humans driving cars are the reason numbers are depleting, including depleted habitat. When people feed wild animals they come to them for more food. A car means humans means food, to a unsuspecting Cassowary, which results in death, as you can see by the sign warning below. These birds are fruit eaters, and it has recently been realised they are most important in maintaining the integrity of rainforest by pooing out the seeds from the fruit they eat at various locations. When these birds are gone the rainforest may start to deplete itself of new growth and die.

Another lifer, the Pheasant Coucal, was sighted from quite a distance coming out of the rainforest for a moment and I managed to get one shot before it saw me and fled. I had seen these beautiful birds several times flying off into the forest as I drove along the road A tourist from the Czech Republic joined me as we tried to find the bird. Click on photos to enlarge them.

Leaving the coast we made our up into the hinterland of the famous Atherton Tablelands where the thickest rainforest exists, and the home of the Tree Kangaroo which we managed to see in the pouting rain. We had to go over unsealed rough roads with the hire care at only 20 km/hr, but we were determined and praying the whole way that the car would be OK, and thankfully it was. It was pouring rain most of the time up there, and this footage was taken high up in the light deprived canopy.

Lumholtz’s Tree Kangaroo is the species found almost exclusively in this region. Papua and New Guinea also have their own species. They feed on leaves and fruit from the native forest. Their very long tail has no visible function as it does not grab or hold, it just hangs down. This was a lifer in the wild for us both. Unlike other kangaroos it spends its life in rainforest trees where it seldom comes down, but to relocate to food sources.

Tree Kangaroo

While up in the Atherton area we actually stayed in an Eco Lodge deep in the rainforest, where each morning and night we not only heard the rain and the the strange sounds of the rainforest birds calling, but actually got to feed some of the regular visitors to our cabin. The two lifers that came to visit were the Spotted Catbird and the female Victoria Riflebird. Sadly the colorful male Riflebirds are usually further north this time of year. The chubby Lewins Honeyeater, a rainforest bird we are well acquainted with down south was our most frequent visitor, eating pieces of fruit we put out on the railing, as we sat and sipped our wine and cheese.

Apologies for the visual noise in the video clip as it was quite dark facing into the rainforest most of the time, especially in the rain. Most of the rainforest birds, and in fact most Australian birds are fruit eaters, nectar eaters, insect eaters and Lerps eaters, but for rainforest birds native fruits and insects are thew main diet..

Each morning we were awakened to the sounds of the Catbird calling and the Orange-footed Scrubfowl. You can’t mistake the loud Catbird sound which woke us up, and the Scrubfowl is making the unusual loud warbling cackle occasionally and some other bird is making the regular single note chime. It sounded like this…

We did manage to see an Orange-footed Scrubfowl digging outside of the forest while the common Australian Brush Turkey wandered around. The Brush Turkey is very brazen and has no fear, it would try and steal the food we put out for the shy rainforest birds. They are a problem in Sydney also for destroying gardens and building their mounds in unpopular places.

Orange-footed Scrubfowl

Australian Brush Turkey females

Orange-footed Scrubfowl

Australian Brush Turkey females

The Little Shrike-thrush was a common bird here in the rainforest also, it was frequenting the gardens of the Eco lodge.

(race rufogaster)

While near Atherton we took drive to famous Hastie’s Swamp a great haven for waterbirds, and always full of Plumed Whistling Ducks, they were there in their hundreds whistling away.

They are a beautiful looking bird, the males have the larger longer plumes, and a true flock bird. We saw many of these birds in various places on our travels far north.

Plumed Whistling Duck male

Plumed Whistling Duck

Several families of Pink-eared Duck and a few only of Australia’s rarest endemic waterfowl, the Freckled Duck, which is not normally seen this far north. Freckled Duck but they like usual, being shy of humans were some distance and sleeping on the water as you will see in my one good shot below..

Freckled Duck sleeping

Pink-eared Duck

You can learn more about the Pink-eared Duck from reading my book “What Birds Teach Us” which you can order here online. Visit my BirdBook page to find out more. Thank you so much everyone for your wonderful reviews, so glad it is blessing people of all ages.

Also, if you have not visited my new Special Sightings page and seen my latest entry the Powerful Owl (male and female), Australia’s largest owl, we saw last weekend, with Possum prey hanging on display from beneath the talon of the male click here. and I’ll take you there.

You may remember this sequence of events in the first video clip of this post…

The lesson I learn from the Southern Cassowary is that so called human kindness can be to the dire detriment of the bird. No matter how tame the bird might appear to be, this camper is doing the right thing in preventing the bird from stealing his food, he as the saying goes being cruel to be kind by discouraging the bird from coming to humans for handouts, which is the main cause of them being killed on roads, as well as attacking people and destructively breaking into houses. Notice how this man wisely rebuked the bird standing behind the table and making minimum eye contact. It was the following picture, my wife took, which caused me to see the spiritual aspect in all this.

Here in this photo man and wild bird have respect and lack of fear for each other, the man appreciating this special moment with this bird which is capable of killing him if it felt threatened or become aggressive demanding food. Many of Australia’s territorial birds are aggressive. As an aside: Australia has the largest percentage of aggressive birds in the world, and it is partly due to their diet and their territorial controls, as they compete for nectar, lerps and fruit. You are more likely to be attacked by a bird in Australia than any where else, and other birds and other animals are included as victims.

