Some of you here might be interested in registering for this..

To get involved all you need is 20 minutes, your favourite outdoor space, and some keen eyesight or binoculars. It doesn’t matter if you’re a novice or an expert—we’ll be there to help you out along the way. Simply record the birds you know and look up those you don’t on our Aussie Bird Count app or the website (the field guide can be found under the ‘Submit your checklist’ button). You’ll instantly see live statistics and information on how many people are taking part near you and the number of birds and species counted across your neighbourhood and the whole of Australia!

Link

I would very much like to participate in the ABBC

Bm I right in thinking that no-one can participate if they use a computer with a Microsoft or Linux operating system? Only for Apple and Android operating systems?

looks like the ap is the way to submit a list. you can always ask them your question

@BirdLifeOz on Twitter

birdweek@birdlife.org.au by email

Looks interesting, but their web pages are sparse.

Nah, don’t think so. They are sillee peepol with birdbrains..Toowit..

“Keeping in line with other BirdLife Australia bird survey’s and having..”

Do you see anywhere on the web where I can look at detailed results from 2014?

i.e something at least as good as this one from 2008:
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/Results-2008-Backyard-Bird-Survey

Results seem to be hugely different between 2008 and 2014. Taking Victoria as an example:

From 2008:
1. Red Wattlebird
2. Australian Magpie
3. Common Blackbird
4. Spotted Turtledove
5. New Holland Honeyeater
6. Rainbow Lorikeet
7. House Sparrow
8. Common Starling
9. Pied Currawong
10. Common (Indian) Myna

From 2014:
1. Australian Magpie
2. House Sparrow
3. Rainbow Lorikeet
4-10. ??????

Huge difference.

Besides, with the ridiculous numbers of birds around here I could only manage some wild approximations.

Sounds interesting, I have heaps of birdlife here (I feed them). But I have no idea what most of them are called.

party_pants said:

Sounds interesting, I have heaps of birdlife here (I feed them). But I have no idea what most of them are called.

Please, don’t feed them.

They will come anyway if you plant the right food plants.

roughbarked said:

party_pants said:

Sounds interesting, I have heaps of birdlife here (I feed them). But I have no idea what most of them are called.

Please, don’t feed them.

They will come anyway if you plant the right food plants.

Too late.

That was predictable.

there;s ring-neck parrots on the bird feeder right now. They are pretty birds.

> Besides, with the ridiculous numbers of birds around here I could only manage some wild approximations.

> Sounds interesting, I have heaps of birdlife here (I feed them). But I have no idea what most of them are called.

> Please, don’t feed them. They will come anyway if you plant the right food plants.

That’s a myth. Meat-eating birds such as seagulls don’t come if you plant wattles and grevilleas, the bottle-brushes we planted to attract birds attract literally nothing. Though I have to admit that the local crows are vegans.

We have ridiculous numbers of birds here, too, every morning we feed more than 50 on the front lawn, on at least one occasion I’ve counted 100.

There are identification guides, on the apps I think, if not then on the birds in backyards website.

I really hope I spot our elusive regular, the “Eastern Spinebill”, this time.

mollwollfumble said:

> Besides, with the ridiculous numbers of birds around here I could only manage some wild approximations.

> Sounds interesting, I have heaps of birdlife here (I feed them). But I have no idea what most of them are called.

> Please, don’t feed them. They will come anyway if you plant the right food plants.

That’s a myth. Meat-eating birds such as seagulls don’t come if you plant wattles and grevilleas, the bottle-brushes we planted to attract birds attract literally nothing. Though I have to admit that the local crows are vegans.

We have ridiculous numbers of birds here, too, every morning we feed more than 50 on the front lawn, on at least one occasion I’ve counted 100.

There are identification guides, on the apps I think, if not then on the birds in backyards website.

I really hope I spot our elusive regular, the “Eastern Spinebill”, this time.

Seagulls like waste and rubbish; there are usually hundreds at the tip.

party_pants said:

there;s ring-neck parrots on the bird feeder right now. They are pretty birds.

In your part of the world they are twenty eight parrots?

mollwollfumble said:

> Besides, with the ridiculous numbers of birds around here I could only manage some wild approximations.

