Yellow Robins

EASTERN YELLOW ROBINS

We have had a beautiful early autumn  morning today.  It was very still, warm with dew on the ground.  It has been hot, throughout the day; it is still 32 C now at 5 o'clock,  but the morning was just beautiful.




Along the Kilmore East train line, there is still much fruit on the blackberry bushes. This is quite unusual. I picked blackberries well over a month ago and we still have them today. In most years, the fruit ripens and is gone within a fortnight. I could see plenty of evidence that the foxes have been enjoying this late crop also.


I was very pleased to see these Eastern Yellow Robins (Eopsaltria australis), they are quite brilliant in colour. There was a pair of them chattering to each other in a black wattle tree.

They seemed very much at ease and sat watching me for several minutes before flying off to another tree to get a different angle on me.

They would cock their heads to one side to get a better look and I am sure they were asking each other who I was and what I was doing.

Fairy Wrens

FAIRY WRENS DRY AUTUMN

 
The birds around Kilmore are very quiet at the moment . Those that are about move very quickly and are hard to photograph.

I am seeing thornbills and a number of honeyeaters in my garden. The watering spots must be drying up because these birds are in and about  a small bird bath, standing amongst my tomato bushes. But they are very wary. The doors in my house squeak so it is very difficult to sneak out and catch them bathing. It is a little easier to catch them in the bush. There is more cover for me and the birds are in their own home patch. They seem more comfortable there than in the environment of my garden.







I tried a new spot yesterday. Moore's Lane. It peters out at the bottom of a deep gully. Through a gateway, along a dried up creek bed is a small area of furze, chinese scrub, spiny rushes and old black wattles . Dotted here and there are cotoneaster  shrubs, heavily laden with fruit.




Here I found a number of what my brother-in-law Tom, calls LBBs, little brown birds. They were very busy. I counted thorn bills, fairy wrens, red-browed finches, yellow faced honeyeaters, a young shrike thrush, a lone scarlet robin,  magpies, blackbirds, a rufous whistler, all in this small patch. Floating above was a wedge tailed eagle, being teased by a magpie.




It was a great little spot.

Whilst I was standing quietly, the finches were hopping around in the grass, when a sparrow hawk swooped down upon them. The long grass spoiled his aim and he flew off empty clawed. This happened about five metres from where I was watching under a tree. It was a pity the camera was pointing at the ground.