Interesting enough, the above picture occurs after the above series of the man chastising the bird for trying to steal his food. Today, sadly, we are seeing many problems with youth not having respect and consideration for others. This selfishness is partly due to the lack of discipline the parents have not employed during the child’s formative years. The secular humanistic philosophies which have departed from the life principles of the Creator has contributed to this. The spare the rod and spoil the child has come about because many parents disciplined out of anger, frustration and cruel punishment instead of out of loving correction, which uses a bare minimum of physical corrective contact while the child is very young. As with the Cassowary, when a child is allowed to always have its way, and becomes dependent on us to give it what it wants, we set a pattern for their future downfall in life, leading to possible depressive and loveless mindset, and in some cases suicide (internalized rage) or violent anger (externalized rage). As parents we need to firstly model the behaviour we want for our children by loving them, and the most important way we can do this is to love our spouse, for this is what they will learn more so than words, as the old adage says: it is better felt than telt. We teach our children and grandchildren more from how we live and speak than from anything we tell them to do, or even discipline them for. All discipline is meant in to be loving correction of bad behaviour BEFORE it gets out of hand, not for our own gain, but for the overall future good of the child. The types of discipline change with the growing child. God himself does the same with me, as she shapes my life and disciplines me when I become selfish and do things in a way detriment to his best for my life.

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.’ – Hebrews 12: 5-11 (NIV)

Have a wonderful week!

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

Leaving Townsville, we drive a hire car up the coast northward to our next stop, the Tyto Wetlands Centre in Ingham. Birders had told us this was a must visit place and we were not disappointed seeing several lifers, the first being the Crimson Finch, pictured above. These tiny birds were constantly flying and landing in the tall grass where they find their seed diet. The male is bright crimson and the female mainly around the head and tail. and juveniles mainly grey/brown. Click on photo to enlarge it.

Crimson Finch (male)

Crimson Finch male

Crimson Finch (male)

Crimson Finch (female)

Crimson Finch (juvenile)

Female Crimson Finch

The name Tyto is named after the rare Eastern Grass Owl (Tyto capensis) which is found there in the grassland during the latter part of the year. This wetlands is well cared for by the local council and has well marked walks, including crocodile warnings, which concerned my wife, though the only croc we saw while up north was a baby one in Reef HQ (the largest coral aquarium in the world, at Townsville). Crocs are river dwellers mainly, and can get washed out into coastal areas during the wet season.

Walking the circuit we saw several types of habitat including bush, open forest, grassland, lake, and pandanas forest.

The red-backed Fairy-wren was again a great delight.

One of the common birds seen up here quietly sitting in trees is the Spangled Drongo, which is usually identified by its classic tail and shimmering bluish/black metallic plumage.

We were surprised to find two kinds of Shrike-thrush next to each other in the woodlands both different races of Little Shrike-thrush, both lifers. These races (subspecies) are found only in this part of Australia.

(race parvula)

Little Shrike-thrush race rufogaster)

I had wondered where the Rufous Whistlers had gone during the drought, finding one here.

But another lifer brought excitement to my wife, the White-browed Robin which is only found in Far North Queensland, her namesake. The English have a Robin but we have 17 different species of Robin. No these are not the same photos notice the tail, a feature of the robins is how they flick their tails up and down while perched.

Another bird only seen this far north was this White-gaped Honeyeater. I guess when you have over 70 honeyeaters and many have white markings on their face, it gets difficult to name them accordingly, so this one is gaped.

Another passerine lifer was this Brush Cuckoo, which has the feature of looking like a cuckoo but without the usual white tips on the upper tail being obvious. If you look closely you can detect bands showing through the brown upper tail, this can make it difficult to call.

The most prolific bird seen here by the lakes is of course the Forest Kingfisher, beautifully attired in his bright blue vest, standing out against the brown mud and reeds. I managed to convince him to fly so you can appreciate his full beauty.

Forest Kingfisher resting

Forest Kingfisher resting with Peaceful Doves

Forest Kingfisher in flight

Other classic waterside birds included the Australasian Darter and the Intermediate Egret, one we do not see much of down south.

So we come now to the lakes, the actual wetlands. Here is a panorama of the area, which includes the Comb-crested Jacana who was my first bird seen here on the water, and quickly hid from me.

But the most exciting find on the water was not the Hardheads which were close to shore, but the unusual looking birds afloat, way out in the middle of the lake, well away from us. My wife trained her trusty binoculars, which she proudly purchased from the London Wetlands Centre a few years ago, on these birds which turned out again to be lifers. The Green Pygmy-Goose and the Cotton Pygmy-Goose were peacefully together with the Hardheads and the Wandering Whistling Ducks. The Cotton Pygmy-Goose was a lifer for me not just in the wild but ever.

Green Pygmy-Goose pair

Green Pygmy-Goose with Hardheads

Green Pygmy-Goose

Cotton Pygmy-Goose and Wandering Whistling Ducks

Green Pygmy-Goose pair

Hardheads landing near Cotton Pygmy-Goose

Green Pygmy-Goose flying off

Notice the black eye marking of the male Cotton Pygmy-Goose and the lack thereof in the females, one fore and aft of the male.

And of course, there is always one lone Australasian Grebe, this one with some breeding plumage, in the lake. I am sure there are others somewhere else.

Our visit here had been a great delight, though the fear of crocs was a little off putting for my wife. We had seen several lifers. We would now make our way further north to the rainforest areas visiting Mission Beach and the Atherton Tablelands for some very unique birdlife, but that will be in my next post.

