Yellow-tailed black cockatoos, Clarendon Homestead, Tas

'Seemed to come across Yellow-tailed black cockatoos more frequently in Tasmania (most days) than I would expect to on the mainland (occasional). I love their calls and unusual flight.

This group of about 15 birds was photographed at an old homestead called Clarendon. They arrived while we were visiting and immediately started tearing into the pine cones of these trees. Every now and then a missile would drop with a thud (on top of a car in one instance)! They were quite heavy!

Some shots of the homestead and grounds ....

While gazing skywards ....

Tassie Wedge-tailed eagles are said to be the largest of the species.

Bird on!

Birds of Sugarloaf Reservoir

Wedge-tailed eagle, Sugarloaf Reservoir Park (31 July 2013)

I think I have found a place close enough to home (which is in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne) that provides birding a little different from my immediate haunts. The bush around Sugarloaf Reservoir has sections of dry open forest and grassland. This provides for different birding from the tall forests and dense fern gullies of the Dandenongs for instance.

Here is a Park Guide. I have just visited for a second time. On both occasions the visit was in winter and I enjoyed walking the first 1km or so of the Chris Phillips Walk (leaving from the Saddle Dam Picnic area).

Pied currawong

White-winged chough have a great habit of nonchalantly wandering away from the observer - slow enough to get you interested but rarely presenting a favourable perspective! 

Missed the opportunity! Out-of-focus White-winged chough

Crimson rosella

White-eared honeyeater

Brown-headed honeyeater

Golden whistler

Superb fairy-wren 

Female Scarlet robin - the "insurance shot"

Managed to get a little closer to the male - Scarlet robin

"Bye!" Scarlet robin

Australian pelican

Great habitat for bush birds!

Eastern grey kangaroo

Bird on!

Woods Reserve, Tuerong

'Enjoyed a half hour wander through part of Wood's Reserve at Tuerong on the Mornington Peninsula recently. We walked through a noisy colony of Bell miners (Manorina melanophrys) and as our eyes became accustomed the individual birds responsible for that wonderful "tink" materialised!

Bell miner Wood's Reserve, Tuerong. I find it's like watching the night sky. Initially the birds are hard to spot but once you get your "miner eyes" more and more birds materialise!

I have a few shots with Bell miners leaping in this fashion with little use of their wings.

A nice recording of Bell miner calls & a valiant attempt to film these near-invisible birds can be seen here (a Canadian punter's youtube account):

Other birds seen included a pair of Wedge-tailed eagles, Yellow robin, Grey fantail and a wealth of other honeyeaters including Yellow-faced, New Holland and White-naped.

Grey fantail 

Yellow-faced honeyeater 

This is one of those "nearly shots"! It nearly has Yellow-faced, New Holland and White-naped Honeyeaters all in the one shot (see particularly out of focus White-naped at bottom left)

 Bird on!

Wedge-tailed eagle versus fishing line

In August this impressive and noble looking Wedge-tailed eagle was spotted roadside feasting on roadkill. When it had decided it was "over" being photographed (and covered in the dust from our car) it took off towards a better perch.

Nothing unusual there.

Wedge-tailed eagles are notoriously laboured in their take-off and when this bird sort of mucked up its landing I still didn't think much of it. We are very close and still in the car which means the following photos are totally out of focus and poorly captured.

However I invite the viewer to click for the enlargements and follow the slide show to see what I later discovered on the shots. The Kimberly dust adds an apocalyptic gloom.

The bird's next port of call was a nearby anthill. I am assuming that what we see here is fishing line (I also initially wondered if it may have been a tracking device).

At the time the bird's flight really did not seem impeded and I came away thinking that I had been viewing a healthy bird. This was the dry season in a remote part of Australia. My guess is that monitoring a wild bird's health in this situation would be an improbable possibility and I can only hope that this bird is doing OK.

For injured or orphaned wildlife that is able to be transported I have tonight come across a website for a Kununurra based service Kimberley Wildlife Rescue.

I was reminded of a pelican I photographed at Forster NSW.