> Sounds interesting, I have heaps of birdlife here (I feed them). But I have no idea what most of them are called.

> Please, don’t feed them. They will come anyway if you plant the right food plants.

That’s a myth. Meat-eating birds such as seagulls don’t come if you plant wattles and grevilleas, the bottle-brushes we planted to attract birds attract literally nothing. Though I have to admit that the local crows are vegans.

We have ridiculous numbers of birds here, too, every morning we feed more than 50 on the front lawn, on at least one occasion I’ve counted 100.

There are identification guides, on the apps I think, if not then on the birds in backyards website.

I really hope I spot our elusive regular, the “Eastern Spinebill”, this time.

Meat eating birds didn’t need to be fed before people who live in suburbs came along. For a scientist you talk crap sometimes.

roughbarked said:

party_pants said:

there;s ring-neck parrots on the bird feeder right now. They are pretty birds.

In your part of the world they are twenty eight parrots?

Yes. But I thought if I said 28s then i’d have to explain further.

roughbarked said:

Meat eating birds didn’t need to be fed before people who live in suburbs came along. For a scientist you talk crap sometimes.

“before people who live in suburbs came along”.
Yeah right. Obviously you think our cities still have pristine pre-European environments. When I took part in the Melbourne bioblitz, I found to my horror that there was not even one square metre of land in the survey region (the whole of Melbourne City Council, ≥ 36.2 km²) that wasn’t extremely disturbed. Not even one square metre that had pre-European vegetation on.

A relatively small area smack in the middle of a major city.. I’m not surprised.

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

Meat eating birds didn’t need to be fed before people who live in suburbs came along. For a scientist you talk crap sometimes.

“before people who live in suburbs came along”.
Yeah right. Obviously you think our cities still have pristine pre-European environments. When I took part in the Melbourne bioblitz, I found to my horror that there was not even one square metre of land in the survey region (the whole of Melbourne City Council, ≥ 36.2 km²) that wasn’t extremely disturbed. Not even one square metre that had pre-European vegetation on.

So that area doesn’t include the river at Studley Park? Big pre-European trees there, I think.

Sadly it takes a satirical news site to nail this.

Ooops :/

buffy said:

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

Meat eating birds didn’t need to be fed before people who live in suburbs came along. For a scientist you talk crap sometimes.

“before people who live in suburbs came along”.
Yeah right. Obviously you think our cities still have pristine pre-European environments. When I took part in the Melbourne bioblitz, I found to my horror that there was not even one square metre of land in the survey region (the whole of Melbourne City Council, ≥ 36.2 km²) that wasn’t extremely disturbed. Not even one square metre that had pre-European vegetation on.

So that area doesn’t include the river at Studley Park? Big pre-European trees there, I think.

Could be. Doesn’t include Studley Park.

Does include Westgate Park, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kings Domain, Royal Victoria Gardens, Fitzroy Park, Alexandra Gardens, Carlton Gardens, Flagstaff Gardens, Yarra Park, JJ Holland Park, Royal Park, Zoological Gardens, Flemington Racecourse, Princes Park, Moonee Ponds Creek, Riverside Park, Dynon Rd wildlife sanctuary, Fawkner Park, banks of the Yarra up to Gosch’s Paddock, and grounds of many former mansions. Total destruction in the past by herbicides, insecticides, massive earthworks, and over-planting with European species (bloody Elms). Even the rushes in the middle of the creeks aren’t native. At least 99.99% destruction. The suburbs aren’t quite so bad, but pristine they certainly are not.

Westgate Park was for a while a motor-racing circuit and airport before becoming a park, and since the whole area of Westgate Park was totally stripped bare of vegetation AFTER it became a park, I have it on good authority that the only plants now there that can possibly lay any claim whatever to being descendents of the original vegetation are some Australian grasses, and even they could have been introduced.

my theory about the bio blitz things was to identify where insects were still surviving so the council could hit them with insecticide or identify where rats or other pest animals might have been seen to wipe them out. it allows councils to see where pigeons where concentrated.

So you are really talking about urban. I would not expect remnant bush in urban areas. But it would still be interesting/surprising to see what was still in the soil bank. The Australian bush survived a very long time, under some very extreme conditions, before we came along.