Check out my NEW Special Sightings page. which shares special local birding highlights, unique and rare sightings. See my latest shots of the Powerful Owl with prey. Check out my HomePage for more birding tips, inspirational and info pages.

At Reef HQ in Townsville we saw many species of coral and tropical fish including the most unusual Clownfish which spends most of its time swimming in among the tentacles of the Sea Anemone. Sea Anemones are predators that attach themselves to rocks or coral. There, they sit and wait until a fish swims close enough to attack with its tentacles. Clownfish are one of the only species that can survive the deadly sting of the Sea Anemone.

By making the anemone their home, Clownfish become immune to its sting. These fish will gently touch every part of their bodies to the anemone’s tentacles until it no longer affects them. A layer of mucus then forms on the clown fish’s body to prevent it from getting stung again. This relationship reminds me of living under my Father God’s loving care. As I grow from a child to an adult I am initially disciplined so as to learn to live a good life.

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?” – Hebrews 12:7

As I remain under the care of our loving Father we remain protected from the Enemy, that is not the Anemone, who we are warned, lurks about the world around us, seeking to lead us to destruction.

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8

Abnormal, selfish, destructive addictive behaviour results when I make myself vulnerable to bad decisions and thoughts. I am only safe in my loving Father’s own prescriptive plan for a good life, which he designed and created for,when I remain in his loving protection close to Him, knowing He is always close to me. His Love Letter the Bible contains all I need for His best for my life.

‘Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. “I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.” – Psalm 16:1,2

Check out my book “What Birds Teach Us” on my Birdbook page.

Now that I have cut back from full-time work, my second book is under way, featuring more Australian birds and their unusual characteristics. In a similar way to the first book, it is set in a counseling context, but for families, many of which are also in crisis and need of life skills to assist them with proven life experiences and life skills for making good life decisions. This book “Birds of a Feather – Family Forever.” will again be a unique work presented in a simple readable format similar to my first book. I have been greatly encouraged by many important people in my life, who are awaiting this much needed work, and hopefully will become another non-confronting counseling tool for all ages. This book will be an asset for young adults planning for relationship and family giving helpful tools and insights for a Together Forever life.

Please Note: Increases to postage, packaging and handling fees required the small increase in purchase price. However, buying here online remains the least expensive place to buy your copy compared to most retail shops which sell for $35 in Australia.

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

Continuing our Far North Queensland birding adventure we share this week two major lifers. A true lifer for me is one that I spot and photograph in the wild in its usual habitat. It was in a beach side park on Magnetic Island, a resort island just off the coast of Townsville that we saw our first Blue-winged Kookaburra (see male above). Magnetic Island gets its name because of the apparent “magnetic” effect it had on the ship’s compass of Captain Cook as he passed the island when sailing up the east coast of Australia in 1770. Click on photos to enlarge them.

Male

Female

The wonder of our discovery was that we saw both mail and female together in the same tree, and they were not afraid to sit and watch us give them so much attention. The key differentiation feature is their tail. The male has a blue tail and the female a brown (see above).

These Kookaburras not only look different to our Laughing Kookaburra but they also sound different. In their almost cricket like call, undertones of their cousin can be heard.

Both specie of Kookaburra are found up here. This Laughing Kookaburra was singing while he held his prey in his mouth. A pair of Blue-faced Honeyeater, which are known to be aggressive, looked like they were about to take him on but it was a stand off. They may have a nest nearby to protect.

The Laughing Kookaburra puts the true “Kook, Kook” sound into Kookaburra.

Seeing the the pair of Blue-wings was a real treat for us, especially seeing the male flying as you can see below. Here you can see the difference in species. They both have blue on their wing but the Blue-winged as much more.

Male

Female

flight shot

While spending a day on the island we saw several raptors including an immature bedraggled Brahminy Kite, a Whistling Kite, Rainbow Bee-eater, and two kinds of Kingfisher, both Forest and Sacred. It was interesting to see the Sacred Kingfishers on the beaches. We drove around looking for a lagoon we could not find access to and passed a grassed fenced cow paddock and saw these Agile Wallaby grazing as were Straw necked Ibis.

As we admired the Wallaby we noticed two strange creature resting under a small tree right in the centre of the field, YES! they were the Bush Stone-curlew, we were looking for on the island, as we were told they are common here. They are usually in pairs, resting in the day and hunting at night where they feed on feed on insects, molluscs, small lizards, seeds and occasionally small mammals. They were some distance from the road.

Bush Stone-curlew on Magnetic Island

The next day, back in Townsville as drove through a noisy intersection we saw a very large fenced oval in one of the suburbs, when my wife excitedly called out “There they are, pull over quickly!” There were about twenty Bush Stone-curlew occupying family groups all around the field, keeping distance from each group. They appeared safe from dogs in this closed area which they could move out from at night. They rested out in the open using their camouflage plumage and remaining completely motionless. They appear to stand looking male to female but this is pure protection as they cover each others back from all directions. It is safer to stand in an open field where you can easily see who is approaching, so you have no surprise attacks, and there is time to fly to safety.

strutting to safety

resting while others are on the lookout

gathering around the waterhole

resting

A dog in a ute started barking while the car waited for the lights to change which set the bunch into alarm calls for a minute or more. The dog had been driven away, but they continued to cry for a time. This is how it sounded:

Here is some video footage from the same field:

That night we decided to eat at a lovely waterside restaurant on The Strand. To our amazement and delight we saw many Bush Stone-curlew walking around the streets, waterfront reserve and beach hunting. Many people were also out going to and from dining venues and the birds kept their distance but seemed tame enough to walk around us walking away when approached, something they had possibly done for many years as they shared this space with humans at night. We often heard the screaming of these birds at night as they met socially and hunted, however they appeared to hunt individually, returning to their safe havens by morning. This was a daily occurrence in Townsville and Magnetic Island. Sadly I did not have my movie camera with me to capture footage of this, but next time your in Townsville at night you can see it for yourself. So there you have it, two wonderful lifers we experienced.

