Bushwalk Australia

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Franco wrote:Mickey,
I love the Gang Gang , beautiful photos !!!

Thanks Franco

north-north-west wrote:No Corellas this summer. They were all over the place last year. Maybe just too dry for them this time around.

Our resident pair of Corellas have also disappeared over summer. I'm hoping they'll be back. They are beautiful birds.
We have had a lot more skinks than normal this summer and early autumn. There are baby skinks running around everywhere.

MickyB wrote:Our resident pair of Corellas have also disappeared over summer. I'm hoping they'll be back. They are beautiful birds.

They're back . Saw them tonight for the first time in months. I actually heard them and then spotted them in the big gum tree across the road. Hopefully they stay around for a while.

https://vimeo.com/161125643https://vimeo.com/161125888


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Found this guy at my front gate today, gorgeous colour. I watched him climb the tree and the Yellow Robbins got very animated about his approach.


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Beautiful. Wish we got pythons down here.

Whilst I was down the back of the farm I spotted a little bit of blue under a tree, closer inspection revealed a Satin Bower bird Bower. First one I have ever seen and pretty chuffed to know they are about


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The baby butcherbirds from last season have all grown up now, but they still visit. This morning I had the pleasure of watching one see off a Kookaburra.
Pity she didn't chase the *&%$#! thing all the way to the mainland.

We have a lot of different birds visiting many that I have not identified.
This is one ,outside the kitchen window, is one of 4 types of honeyeaters, occasionally he does suck the nectar in flight :


this is Wally, very shy I only see him about every few weeks but he is around otherwise :

a robin, common but pretty :

black cockatoos fly over in huge flocks almost every day, several times a day when the weather changes, small flocks (10 to 30) come down to eat our pine cones :

Elsie's husband, one of the two large males of the mob, about 13 in total :

Elsie has another joey in the pouch and I suspect she is pregnant again given that I spotted her and this male alone a few times.
(Elsie was a few meters away from the male in the photo above )

Rosellas are common everywhere but we have 7 that are around pretty often, this is one of them :

One of at least 3 eagles that fly overhead. I have seen all three (I suspect a couple with their offspring) two or three times but the pair or more often a solo one do fly about , in fact the other day I had a very close encounter with the big male and Elsie and Charlie because I was walking uphill with my nose in the air looking at one of them :

Lovely pics Franco


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Thanks Giddy up , but having spent 30 years handling cameras they should be a LOT sharper than that.
I now have one with an Electronic VF, it's OK but not clear enough for my ageing eyes.
Funny thing here is, that after 7 months of seeing big flocks of white cockatoos flying around, I have never seen one landing on our property.

Bird photography is very difficult, Franco. Some birds more than others.

Anyway, concerning the birds themselves, isn't it a bit early for nest-making? At least two pairs of the local magpies are at it like mad, collecting everything from twigs to bits of rope from next door's building site. I'm not even game to hang out the laundry in case they make off with a pair of knickers.

north-north-west wrote:Bird photography is very difficult, Franco. Some birds more than others.

Anyway, concerning the birds themselves, isn't it a bit early for nest-making? At least two pairs of the local magpies are at it like mad, collecting everything from twigs to bits of rope from next door's building site. I'm not even game to hang out the laundry in case they make off with a pair of knickers.

I would have said August onwards NNW and possibly a little later in Tassie but birds in particular are very good indicators of impending seasons. You might be about to get a very early spring.


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isn't it a bit early for nest-making?
now that you mention it, there is a pair that hangs about the orchard (netted...) and I think they are busy building a nest.
(walking about yesterday I noticed several short flights to a nearby tree.
I'll have a look tomorrow because now it is foggy and raining and I am about to cook polenta and fat Italian style sausages....

Franco wrote: I am about to cook polenta and fat Italian style sausages....

Master Chef with Franco


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Nice photos Franco. I wish we had the black cockatoos land at our property more often. We get plenty of the white cockatoos landing and they are a pain in the ****.

Your first photo is a white eared honeyeater.
Your third photo is of a female scarlet robin.

Saw this guy today. I was very excited as I've never seen one around here before. Actually I'm not sure that I've seen one in the wild. Technically it was on my neighbour's property but only a couple of metres from our fence line.

Must be Spring the Welcome Swallows are back

Shot this clip this morning :

This pair have been dining on our front lawn for a while. The joey comes out to play but you would have to be quick to get a photo. My grandchildren will be here in a couple of weeks and every time they come the animals strangely disappear until they leave. Instinctive behaviour I think.

Awesome video Franco and nice shot Xplora. I just love how many animals and birds are quite close to our homes and gardens.


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Found this guy in the garden yesterday.

Hey MickyB, nice frog.

I come across frogs on an almost daily basis. Love the little critters.

(A few more here - https://www.instagram.com/darren.m.74/)

More photos from my backyard :





so far I have seen 8 different types of honeyeaters but I am not really into birds so there could be more visiting.
The last photo is of a pair of choughs.
They have a nest here and the neighbour has a flock too.
Each flock (8-12) only has one nest. Consist of the parents and siblings from the previous 4 years.
They make two calls. One is an alarm screech (common to all the flocks) the other is a two tone call that is peculiar to each flock.
After listening to the two flocks for a few weeks I was finally able to tell the difference.
The nest is always on an horizontal branch , the all flock is meant to feed the new chicks.
We have a cuckoo bird around so those choughs could be raising a cuckoo too.

Great photos Franco, that first one is a cracker. The White winged choughs are really interesting and you will know about the Cuckoo soon enough as there will only be one chick in the nest. Awesome to have these all so close


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Thanks.
One more

DarrenM wrote:Hey MickyB, nice frog.
I come across frogs on an almost daily basis. Love the little critters.

We hear them daily but usually only see one or two per week.
Here is another one. I am not a herpetologist but I believe it is a Striped Marsh Frog (happy to be corrected though)

Franco wrote:so far I have seen 8 different types of honeyeaters but I am not really into birds so there could be more visiting.

Awesome photos Franco.

Franco's pics have been inspiring. Getting good photos of some birds can be very hard. To pass the time on the way back over the mountain the other day we made a list of all the birds we have seen or heard at our place and managed 33 from memory. We added another 3 from our bird book notations once home. It would be a considerable challenge to get a good photo of them all which make me appreciate Franco's efforts more.

Well I just missed taking two galahs because my cat was following me on my after dinner walk.
Galahs are very common down in the village (2km away) but seldom land here .
here are two male banjo frogs fighting in the frog pond . (3 species live there)


for contrast, a pretty butterfly

this one was eating something outside the front door. Did not mind being picked up.

That there is a Wood White butterfly. Beautiful.
We used to get them en mass in our garden here in East Gippsland.
Haven't seen any for quite a while. At the caterpillar stage (instar I think it's called) they love mistletoe.