http://www.birdlife.org.au/get-involved/whats-on/bird-week

National Bird Week 22-28 October 2012 Who’s nesting where?

Every October, BirdLife Australia organises and promotes Bird Week with the goal of inspiring Australians to take action and get involved in bird conservation. For almost 100 years, October 28 has been designated ‘Bird Day’ across Australia.

Spring in Australia is the peak nesting and breeding time for many birds. So October is a great time to get out and see birds in action and learn more about how you can help them. This year, our focus is on the needs of nesting birds and the variety of nesting styles birds adopt as we celebrate Who’s nesting where?

During October and into November BirdLife Branches and Centres around Australia will host activities in their local region. Why not try a bushwalk, attend a talk or participate in a workshop? Get involved with bird habitat restoration or see a display in your tourist centre, library or community centre.
Best Nest Competition

The Best Nest competition is on! Participants, of all ages, can vote for their favourite nest by leaving a comment on our website here. Or you can Like us on Facebook, and let us know which is your favourite of our feathered friend’s nests to go in the running for some cool prizes.

All entries go into a draw to win fantastic birding prizes, like the latest field guide from Pizzey & Knight, beautiful ornithological books, and On a Wing and Prayer DVDs.

Entries must include the following contact details: Full name and email address so prize winners can be notified. Only one entry per person.

There’s nothing to lose and so much to gain?

Competition closes Friday 16 November 2012. Winners will be notified by 1 December 2012.
Bird Week sends students back in time to mark 100 years since a 13-year-old boy’s historic birding excursion

During Bird Week 2012, students from Victoria’s Koo Wee Rup Secondary College, and other schools in the Western Port Biosphere, will mark the 100th anniversary of a local bird survey undertaken in 1912 by 13-year-old Harewood Lyall. The students will compete to reproduce Harewood’s list of 43 bird species as part of a competition run by the Western Port Biosphere and BirdLife Australia. In the process, the students will increase their awareness of local birdlife and provide a comparative assessment of the current-day health of the area’s bird populations. For more information or to enter the Western Port Biosphere bird search visit www.biosphere.org.au/birdsearch/index.html

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I voted for the rainbow beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeater (Merops ornatus)

Twitching and the city

Looking up into the urban skies beyond the skyscrapers and suburban rooftops for unobserved wildlife is an ever-more-popular Melbourne pursuit — as it is in London and New York. From white-eared honeyeaters to pink robins, nature experts show us how to spot city birds in all their wonder — and why the encounter is healing.

IT’S 10am on a Monday and Sean Dooley and I are standing on a boardwalk in Beaumaris’ Long Hollow Heathland reserve calling ‘‘pssht’’ into the branches of a gum tree. For the uninitiated, that’s the sound of a chick in distress. Call it and, apparently, just about every bird in close proximity will head your way. Dooley has previously spotted a grey fantail in these parts: a dainty bird, 16 centimetres in length, whose call sounds like a metallic “cheek”. He even has an iPhone app that faithfully reproduces its song and a photo of what we’re looking for. Apparently, high-tech birders think nothing of wandering into the bush with a stereo to lure unsuspecting creatures into plain sight (to a novice that sounds like cheating). I’m thinking a Shazam-style app is what I need. Because really, birdwatching should be called bird listening; you know what to look for only after you’ve heard its song. That said, the birdsong in this small pocket of scrub plays out like an ethereal orchestra; separating one melody from another seems a task best left to a composer.

Dooley begins identifying individual species from the ‘‘little brown jobs’’ (LBJs) ducking and diving around us. A white-eared honeyeater flits on to a branch about a foot from my nose, then a spotted pardalote appears, followed by an eastern spinebill. There are glimpses of elaborate plumage and displays of deft flitting between trees. Like a walking encyclopaedia, Dooley explains the feeding and nesting habits of each; he’s still looking for the fantail but I’m struck by the fact that here, a 10-minute drive from my home, exists a pocket of life I’d hitherto been unaware of.

Sure, I’ve planted the garden with natives to entice the honeyeaters and I fill the bird bath each day for the wattlebirds. Lorikeets wake me every morning and I often marvel at gannets dive-bombing for fish off Sandringham Beach. But this scrub and its diminutive rulers, most of which measure the length of a finger, are something else: they make you stop in your tracks and marvel.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/about-town/twitching-and-the-city-20120831-25587.html#ixzz29nFgRiyo

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/about-town/twitching-and-the-city-20120831-25587.html#ixzz29nFXuAoX

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hhmmmmm….. the term twitching has been misapplied here

>>and get involved in bird conservation

What? like be nice to crows?

High on the list of my favourite Australian birds:

Baby tawny frogmouths or baby apostle birds, pretty sure they are tawneys.

>Baby tawny frogmouths

Correct.

Haven’t seen Chinese Pete around, there’s a very slight breeze blowing down his way so he won’t be boating.
I know what he’ll be doing, he’ll be draughting a missive to the Editor at the Newcastle Bugle.

Peak Warming Man said:

>>and get involved in bird conservation

What? like be nice to crows?

whatever rocks your redoubt

Peak Warming Man said:

>>and get involved in bird conservation

What? like be nice to crows?

Yea, have a murder in the redoubt.

I like the (very large) murder of crows here. Means there’s no cane toads. Also, I like that they talk to each other, even if I have yet to work out what they are saying.

http://blog.centennialparklands.com.au/bird-tale-centennial-parklands/

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/Access-Magpie-Survey

BirdLife Australia ‏@BirdlifeOz

Do you love magpies? Help Sydney Uni work out how maggies interact with urban environments by completing this survey

neomyrtus_ said:

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/Access-Magpie-Survey

BirdLife Australia ‏@BirdlifeOz

Do you love magpies? Help Sydney Uni work out how maggies interact with urban environments by completing this survey

2 years in a row, a nesting maggie has been killed on my street :(

oops sorry