So it was the sighting of these Agile Wallaby that caused us to notice the birds we were seeking, and could not find, as they were standing in the same paddock, but under the cover of a small tree. God sometimes is trying to teach us something in life but we fail to see or understand what it is, even though the truth he wants to convey is right in front of us. So he positions the Wallaby to catch our attention and finally cause us to notice what is right before us, but standing under the tree. So often we look for life’s answers in the wrong place, from the wrong source or the wrong people, when God in his loving kindness keeps pointing us back to his promises and assurances given to us through faith access in Jesus. To do this he helps us refocus and re direction our looking by replacing the wrong with the right advice, from the right source by the right person. God’s book the Bible gets us back on track.

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” – Psalm 119:105

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart’ and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight”. – Proverbs 3:5,6

“The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.” – Proverbs 14:6

Simon Peter answered him [Jesus], “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” – John 6:68

Take a look at my HomePage there is a new addition in Something Special.

Before you go you might like to view my personal Blood Moon shots from the lunar eclipse early Saturday morning on my BloodMoon page.

Thank you Takami from Japan and other followers who have recently purchased my book here online, and thank you for the wonderful encouraging reviews I have received. For those who have not checked it out, you can read for yourself Takami’s comment/review is on my birdbook page. Check out the rest of my website for birding info at my Homepage.

Have a wonderful week!

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Should you desire to use any of the material published on this website please contact the author as a Comment or by email via the AboutUs page

Black-necked Stalk (Jabaru)

In the next six weeks we will present a series on birds of the tropical north of Australia following a wonderful birding exploration of the last two weeks. We flew to Townsville in Far North Queensland where we spent 5 days exploring some Australia’s famous wetlands, in particular Townsville Common. These low lying coastal wetlands fill up during the heavy wet season of summer and provide food for many species of waterbirds during the winter months, some of which I will showcase below. The longer than usual wet season caused a reduction in bird numbers on our visit.

A peculiar feature of Townsville is the large pink granite rock called Castle Hill (Rock) that towers behind the town, which is only 8 metres short of a mountain. From its top a wonderful birds-eye view of the city and the wetlands can be obtained.

My wife and I visited the Common on several occasions and saw a variety of both water and tree birds. The most exciting sightings were of the Jabaru, the Brolga (at a distance), the Comb-crested Jacana, the White-necked Heron, Magpie Geese and the several species of raptor that constantly circled over the wetlands looking for vulnerable subjects. Straw-necked Ibis are plentiful here and around town also. I love the iridescence of colour in the birds wing plumage.

The weather here was warm and cloudy while it poured rain just 100 km further up the coast. We felt very blessed to have escaped the bitter cold of Sydney’s winter weather. The Black-necked Stork or Jabaru as it is known is wrongly named, as you can see below, it sports a beautiful iridescent blue neck in the sunlight. Sadly the female (which is differentiated from the male by having a bright yellow eye) was quite shy and flew off leaving her partner alone to our camera.

Black-necked Stork

We enjoyed chatting with Matt, a local birder, about the Common. Matt shared that as the wetlands dry up toward the end of winter, thousands of birds start gathering around these last wetland areas. I joked about the name Jabaru as I watched Australia’s only stalk repeatedly jab its long powerful beak into the shallow waters hunting for small creatures. The Brolga were quite shy and stayed in the tall reeds at some distance, so I apologise for the poor footage and photos. Brolga are known for their beautiful dance routine when in flock, but the tall grass is no place for dancing. The elegance of the Brolga can be seen in this clip of them landing.

Brolga

Flock of Brolga

Jabaru and Brolga

As you can see these water birds all live harmoniously together, despite eating similar food, unlike the honeyeaters that fight over nectar blossom.

A single White-necked Heron dropped in to check us out and forage nearby the Jabaru.

The beautiful elegant Great White Egret were in great number scattered throughout the wetlands as were the Intermediate .

This White-faced Heron did a fly past to avoid attention.

White-faced Heron

Interesting enough, when we first passed these ponds we saw no birds much at all, and we both disappointingly kept saying “Nothing, nothing!” as we drove all the way to the Jacana Pond where all we saw at first were hundreds of Grey Teal. You will notice an occasional Hardhead in among them, maybe they thought they were Grey Teal, or maybe just joined the throng for company.

We had read and heard about this place, how this was the best place to see waterbirds, but our hopes seem dashed. So instead of feeling sorry for ourselves and complaining to God, to selfishly ask for him to make them appear, we were humbled to to pray toegther asking our loving Heavenly Father, what it was HE wanted to show us, and he did. This displays one of the exciting features of our birding adventures. Birds are quite mobile and can relocate quickly making a revisit of a previously birdless area all the more interesting. This was the case when we prayed after experiencing bird empty ponds. On return the birds were there, no great numbers, that is, but representatives of the species we expected to see. One very peculiar bird in a classification all of its own, the Magpie Goose, a large flock bird is found in great number here.

