A really common bird along the East board of Australia is the Noisy Miner (not to be confused with Indian Mynas, which no doubt we’ll come across sooner or later). They’re noisy and enjoy company. More…
Another standoff at the water bowl. This time between the colourful Crimson Rosella and a bird I have yet to identify, perhaps an immature Oriole ( see yesterday’s birds)?
Update: the bird on the right is a moulting male Satin Bowerbird, see this post.
Two regular guests at the bird bath are a native pigeon (aka Common Bronzewing ) and the Oriole[?]. There is a hierarchy among our bird visitors, typically bigger birds demand access before smaller birds, but an occasional skirmish is common. On this occasion, neither bird is willing to budge.
Learn more about he Bronzewing.
NB. Thanks to a lead from an old friend, Karl Ankers, we now think the bird on the right is the Satin Bowerbird.
So we’re ready to capture some images! Here is a visit from a couple of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. A common sight (and sound) around Blaxland. And, given the price, the camera is OK.
Switching the camera to video gives this result, go ahead and press “play”:
I’m tossing up whether to use photos or video. What do you think? email blaxlandbirds@gmail.com
I expect to leave the camera out 24 hours a day in all conditions and clearly, it needed a stand. A conventional tripod would need to be weatherproof and pretty solid…
So in the tradition of my late father, I made my own from scraps of wood and fitted the camera to it with a $12 security camera mount. The camera itself is waterproof, so we’re all set to go!
So I took a small step towards becoming a bird watcher. I discovered a large range of low cost wildlife cameras on Amazon and bought one for around AU$100.
It uses motion detection to take still shots and/or short MP4 video clips. It even works at night. More about its features (and shortcomings) in a later dispatch of Blaxland Birds.
We’ve lived in Blaxland for almost 50 years and love living at the edge of the Blue Mountains National Park. When I sit in our living room, I just see trees and, inevitably, the local birds.
Some years back, when Craig & Liz moved into town, we “inherited” their bird bath.
[ A previous version credited my father moving into a retirement home for the inheritance, but I was corrected by SWMBO…]
Lots of local birds use it to have a drink or a bath and occasionally we spot a night time visitor as well. I’m no “twitcher” or “birder” , but the temptation was there to identify our visitors, so here we are: Blaxland Birds…