We are so lucky to have lots of birds visiting our garden. When we got here 7 years ago, there was no life in the backyard except loads of grass. Over time we have not only built our veg patch but we have also developed a great native Australian garden full of local Cooks River plants. It's been a pleasure to see them grow and develop but it has been an even greater pleasure to see the native birds increase in variety and number as the local plants matured. A list of the birds that visit and fly past is on my Wildlife pages.
The Rainbow Lorikeets have been especially fun additions to the backyard. They are so gregarious in both temperament and feather.
Last weekend was really wet and the lorikeets used the back verandah as a spot to dry off. They came in really wet...poor things.
This photo is blurry because the where shaking themselves to remove as much water as possible. Then when they finished shaking themselves they began grooming themselves.
Then they spent the next little while grooming each other. We couldn't stop taking photos of them.
Then last week a family turned up and 'occupied' the bird feeder - two adults and two babies who, once they could manage to get from the tree into the feeder, sat in the middle and squawked to be fed. Notice how the babies have black eyes and darker beaks and the adults red eyes and red beaks?
We were perplexed as to why they would have big babies at this time of year.
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ReplyDeleteHow beautiful they are! I adore having birds visit my backyard (well, maybe not the screeching cockies!).
ReplyDeleteI feed the magpies, butcher birds, lorikeets, eastern rosellas, king parrots and whatever else might happen by.
The butcher birds are one of my favourites. They fly back and forth in front of the kitchen window to attract my attention and serenade me with their beautiful song. They are so agile, spiralling up and catching the bits of mince I throw in the air. They have been visiting for years.
Oops! I chose the wrong profile, hence the deletion. :)
Wow, where do you live to have such birds. I am really fond of butcher birds too, but they are only very very rare visitors to my garden. They have the most amazing beaks with little whiskers.
DeleteI'm in the Latrobe Valley. I live on a normal suburban block but I'm lucky to have a bush reserve across the road behind a school. I've recorded 24 (25 if you count my chooks!) different types of birds either in my yard or passing over. Unfortunately, this includes those pesky introduced birds (blackbirds, sparrows, mynahs, etc). There are probably others that I have missed.
DeleteAt the moment we are being visited by what I think are 'Little Corellas'. But they don't look too little to me! They are noisy and bossy and scare off the usual visiting parrots.
Yes, butcher birds have delightful faces. Mine must be almost ready for the pension, by now. They bring their babies when they have them but, apart from one that still visits, they eventually move on and find their own little patch to rule.
The birds give me a lot of pleasure (apart from those pesky ones!).
I guess if you are in the La Trobe, you felt the earthquake?
DeleteSure did! It was scary. I'm in Moe so the epicentre was 10km away. When you do the maths, a colleague's house up in the hills was slap-bang on top of it. Fortunately, there was not a lot of damage, locally. My office was a mess when I went in the next day, though. One cheeky workmate commented that it didn't look any different to usual. That shamed me into giving it a clean up!
ReplyDeletenice to have birds coming to backyard garden.... a definite sign that our garden is doing alright.
ReplyDeleteI agree, its nice to share the garden with such lovely creatures.
DeleteWe camped at Lane Cove when we went to Sydney last year - really enjoyed the rainbow lorrikeets but Mr 2 was very upset by them stealing his bikkies. I had to laugh though is that cruel? We do get them here but not in the quantities you get them in Sydney - they are also a lot more fearful of humans.
ReplyDeleteNot cruel, just funny. When Mr 2 grows up they will steal fruit from his garden too, he may as well get used to it! There is usually plenty to go around.
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