The greatest delight for me was to see the Comb-crested Jacana which is known jokingly to many as the Jesus bird because it appears to walk on water. In actual fact this very small bird walks on water plants such as water-lily. It has long stick like toes which allow it to spread its weight over the leaf. These birds are seen in greatest number here and also in the Ross River wetlands nearby.

Notice that the juveniles seen here have more orange and flat head dress where as the adult has the bright red comb head dress. Jacana are difficult to get clear photographs, them being so small and so shy, as they take flight when they see you.

If you want to have a birding feast of raptors, the far northern Australia is the place to go, there are raptors visibly seen flying almost every where you look. The three raptors we saw surveying the wetlands were the Brahminy Kite, Black Kite and Swamp Harrier.

Brahminy Kite

Black Kite

Swamp Harrier

So our loving Father turned the day around for us, for as we drove back to the previous birdless areas birds were present, including interesting passerines in the surrounding forest, but these have to be for next week. Matt, the local birder we met, was also rejoicing at the numbers of different species he photographed afterwards also. My wife and I take God along with us when we bird, not to let him share the experience with us. “Lord, what is that you want us to see, what do you have for us, to teach and encourage us?” It is the intimate living loving relationship that we share with God through the Holy Spirit he has put within us that our birding experience, and most all experiences, are experienced at a much more enjoyable and meaningful level. We have hearts filled with an attitude of gratitude like little children we receive the blessings of gifts and surprises from a generous Father.

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never end.
They are new and fresh every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.” – Lamentations 3: 22-26

Yes it is true, I have finished full time work in medical science and currently finishing a few weeks as part time as well as helping train new staff. I will now explore the offer to become a birding tour guide in the Southern Highlands.

Thank you to the blog followers who have purchased my book here online, and thank you for the wonderful encouraging reviews I have received. For those who have not checked it out go to my birdbook page. Check out the rest of my website for birding info at my Homepage.

Have a wonderful week!

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Should you desire to use any of the material published on this website please contact the author as a Comment or by email via the AboutUs page

Birding’s Beautiful Bird Bonuses – The Rose Robin

Posted by aussiebirder on June 23, 2018

Posted in: Australia, Australian Birds, Australian wildlife, Bird watching, Birding, Birds, Birdwatching, National Parks, Nature, Nature reserve, Outings, Sydney, Uncategorized. Tagged: Oatley Park Reserve, Rose Robin.

One of the great joys of birding is the surprises it brings of finding birds that you did not expect to find in places unexpected. Because birds are able to fly and relocate with ease, they can drop in to almost anywhere in search of food or on their way to a better habitat. A portion of forest, park or reserve today may be quietly hosting a rare or unusual bird without the knowledge of the local population.

My simple post this week, as we prepare to leave for our much needed holiday, is this male Rose Robin I found at the end of a seemingly fruitless walk in my favorite reserve. As I have shared previously, the extended el neno drought and extremely hot long summer had sent many birds away, but after recent rain some are returning. This little fellow had been seen many months ago in the area where I found him again, when he surprisingly appeared last Wednesday. He was very quiet, and could easily have been missed but he flew in front of me and landed for half a minute with his bright red chest shining all so brightly.

He seemed to want to turn away from me and was not afraid of my presence. Australia is blessed with about 15 different species of Robin, and with Robyn being my wife’s name and the name of several of her close friends, it is a popular bird. We have 5 species of Robin with different shades of red/orange/pink other than Rose there is Pink, Flame, Scarlet and Red-capped. When viewed from behind it is difficult to know what specie they are.

The chest and frontal coloring and where the colour starts and finishes all assist in correctly specifying the Robin. I would occasionally wrongly specify these birds when I first started birding because I did not pay attention to detail, but that is one of features of learning the birds, the more we come to know them the more we are able to go back to our photos and correct any discrepant labeling.

As you can see above, they are not very large birds. They are basically small insectivorous territorial non migratory perennials, as well they eat eat grubs and worms they may uncover. The female lacks the bright red chest and looks quite plain brown without the red. Checkout my website for more birding info at aussiebirder.com

This book is a wonderful Christmas or Birthday present for a preteen, or anyone who loves birds, or whom you may introduce Australian birds to. At a bargain price much cheaper than the book shops you can buy it here online from my website. Read more at my birdbook page. Here is a promotional video for National Parks shops.

Sample page from ‘What Birds Teach Us’

The verses that inspired me to write the book, and as I I have shared in many of my talks , there is evidence to support that Jesus himself was a birder, and watched and studied birds.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at [study intently] the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? – Matthew 6:25-34

It appears WordPress was hit by a spam freak last night sending thousands of comments to WordPress users blog posts all saying’What ?’ so if you see this you will know this is an attack on WordPress which has caused problems for their server, overloading their spam filter.

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Should you desire to use any of the material published on this website please contact the author as a Comment or by email via the AboutUs page

Winter has finally come in all its coldness, which brings with it clear brisk sunny days which are great for bush walking and of course birding. Most of the venomous snake species are hibernating, and with recent rains many bird species are returning to their usual territories, as the forests start to rehydrate after a long hot drought.

Being watched

I was delighted to find this pair of Tawny Frogmouth return to the same tree they deserted some months ago after a terrible storm that blew down the branch they sat on during the day. The female is the slightly smaller bird on the left hand side. Note the rufous on her shoulder. It is an excellent time to get out and discover new parks and reserves to explore, and find new birds and natural treasures. I was surprised to find Malabar Headlands National Park south east of Sydney, overlooking Maroubra and Malabar beaches, a small but well tracked and signed park. Click on photos to enlarge them.