Of course, humans don’t need the bush in the city, so it isn’t there.

since the white man turned up most of the trees in Australia have been felled

i’ve driven vast distances where trees have been felled for farming , as far as the eye can see treeless plains

the damage is not just limited to the cities its every where it only takes anyone to look out of the window

in place there was a stretch of tree poisoned by a local farmer, one side of the road the trees grew with rich green foliage

the other side of the road the trees were brown and dry after being hit with chemicals

up at tinaroo dam a property developer has poisoned trees right up to the waters edge to kill out about a square kilometre of trees so that the houses he’s building have a view. an old photograph used for his own property for sale sign even shows these green trees he’s killed before he’s destroyed them.

When I first purchased this land, the two main species observed which are both long gone were the greenfinch and the goldfinch. These disappeared when I slashed and mulched over the Saffron thistle that was wall to wall on the block.

Since then the various things I’ve done have either attracted or dissuaded various species from using the garden and orchard and surrounds that I’ve planted with natives. When the first Jerusalem artichokes flowered and made seed, twenty Major Mitchells came at that time each year. Later when the nut trees fruited, these became daily visitors.

The heaps of grape marc I had dumped here brought the flame robin, the red capped robin and the jacky winter. In the early years the willie wagtail would nest only inches above my head where I regularly walked several times per day. Scissors grinders(restless flycatchers) were also common. I rarely see any of these birds thirty odd years since. The willie wagtail has been missing for at least twenty years. The butcherbirds cleaned up the winter visiting robins and I really miss such birds in my yard. I don’t miss the mosquitoes and midges that they mainly ate though. I get both the pied and the grey butcherbirds. though the grey butcherbirds come only as single birds during the winter. It was interesting to note that both species of butcherbird are quite partial to the drying remnants of persimmon left by all the other birds. In fact a persimmon tree is a great feature in any yard where one can sit in the warm winter sun and observe a multitude of birds taking advantage of the fruit and attendant insects because the fruit hangs on the tree well after the leaves drop.

Native trees like the sixty foot yellow box planted at six inches tall in 1981 may have up to five hundred galahs roosting at night when the wheat and other grass seeds are ripening everywhere.

Every year, on cue when the first bottlebrush opens in my yard, the little friarbirds show up. There aren’t huge numbers maybe at best half a dozen but they stay only as long as the bottlebrushes are open.
Bottlebrushes like most of the flowering plants, attract insects which so many birds feed on.

The walnut trees alone in my yard attract any local parrot with the capability of making use of the nuts. For example galahs aren’t attracted but major mitchells, mallee ring necked parrots and the odd stray sulphur crested are. There is hardly a more welcome parrot than the Major Mitchell. I deliberately avoided planting anything that would attract the sulphur crested parrots because though they are magnificent birds, my hearing can’t handle them close up. I get from two to sixty major mitchells. There is always one or two in the yard every day of the year but when the young of each season gather together I’ve counted up to sixty for a period of a week or so before they move on. They are a delightful bird on the eye and the ear. They bring their young to the tree and feed them on the green walnuts when they leave the nest. They also ravage my almond trees. My neighbours have planted almonds, not to eat but to attract some of my birds to their yards. How do I know? Because they asked and I provided the trees for the purpose.

The walnut trees also are attractive to magpies. Though magpies were around they didn’t frequent my yard so much until they discovered the walnuts. They can crack the nuts open and dig out the nut. Magpies also fed on the various insects that come to the nuts that are on the ground. The mulch created by all the trees also feeds the magpies and many other birds. I’ve seen the odd Australian Raven pinch the odd walnut and take it off somewhere. The grey currawongs or blackjays, come in a mob each year and hang around for a couple of weeks at a time. They aren’t specifically attracted to the walnut but certainly make use of them. Perhaps also surprising is that the crested pigeons flock in numbers to eat the smaller pieces of walnut that get scattered about by other birds and humans as part of the process. These rotters also clean up any self sown seed from the vegies. It becomes difficult to sow vege seed and beat the pigeons. Like so many birds the pigeons also like a bit of green pick and can get plenty of that in the vege garden.

