Gang-Gang Cockatoos

GANG-GANG COCKATOOS

This afternoon when most other birds were quiet, there was quite a lot of chattering in a tall gum beside the golf course lake.









This pair of gang-gangs was busy at a hollow in the trunk. I watched as the male disappeared into the hole and the female looked on. After just a moment, the male bird reappeared with a chip of wood in his beak. This he dropped to the ground. He repeated this a few times before calling on his mate to take over.
 






She then disappeared in and out of the hole several times, also dropping chips to the ground. And they continued for all the time I watched. It was wonderful to see them working together to prepare their hollow for nesting, with some time for a bit of a gossip along the way. 

A Mixed Lot

BUTCHER-BIRD, RED ROSELLA AND FOXES

It was very quiet walking this morning in the bush around the Monument Hill.











I was trying to get close enough to some choughs for some pictures, when they took off with cries and whistles. They perched in the lower branches of a peppermint gum, looking attentively into a patch of cassinia scrub and all the while whistling to each other.







I waited a few moments and was then surprised to see this young fox sniffing around an uprooted tree stump. He seemed quite inattentive to his surroundings. At this time of the morning he should have been more watchful. I stood for quite a few minutes photographing, until a waft of breeze blew from behind me, letting him know I was there.



 

Red Rosellas always add a patch of colour to the bush

Scarlet Robin

Grey Butcher-Bird

White-plumed Honeyeater

WHITE-PLUMED HONEYEATER

 
Kilmore sewerage works and adjacent paddocks were very quiet this morning despite the bright Spring sunshine.



There were plenty of magpies but little else.


I did see a group of  honeyeaters but they were very fidgety, settling for just a few moments before flying off. They'd settle again, flirting with each other, then off again chasing each other in and around the small trees and saplings.



Springtime! I think they had things on their minds other than food today.

Pardalotes

STRIATED PARDALOTES

Out past Kilmore East is Nanny's Creek Road. It runs between Kilmore East and Sunday Creek. 

 

Half way, is a bridge across Nanny's Creek. No-one is quite sure who Nanny was but, she has creek and a bridge to carry her name. The bridge is a modern concrete affair and underneath are many mud swallow nests. It is rather cold and dark under the bridge and the nests are empty for most of the year.

 

 

 

There are often swallows about this area, flying about, over and under the roadway. There are usually families of pardalotes here also, busy amongst the grass and the wattle trees. For such small birds they are very vocal and the air is always filled with their chattering and calling. 

 

 

 

I was under the bridge today, hoping to see whether or not the swallows were using their old nests for raising this year's chicks. There was no sign of occupancy, but after sitting for quite a while, there was some movement. Not the swallows but pardolotes. In and out of two of the 'blocks of flats' were pardalotes. Carrying pieces of grass, it was obvious they were preparing themselves a place for their coming families.

 

 

Busy as they were, they seemed to have plenty of time for a little play, hanging upside down outside different doorways, taking time to preen themselves and even a little exploring of the various openings. Great fun!

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder will there be some confrontation when the original owners come looking for their old homes over the coming weeks. maybe, but it is good to see that even in the bird world, there is an ability to share and recycle resources. 

 

 

 

 

 

Pardalotes it seems,  are pretty good at making use of all sorts of nooks and crannies for their nesting,

 

Pallid Cuckoo

PALLID CUCKOO

I met this very curious cuckoo this morning.























I saw it sitting on some power lines out on Number Three Creek Road. I drove past and took a few pictures.

The sun was in the wrong place and I was about to leave it alone when it flew down on to a fencepost quite nearby. It was obviously watching me as much I was watching it.






These birds announce the coming spring with their early morning call. We used to call them semi-tone birds because of the rising notes of their calls.


 Lying in bed, early in the Spring, the pallid cuckoos would provide us with a very gentle, alarm call

Grey Butcher Bird

GREY BUTCHER BIRD

 

 

 

It was a beautiful late winter, early spring day today, there was a bright and warm sun and a very gentle wind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I watched and followed this butcher bird for quite a while. I think it is quite a young one as it colour is more brown and fawn rather than the more strongly marked adults.

 

  

 

 

 It was sitting in a low tree calling with a beautifully melodic song. It sat on its branch for quite a while before swooping down into the grass below. It returned to the branch with what looked like a large winged ant in its beak. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It then moved from tree, sitting and watching the ground below carefully. An occasional  swoop and return before moving on to another branch.

Cormorants

CORMORANTS; LITTLE BLACK AND PIED

Such a wintry day!!


Very cold today, hail and rain one moment, then brilliant winter sun, followed by fierce winds off the Antarctic. There was snow about on the nearby hills.

I snuck out during a brief moment of sunshine to see what was happening on the Hospital Reservoir. Funny that, it is called the Hospital Res, although it lies in the middle of the golf course.









The water birds were out and about, they don't mind the wet weather.



On a log with the late sun shining on them were a group of cormorants, both Pied and Little Black cormorants. What beautiful green eyes the Little Black Cormorants have .

 

Straw-necked Ibis

STRAW-NECKED IBIS Threskiornis spinnicolis

It has been a wet week in Kilmore and the ground in the flatter areas in quite waterlogged.










At the twin bridges, to the west of town, there was a large number of straw-necked ibis, browsing amongst the grass and puddles. They do stand out when the sun shines on them, brilliant purple sheen from their wings, contrast beautifully against the white breasts.




 With so many birds, it was a little hard to get close enough for clear pictures. There were always some of their number watching out for what was going on.

Males and females are similar, the females in these picture stand out a little with some black banding across their chests.

 

The beaks have a downward curve, well shaped for finding food in shallow waters and grassland. They feed on a variety of insects, water creatures, frogs and small shell fish.  Their love of crickets and grasshoppers have given them the title of 'farmers' friends'






 Large numbers of straw-necked ibis can often be found on rubbish sites across Australia. They look dirty in these situations, covered from grime in their search for edible scraps amongst the rubbish. They do not have the pristine and bright look of birds of the wetlands.

Black Shouldered Kite

BLACK SHOULDERED KITE

Another wet and windy winter's day in Kilmore. Actually it was bright sunshine when I set out but turned to rain by the time I reached the twin bridges, a few kilometres to the West of town












Once again the Black Shouldered Kite was out and about. Perhaps it was the same one I looked at the day before.









 It was raining quite heavily when I stopped the car, but the kite continued his or her hunting, unconcerned that I was close by.

It remained over the same place for a few moments, its eyes very fixed on a spot on the ground.






It was only after a number of trucks passed with lots of noise and splashing of water, that the kite flew off a little distance to hunt over a neighbouring paddock.

It was too far off in the rain for me to see whether or not the hunting was successful.