It sits on top of a sandstone ridge, and has waterholes and markings of past aboriginal presence including rock art, stone axe-sharpening grooves and ancient middens. This was a meeting place for local tribes, having million dollar views of the ocean and coast line. The vegetation is scrubby, mostly low lying bushes with only a few Winter wildflowers in bloom, supporting the few honeyeaters that live in the park. Australian Native Fuchsia, Banksia ericiflora and Sydney Wattle are the main flowers.

Banksia ericifolia

Australian Native Fuchsia

Australian Native Fuchsia in the light

Sydney Wattle

sandstone rock platform

rock pools give water to birds

Native Fuchsia

The most predominant bird seen here and on most coastal heath lands and coastal forest is the New Holland Honeyeater, a very robust little bird found darting quickly through the bushes, and often seen sitting on high vantage points.

New Holland Honeyeater

The greatest delight for me as I walked the track was to watch this pair of New Hollands bathing in a rock pool, a product of much needed recent rains. Here is a a series of one bird having his bath.

The Native Fuchsia flowering in winter provide nectar for one particular bird which is found here. A bird that has a specifically designed beak to insert its beak deep into these tubular flowers. This bird is of course the Eastern Spinebill which looks so stunningly beautiful in the sunlight. In the last photo you can see the bird accessing the tube of the flower.

Eastern Spinebill

A real gem of a find was this Brown Gerygone, a usually very difficult bird to photograph, as it is always on the move, and flees from humans, however I even managed to catch the bird hovering over leaves catching insects. It is very difficult to speciate these birds unless you can see the outspread tail and interpret its pattern. I was richly blessed to catch this bird while hovering and see its tail pattern which confirmed it as a Brown and not a Mangrove or Western specie. Notice how small this bird is, which makes it a challenge at times to even see it. This bird is mostly insectivorous, unlike the honeyeaters which thrive on nectar and insects.

This bird is known for its call which like its name sounds like ‘Gerigenee, Gerigenee’…

The most unexpected find at the outer rim of this park was this par of Red-whiskered Bulbul, which normally would have migrated north to the top of Australia, Indonesia & Malaysia, but here they are in Winter.

We all need to appreciate that some birding expeditions may only grant us a few different specie, no ‘lifers’ and nothing out of the ordinary. However, birding is more than just finding new birds, its taking in the beauty and serenity of the habitat that birds enjoy and thrive in. The plants, animals, landforms and scenery all make for a delightful experience, and together with the birds assist in earthing us and reducing our stress levels. Working in a lab where you do not see outside four walls much at all has its toll on ones well being week after week, and the weekend is time to get out and about in the fresh air and sunshine to revive ones heart and spirit, as God intended for us, especially in the cooler months. Thankfully I am entering my last week of full time work, and after our holiday up in Far North Queensland (which I hope to blog) I will reform my life to work part time, and continue writing my second book. If you have not purchased my first book, at least check it out on my birdbook page or see below.

I conclude with this last bird found in this coastal park, the Brown Thornbill. Look at the intent in this bird’s expressions, as it combs the trees and bushes for insects, calling as it goes.

This is a challenge to me to check myself to see if I am pursuing my life with such a passion in my commitment in relationships, work, family life and beliefs. We strive for excellence, not perfection, we seek to do our best, to make a meaningful contribution to our world where we live. Sometimes it might be a smile to a stranger, a random act of kindness and generosity, an unexpected word of appreciation or encouragement to someone who least expects it. Helping someone without them knowing you did it. Be creative and be a blessing and do it with passion, love and commitment, for this is the heart of God.

“Give generously and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.” – Deuteronomy 15:10,11

“What Birds Teach Us” my current book release, can now be also purchased here online through PayPal or from many other private book stores click on this link to see the list Where My Book Is Sold . It is now available at seven major NSW National Parks (Environment & Heritage Shops). Ask your nearest one if they have it in stock, if they don’t have it in stock, ask them to get it in. Broome Bird Observatory, Echo Point Visitor Centre, Koorong Books and O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat Gift Shop also sells my book, as do several private book shops throughout NSW. You can also purchase your copy here from the side-bar. This is a great gift idea especially as Christmas draws near, a gift that will continue to keep on giving. Read the reviews and purchase your copy on my Birdbook page.

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Should you desire to use any of the material published on this website please contact the author as a Comment or by email via the AboutUs page

Have an interesting, restful and satisfying weekend. Check out my website Home Page for more birding info.

Showcasing Australia’s Most Common Shorebird – The Silver Gull

Posted by aussiebirder on June 7, 2018

Posted in: Australia, Australian Birds, Australian wildlife, Bird watching, Birding, Birds, Birdwatching, Fauna, Holidays, National Parks, Nature, Nature reserve, Outings, shorebirds, Uncategorized, waders, water birds, wildlife. Tagged: Busselton Jetty, Kelp Gull, Pacific Gull, Silver Gull.