The mallee ring necked parrots aren’t as attracted to the walnut as the almond and other fruits like nectarines and persimmons. I get on average four or five on every day of the year. They do eat the fallen nuts that have been cracked by other birds and humans walking on them or mowing them. They also fight with the yellow throated miners for access to the Eremophila flowers which they tear apart with a delicate hunger.

I’ve long ago christened the Eremophilas that are designed to be attractive to honeyeaters, the shaking bush. When people ask why, I say because any day of the year the bushes are shaking with birds in them. It doesn’t matter what the birds eat specifically because the plants are a great harbour and are used by any small birds that are around. There are a number of honeyeaters that are attracted to Eremophila. The main species I get are the yellow throated miner and the spiny cheeked honeyeater. Blue faced honeyeaters are almost daily visitors as well. Smaller honeyeaters also frequent both the natives and the fruit trees. The white plumed honeyeater, singing honeyeater, grey fronted honeyeater, white striped honeyeater, brown headed honeyeater, white eared honeyeater and even the painted honeyeater(though rare). Also rare but definitely seen in my yard is the black honeyeater, seen on both Eremophila and kangaroo paw.

The mistletoe bird nests in and around my yard as do the variegated fairy wren. Crested pigeons nest in and around the yard. Silvereyes nest here too.
The striated pardalote and the spotted pardalote appear to nest close by. The magpies nest outside the yard but spend most of the day here. Yellow throated and spiny cheeked honeyeater nests have been observed. The creme de la creme are the sparrowhawks which came to nest above my carport at the top of a huge Grevillea robusta. It was fun watching the young birds play chasing the major mitchell young. Both species seem to have a great time gambolling around the sky and weaving in and out of the trees.

In winter there is a small army of silvereyes, yellow rumped and chestnunt rumped thornbills and variegated wrens that do a daily hoovering of the insects on all the plants. Also the grey shrike-thrush is common during the winter along with a grey fantail as single birds. The black faced cuckooshrike are common also. They rarely sing but when they do, there is definitely rain about soon after. Spring usually brings both the oriental and pallid cuckoo. It was weird watching wagtails feeding such huge birds. Cockatiels are regular flyover and drop in birds in small flocks. Occasional small flocks of budgies flocks fly about. Strangely, the blue-bonnet parrots nest about two hundred metres away but never visit my yard. I also get the red-rumped parrot sitting in the trees around the yard and on the ground where I’ve planted natives. Masses of ruby saltbush regularly attract parrots and other small birds. A family of Kookaburras keep me awake at 4 AM and are regularly seen hunting among the trees I’ve planted. Either and both the Blue and Azure kingfishers always let me know which is the first day of spring.

Among the birds that used to nest here and now don’t are the rainbow bee eaters that had tunnels out back. These birds asphyxiated when the locals had their last burn to control fire risk weeds and snakes. This was in 1982. I’ve prevented burn-offs ever since but the bee eaters never nested there again. They did visit my bee hives for a while but they are no longer common and have become quite rare. Orginally had starlings so thick that they’d blacken the sky but these have become rare in my yard. Sparrows are still around but are becoming rarer. Interestingly the bloke down the road where the blue-bonnets nest, tells me that there are no sparrows two hundred metres away. I’d normally find that difficult to believe but he’s a long time bird watcher and he knows his stuff.

Occasionally a lone corella will come with the galahs. There are no lorikeets here though there are plenty in the town only 12 km away. Same goes for wattlebirds.

Ubiquitous black shouldered kites and nankeen kestrels are seen hovering about on or near the yard. Common to get tawny frogmouths which nest nearby and the southern boobook owl in my yard in the evenings and early morning. Have also observed the owlet nightjar.

There are a heap of fly over birds that ocasionally use my trees since I am situated within a kilometre of a wetland. this wetland is a listed one as three species of internationally protected birds regularly use it. These range from banded stilts to pelicans and wedge-tailed eagles and include swamp harriers, spotted harriers, peregrine falcon, black falcon, brown falcon, little falcon, brown goshawk and many others that I can list by simply sitting on the swamp and watching. I’ve even had a black duck sit on ten eggs only fifty metres from my back door.

Because I have planted trees and because out back there are small remnants of mallee that create corridoors I hear bronze wing pigeons and the little and peaceful doves on a daily basis.

