Collared Sparrowhawk

COLLARED SPARROWHAWK Accipitercirrocephalus

I was out for a walk this morning. It was cold  and overcast but birds were all busy in the trees and around the hospital reservoir.


I arrived home to see a pile of  feathers all over the  ground next to my letterbox. I immediately blamed the local cats although, we rarely see cats wandering anymore.








On second thought, I blamed the Boo-book owl which spends most of its days sleeping in a tree next to our garden shed.

My daughter who has adopted the owl as her own, insisted that 'Orpheus would not kill anything!'


Sure!


I went inside and was met by my wife, who had photographed the whole affair.




She pointed out the culprit, standing in the long grass across the road, sparrow in its claws.


A young collared Sparrowhawk.



I had seen another of these birds amongst the timber on Monument Hill about an hour earlier.

 I have rarely seen these sparrowhawks around the neighbourhood, but today, two.

And the second bird was living up to its name.

Golden Whistler

GOLDEN WHISTLER Pachycephala pectoralis

 

There were plenty of bird voices amongst the bushes, small wattles, furze bushes and cassinia, at Kilmore East. The sun was bright and birds were busy.
















I could hear the Golden Whistlers calling to each other and they were very intent on their conversation.















Very preoccupied, because they did not mind me moving closer to where they were sitting in the low branches of a dead wattle, maybe twenty metres apart.












The golden coloured male was bobbing his head as he called, watching carefully the brown streaked mate over the way.

.

Their song is very loud, with both birds taking part in the debate.  Their calls, very easy to identify,  carry well through the trees and bushes, adding a sparkle to the sunny morning.

Butcher Birds

BUTCHER BIRD Cracticus torquatus






This young Butcher Bird and another, I assume to be its mother, sat calling and calling to another bird, fifty metres or more away.

The younger bird shown in the top photograph, is lighter in colour than the adult. It sat on a branch adjacent to the adult, watching and listening carefully, very attentive to what was being said and done.










It is interesting to note that my last photographs of the singing Butcher birds were taken a year ago within a few days, and in the same spot as last year, along the train line at Kilmore East.






 


It could be the same bird with her young from 2018.  Was she calling to the same mate?

Wattle Birds

RED WATTLEBIRDS   Antohocaera carunculata

 

We wake each morning, just as the light appears, to the sound of wattlebirds, cheeook, cheeooking outside our bedroom windows. I think it is a beautiful sound, my daughter thinks otherswise.



"They wake me every morning and I can't get back to sleep."






Wattlebirds are one of the most common birds in our area; magpies, crows, currawongs and wattlebirds.

Bossy as they are, they are bright visitors to the gardens of our street, individually and in small groups. The other morning I saw a large group of more than twenty wattlebirds sitting in a tree,seeming to be just enjoying  the enjoy the morning sun.

On Sunday, the sun was trying to peep through the overcast sky, each beam of sunlight brilliantly lighting up the red hot pokers in my neighbour's garden. And the birds were there to admire and to feed off their red, orange and yellow heads.

 

Superb fairy-wren

SUPERB FAIRY-WREN

A dull grey day yesterday was brightened by the blue wrens feeding amongst the furze bushes along the creek at the end of Moore's Lane. The male was in fulliridescent colours, showing off to a harem of females.

Robins

ROBINS

 

As a child, much of my understanding of the natural world was England based.

I knew more more squirrels and baby deer than I did about possums and kangaroo joeys. I knew all about Moley and Badger, more than I did of Blinky Bill and bandicoots.







I knew about robin red-breasts, with their scarlet coats. One of my earliest memories is myself, skipping around a muddy back yard singing a little song my grandmother taught me.

"Little robin red breast sits in the tree,

Up goes pussy and down went he"

 
I had seen our robin red-breasts and thought they were the same as those seen in England.

I have just spent 6 weeks in Oxford. How disappointing when I saw the English robins in the garden. Cheeky and cheery as they were,  their chests were a dull rusty colour. Where were the rosy red robins I had known and believed to be in England?


 

No red breasts at all. Rusty, perhaps even orange, but hardly red. I looked through all the books and internet sites I could find. No Scarlet Robins, no Flame Robins, no Pink Robins. No Yellow or Rose or Red-capped Robins either.








Just the European or Red-breasted Robin, Erithacus rubecula


 

The disappointment  only lasted a short while. They are a cheeky, inquisitive and entertaining bird and a little larger than most Australian robins. Whilst digging in the garden, they would be around my feet, waiting to see what I turned up. The shyer ones would sit on the handle of my spade or on a perch above my head, watching and waiting. Very friendly, very sociable. I soon became entranced with them.



It is very easy for we Australians to take our bird life for granted. We are so lucky to enjoy the beauty and the variety of birds we have around us.

Golden Whistlers, Fame Robins, White-eared Honeyeaters

GOLDEN WHISTLER

Late Autumn is here and Winter not far away.

We have had some good rain this week, the first for many months  and the countryside and bush has suddenly turned green. Tiny shoots are carpeting the ground everywhere turning, what last week was dry dusty ground, to a carpet of green.

Today the sun was in and out of the clouds all day, and little birds were in and about the trees and scrub of the Monument Hill.

Male Flame Robin

This White-eared Honey-eater was enjoying a bath in a middle of the track puddle

Male Golden Whistler

Female Yellow Whistler

Red Wattlebird

RED WATTLEBIRD

The Red Wattlebirds are beautiful. With their yellow bellies and their bright red wattles, they stand so straight and tall, like soldiers at attention. They are cheeky and so often seen, it is a little easy to neglect their regal elegance.


 
  

 Described in The Australian Bird Guide as 'Noisy, pugnacious and conspicuous; actively chases smaller birds from food sources by swooping and bill clapping.'

Some also regard their voices as unpleasant; 'a harsh, grating cough or bark' says Michael Morcombe's book. Poor wattlebirds, nobody seems to like them much.








That sounds like the report of an active young boy in his first year at school by a exasperated infant teacher. I liked those lively young boys with 'go' in them at school. Perhaps that is why I like the wattlebirds.






One of my pleasures of early Spring, is to wake in the predawn, to hear  them 'schhhkkkkk, schhkkking, in the trees around our house, like an old man sucking on his false teeth.

Fairy Wren

FAIRY WREN

The fairy wrens are well and truly well out and about.












They are such pretty little birds.  Some people without an eye for beauty, group them under the name of LLBs, Little Brown Birds. They are so small and delicate, so many shades of brown and what beautiful upright tail feathers. And  oh what lovely orange eye makeup.










 

Grey Shrike-thrush

GREY SHRIKE-THRUSH

The shrike thrush is a very common bird around Kilmore. It has a beautiful voice with a huge range of songs. Gisella Kaplan, in her book 'Bird Minds'  describes the  "extraordinary purely tonal and varied song" of the bird. 

 

 

 

 

Michael Morecombe in 'Field Guide To Australian Birds; is even more expansive.  "..a rich and varied repertoire of calls and songs - high, clear and loudly ringing whistles, intermingled with mellow, musical notes and deep rich bubbly sounds."  

This thrush is found over  wide area, from town gardens, farmland where there are trees to forested hills.











The thrush is omnivorous in feeding habits. I see them often scratching amongst leaf litter and under logs, for the insects, small lizards and seeds. They are known to take young nestlings, frogs and mice.




 



This young bird was busy along a very dry creek at Willowmavin this morning. All creeks around Kiomore are dry at the moment.

It has a light band of colour along it's brow, an indication of a young bird. It was very sure of itself, continuing to feed, with just one eye on me.