This week I am showcasing Australia’s most common shorebird The Silver Gull (known to most Aussie’s as the Seagull). This bird is found all over Australia, especially around the coast and islands as well as inland. It is an extremely resilient bird, as seen in the photo above taken of a Silver Gull alone, not on the sands of a beach, but on the dry salt plains of Lake Eyre on inland South Australia. The lake was rapidly drying up, yet this gull was still there, and may have died there, like many birds do as the lake dries up, if it does not head coastward. This bird is found on almost every Australian beach in small to large flocks, and has become accustomed to pestering picnickers and those enjoying fishnchips by the water for a handout. If you throw something to one bird, immediately the whole flock comes begging. The bird sounds like this…

The Silver Gull starts life as an egg. We have always seen each stage of development on the old unused part of Busselton Jetty in Western Australia. A very simple seaweed and grass nest is build in the grooves of the warn rotted jetty timbers, where the spotted eggs are laid.

Each bird will sit contentedly on the nest exposed to the elements, predators and the ocean winds.

Silver Gull nesting

The good thing is that they have chosen the grey backdrop of the warn timbers because it matches the grey speckled appearance of their nestlings when they are born, and so is a form of camouflage for them. They usually have a clutch of 2 to 3 babies. When the parents fear impending danger they call to the babies to lay low in the nest with heads down, and they usually obey.

Being totally dependent on the parents to feed them, the father sources food from the ocean below the jetty, while mother shows affectionate care for her precious nestlings.

Parent love

After a year the juvenile starts looking like the parent but remains brown and patterned on the back, again for protection. The legs, beak and eyes remain dark coloured, similar to many other juvenile/immature birds.

By the second year the bird looks more like the adult and with just the eye needing to change to white and the beak and legs to red.

Finally maturity comes, but until then the youngsters fly in the midst of the flock for safety, as you can see here if you look closely, the immatures at various stages.

Soon they are out fending for food themselves. One place they love to be at low tide on the river mud flats is chasing tiny mud crabs, as they scurry across the sand.

As they grab the crab the gull positions it in its mouth by opening its mouth and dropping it in the air and then swallowing it, as seen below.

Here are some flight shots of the bird as they fly toegther.

My favourite flight shot is this one of a juvenile following immediately behind the parent. Here we see the simple trust and obedience of the youngster following the example of its parent. This is why we as parents and grandparents need to always set a good example to our little ones, as they copy everything we do and say, and take it with them into their future life.

We only have two other gulls common to Australia, the Pacific and Kelp Gulls which I will showcase another time. These gulls are found around the southern and south eastern coast of the mainland, and are larger than the Silver Gull, having lipstick like red beak markings. Vagrants from other parts of the world do occur on rare occasions in isolated occurrences, having been blown off course.

“… we have experienced discipline from our earthly fathers and we respected them; shall we not submit ourselves all the more to the Father of Spirits and receive life?” – Hebrews 12:9 (NET)

Have a wonderful week, and if you are new to my blog, check out my birding website from the homepage of aussiebirder.com

“What Birds Teach Us” my current book release, can now be also purchased here online through PayPal or from many other private book stores click on this link to see the list Where My Book Is Sold . It is now available at seven major NSW National Parks (Environment & Heritage Shops). Ask your nearest one if they have it in stock, if they don’t have it in stock, ask them to get it in. Broome Bird Observatory, Echo Point Visitor Centre, Koorong Books and O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat Gift Shop also sells my book, as do several private book shops throughout NSW. You can also purchase your copy here from the side-bar. This is a great gift idea especially as Christmas draws near, a gift that will continue to keep on giving. Read the reviews and purchase your copy on my Birdbook page.

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Should you desire to use any of the material published on this website please contact the author as a Comment or by email via the AboutUs page

Birdwatcher, Birder or Twitcher, which are You?

It has been a couple of years since I visited this topic, and I continue to meet many people who ask me to explain the difference, it is timely that I reiterate, but with more information from more of a counselling and lifestyle perspective.

However, it is better to feed them their own food if you can.

The Cafes can be good birdwatching places also…

Birdwatcher

Birder

Twitcher

Thinks about birds occasionally and does not distract from normal life.

Thinks about birds daily, possibly talks about them, this may only occasionally distract and interfere with normal life, but rarely.

Thinks about birds most of the day and takes up most of their conversation, and may interfere and distract them from normal life on a regular basis.

Seeks birds occasionally when on an outing, not necessarily to reason for the event.

Seeks and pursues birds recreationally on a regular basis, birds being the prime purpose of the outing.

Seeks birds and pursues them as the prime focus of thir life, always thinking of the next encounter and how & where they will view them.

May or may not use or even be aware of an ebird app. This will have little impact on weekend plans unless the sighting is nearby and unusual.

May use an ebird app at least once a week or more to help plan a weekend birding adventure, and may travel several hours or more to location but minimise cost.

Will most definitely use an ebird app and other means to access live and recent sightings. This will help determine their next day. They may travel long distances at great cost.

Weekends away & recreational walks may include bird watching, Binoculars may be optional unless kept in the car. Only done outside work hours.

Weekends away and day trips prime focus on finding birds. Always brings binoculars and camera. Only outside work hours with very infrequent day off during the week.

Any time during the week when rare birds and rare sightings seen, may interrupt normal work week and family functions to pursue birds on a regular basis.

Stress level Low to Moderate – seeing birds adds an interesting dimension to the outing and assists in lowering stress levels. They share their delight with those with them.

Moderate stress level – birding a healthy distraction from busy & stressful life. Excitement or disappointment with pursuit of birds mostly lowers stress levels but can at times be stressful. They love sharing their delight and knowledge.

