Colour! Lorikeets and gum flowers

They're still at it ...

Six weeks ago I posted some pictures of Rainbow lorikeets feasting on a flowering Silver princess gum in our front yard. That post heralded the start of winter flowering period of this tree. Looking back at the shots I can see that they were taken with some late afternoon sunshine.

Well there is precious little winter sunshine in Melbourne these days. Instead we have the expected dull cloudy skies, wind and daily showers.

Every now and then we have some higher cloud and the camera comes out ...

Got the itch?

Putting things back in place after a good scratch.

Flowers hang, so feeding is upside down!

Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday

Bird on!

Urban Ecosystems (or "It's time to clean the gutters!")

Only a few weeks ago I was cleaning out the roof guttering at my parents' place when I came across a sizeable chunk of bone 4 metres up. I assumed a scavenging bird must have raided someone's rubbish.

Last week I saw this Little raven Corvus mellori on my roof. It had just found this morsel. I don't think it was found in the gutter (it looks like a piece of sausage) but there does appear to be a sustainable ecosystem happening there! It's time to get the ladder out!

I hate that job!

I am reminded of a day I heard the unusual calling of Wood duck close at hand. The drawn out nasal repeated "gnow" is about as unlike "quack" as you could possibly get! Not having any of their favoured habitat close at hand (they like grazing on grassed areas close to water and trees) I wandered out of the house to find a pair on the roof!

Wood duck Chenonetta jubata

Bird on!

Lorikeets in the Silver Princess

I always assumed that the gorgeous small tree Silver Princess Eucalyptus caesia was a nursery-created hybrid for gardens. Not so! I read today that it is found naturally in granite outcrops of southern Western Australia (Australian Native Plants Society E. caesia page). In our winter and spring months the gumnuts swell and burst their caps revealing pretty flowers laden with nectar.

Rainbow lorikeets are not found in the wheatbelt region of WA but they certainly know what to do with a flowering Silver princess eucalypt.

Rainbow lorikeet enjoying Silver princess nectar. Several stages of flowering evident here.

Each winter and spring this tree in our front yard receives attention from passing lorikeets so long as they can tolerate the militant Noisy miners!

From mid June this tree replaces our autumn-flowering Queensland firewheel tree as the tree of choice for nectar lovers in our yard.

I am reminded that this little blog's very first post in 2010 features similar scenes! Now 187 posts later I'm still trotting out the same stuff!

It's quite enchanting watching the birds clamber amongst the branches. The clumps of flowers are sparsely distributed and there is a little game to be had positioning oneself for that close shot. The fun is getting a good angle and proximity to a flowering branch the lorikeets have their eye on. You gently get there first and they come to you! Here are a couple of shots showing use of the bill to navigate through the pendulous foliage.

My what a long tail you have!

As you can see I did not hold back with the number of shots and found it hard to cut down to this "short" list!

You can see video of these birds by visiting the blog of my nephew Moses. At 9 years of age he is becoming an excellent birder and can ID a raptor better than me hands down! On Sunday he posted a short video of the Red-collared Rainbow lorikeet sub-species feeding near Darwin which is at the other end of the continent! He would love you to visit!

Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday

Bird on!

Gang-gangs show some Autumn spirit

Winter approaches and we have small groups of Gang-gang cockatoos moving through our suburbs at the moment. We don't see them much in Melbourne's Summer when they are more at home in the higher country. While sometimes incredibly trusting during a feed, this group of about six birds took off as soon as I showed an interest!

Male Gang-gang cockatoo, Blackburn

A female bird can be glimpsed in the bottom right corner

We are blessed that the Gang-gang retains his colour throughout the year!

Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday

Bird on!

Rainbows and firewheels

We feel quite blessed to have a Queensland firewheel tree (Stenocarpus sinuatus) in our backyard. Living in temperate Melbourne our's may not be the best specimen as this tree is more at home in the subtropics. However it flowers spectacularly and is currently sought after by the local Rainbow lorikeets, Noisy miners and Red wattlebirds.

Rainbow lorikeet enjoying a Queensland firewheel tree, Blackburn, 9 April 2103 

The remaining pictures were taken last Autumn.

Bird on!

Butcherbird brightens dull morning

Finally some cooler weather in Melbourne! It is a dull, cool morning (13 deg celsius - that's 55'F) and it seems like we're skipping Autumn this year (it was 36'C only 5 days ago - that's 97'F) .

The dull morning was brightened by a visit from a young Grey butcherbird demonstrating all the classic butcherbird poses:

Immature Grey butcherbird (Cracticus torquatus), suburban Blackburn, Australia

Find out more about this bird at the Birds in Backyards Grey Butcherbird page including a nice recording of the bird's piping call.

Bird on!

At the feeder this week

This bird feeder was a present for Hannah's 11th birthday present a year ago and she has continued to show an interest. Amongst the introduced riffraff (Common myna in particular) we do receive some gorgeous visitors. This week we have had daily visits from Eastern rosellas.

Eastern rosella (Platycercus eximius)

This Crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans) was intent on playing hide and seek!

Another introduced species - Spotted turtledove (Spilopelia chinensis)

Although Spotted turtle-doves are out of control in Melbourne there is hopes that the smaller population in remote Alice Springs can be controlled.  This NT government fact sheet helps interested locals identify the birds and trap them! This blog post from Central Australia birding guru (one of them!) Chris Watson shows some of the strike force in action!

The mynas have moved in

The sun came out briefly in Melbourne the other day. All I could find to photograph was this Common myna. They have definitely moved in to our backyard since the loss of our border collie (an outside dog) in 2009. The new pooch is very much an indoorsy sort of beast. With the onset of winter we are not spending as much time on the deck and outside - the mynas have taken over!

Unfortunately this bird species appears to have affected native bird populations. You can't move around Melbourne for any length of time without seeing them. The common myna is listed as one of the World's Top 100 worst invasive species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN website here).

The Common myna (Acridotheres tristis) in typically aggressive pose

Chloe (1993-2009)

We think Digbee was born around 2005. We got him from the RSPCA in March this year. It would be fair to say he is sometimes more at home when indoors!