High stress level – driven with high expectation and personal achievement. Addiction is stressful causing anxiety lacking peace. Hence the ‘twitch’ in Twitcher. Can be very selfish, guarded, not wanting to share.

“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” – Luke 2:52

May your week be peaceful, satisfying, full of joy and enjoyable birding experiences.

If this is your first visit to my blog, why not check out my birding website pages from my Homepage.

Also check out my book you can purchase here online with secure PayPal or at any of these places. Check out the promo below.

Share this:

Like this:

Taking Birding to the Next Level – Races and Subspecies.

and the eastern NSW, we see at home race novahollandiae

Australia has 19 species of Robin of which these are but a few…

“How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” – Psalm 104:24

“For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” – Proverbs 2:6

Have a wonderful week birding! We did not do any birding this week but we do give thanks for the good rain that has blessed us this last few days and hopefully will bring our birds back to breed.

If this is your first visit to my blog, why not check out my birding website pages from my Homepage.

Also check out my book you can purchase here online with secure PayPal or at any of these places. Check out the promo below.

Share this:

Like this:

Birding in Tropical Queensland – The Cairns Esplanade Boardwalk (Part 6)

Another frenzied feeder was the Metallic Starling with its beautiful shining metallic plumage and bright red eye..

I had a little trouble working out who this one was. Was it a cross between a female Figbird and an Oriole, no, it actually is a immature Metallic Starling. Note the red eyes.

The Dusky Honeyeater, another bird found only up here, was checking the flowers for nectar with its long curved beak. This video has been slowed to half speed.

On the large lawn area of the reserve we saw a small flock of of the tiny finch like Nutmeg Mannikin grazing on the grass seed. They grazed in family units often, two adults and one or two juvenile. The juvenile lacks the patterns on the chest and front of body.

As we walked along the waterfront we were blessed with the fact that it was low tide coming in, as the shore birds, which included migratory waders that had not returned to Alaska to breed this season. The Bar-tailed Godwit was out first encounter foraging on the mud flats.

We were elated to find a small flock of Whimbrel a fare way out by the shore, many were sleeping but some exploring in the late afternoon sun.

I only managed one good shot at this Eastern Reef Egret in dark morph as it flew over.

The occasional Caspian Tern was also present.

Our greatest find was the Gull-billed Tern, another bird found only up the north end, Breeding plumage has the black cap on the head and non-breeding just a black mark on the eye.

This Great Egret gave a beautiful landing…

and then watched this pair of Australian Pelican glide just above the water line and land with its friends to hunt below the water.

There were some Sandpiper way out near the waterline, but I could not identify what kind they were. They are always difficult being so many so similar.

It was also a thrill to see the Black-fronted Dotterel pair in the late afternoon light…

Lastly, the Sacred Kingfisher, a beautiful bird often seen on the mud flats…

Have you checked out my website for interesting facts on birding from my menu on Homepage?

Have you checked out my Special Sightings page and seen my latest Powerful Owl photos?

Have you checked out my book ‘What Birds Teach Us’ on my Birdbook page. You can buy your copy here online through secure PayPal, or send me an email via my AboutUs page to buy several copies, as it makes a great Christmas or Birthday gift for all ages?

“For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” – Proverbs 2:6 (NIV)

The good news is that we I not been left alone and helpless but God has provided for me as I partner and bond my life to Jesus, God’s Son. Jesus tells me:

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” – John 16:13

Have a wonderful week and please pray for a break in our drought, as some inland towns have no water and food for their stock, and over 80 bushfires are burning many out of control, possibly more will start in the strong winds of today!

Share this:

Like this:

Birding in Tropical Queensland – Rainforest Birds (Part 5)

The Little Shrike-thrush was a common bird here in the rainforest also, it was frequenting the gardens of the Eco lodge.

While near Atherton we took drive to famous Hastie’s Swamp a great haven for waterbirds, and always full of Plumed Whistling Ducks, they were there in their hundreds whistling away.

They are a beautiful looking bird, the males have the larger longer plumes, and a true flock bird. We saw many of these birds in various places on our travels far north.

Several families of Pink-eared Duck and a few only of Australia’s rarest endemic waterfowl, the Freckled Duck, which is not normally seen this far north. Freckled Duck but they like usual, being shy of humans were some distance and sleeping on the water as you will see in my one good shot below..

You can learn more about the Pink-eared Duck from reading my book “What Birds Teach Us” which you can order here online. Visit my BirdBook page to find out more. Thank you so much everyone for your wonderful reviews, so glad it is blessing people of all ages.

Also, if you have not visited my new Special Sightings page and seen my latest entry the Powerful Owl (male and female), Australia’s largest owl, we saw last weekend, with Possum prey hanging on display from beneath the talon of the male click here. and I’ll take you there.

You may remember this sequence of events in the first video clip of this post…

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Have a wonderful week!

Share this:

Like this:

Birding in Tropical Queensland – The Amazing Tyto Wetlands, Ingham (Part 4)

Walking the circuit we saw several types of habitat including bush, open forest, grassland, lake, and pandanas forest.

The red-backed Fairy-wren was again a great delight.

One of the common birds seen up here quietly sitting in trees is the Spangled Drongo, which is usually identified by its classic tail and shimmering bluish/black metallic plumage.

We were surprised to find two kinds of Shrike-thrush next to each other in the woodlands both different races of Little Shrike-thrush, both lifers. These races (subspecies) are found only in this part of Australia.

I had wondered where the Rufous Whistlers had gone during the drought, finding one here.