There are sure to have been birds that I haven’t mentioned as casual visitors or fly through.

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

Meat eating birds didn’t need to be fed before people who live in suburbs came along. For a scientist you talk crap sometimes.

“before people who live in suburbs came along”.
Yeah right. Obviously you think our cities still have pristine pre-European environments. When I took part in the Melbourne bioblitz, I found to my horror that there was not even one square metre of land in the survey region (the whole of Melbourne City Council, ≥ 36.2 km²) that wasn’t extremely disturbed. Not even one square metre that had pre-European vegetation on.

I agree that this is now the case in most large metropolitan areas.

wookiemeister said:

since the white man turned up most of the trees in Australia have been felled

i’ve driven vast distances where trees have been felled for farming , as far as the eye can see treeless plains

It may surprise you that there were vast treeless plains long before Europeans started cutting the vast forested regions.

wookiemeister said:

my theory about the bio blitz things was to identify where insects were still surviving so the council could hit them with insecticide or identify where rats or other pest animals might have been seen to wipe them out. it allows councils to see where pigeons where concentrated.

That worried me too. I went to the council and asked a person in charge of the project, and they reassured me that that wasn’t what they were on about. There was a follow-on study about a development plan. I think they wanted to protect biodiversity hotspots, problem is there weren’t any.

I put my question “Bm I right in thinking that no-one can participate if they use a computer with a Microsoft or Linux operating system? Only for Apple and Android operating systems?” on Facebook. No reply yet. I had earlier had trouble with an earlier Australian Species identification guide from the Australian Museum – it wasn’t made available for Windows, only through an app.

mollwollfumble said:

wookiemeister said:

my theory about the bio blitz things was to identify where insects were still surviving so the council could hit them with insecticide or identify where rats or other pest animals might have been seen to wipe them out. it allows councils to see where pigeons where concentrated.

That worried me too. I went to the council and asked a person in charge of the project, and they reassured me that that wasn’t what they were on about. There was a follow-on study about a development plan. I think they wanted to protect biodiversity hotspots, problem is there weren’t any.

I put my question “Bm I right in thinking that no-one can participate if they use a computer with a Microsoft or Linux operating system? Only for Apple and Android operating systems?” on Facebook. No reply yet. I had earlier had trouble with an earlier Australian Species identification guide from the Australian Museum – it wasn’t made available for Windows, only through an app.

The computer issue is usually the other way around. Mac isn’t supported.

roughbarked said:

There are sure to have been birds that I haven’t mentioned as casual visitors or fly through.

Oh and the farken mudlarks. There is always one pecking at my windows and shitting on the sill and up to a hundred gather in the trees at certain times of the year.

You may be interested mollwoll, in the various Flickr groups that sprang up about birds in cities. There is one called city parrots for example.

It is clear that seagulls and ibis have become the garbage collectors along with birds like the indian mynah.

I don’t have the mynah out this far from the coast but I do have the more annoying English blackbirds.

I’m sure you know that the reason that the currawong now lives permanently in Sydney rather than only visiting down from the mountains for part of the year, is due to the planting of food plants that did not grow there before European settlement. That people also feed them is another reason for them to stay.

the key to attracting birds to your garden is don’t use pesticides.

insects and spiders ad reptiles don’t like pesticides and (many) birds like insects and spiders and reptiles

as far as cockatoos and galahs go, you need quite big trees really. The ones with honky nuts (I don’t know what you people call them) and fruits/berries… the bigger birds need better support and larger nesting areas, so small trees are not going to cut it for them, they also need a range of mature trees in different, but not too far, spots. Suburban areas can provide some of these, but certainly, most city areas do not.

we have been very involved with the planting of native trees in an area around Curtin University to help keep the populations of carnaby cockatoos happy… it’s going to take some time for the trees to grow into suitable eating/nesting areas, but you have to start somewhere and at least try.

I find the increase in rainbow lorikeets interesting. They seem to be present in large numbers in places where they weren’t before. They are, in WA, considered a ‘pest’ animal, because they are bastards to the local endemics.. but you have to give them points for adequate dispersal and adaptation…

Arts said:

the key to attracting birds to your garden is don’t use pesticides.

insects and spiders ad reptiles don’t like pesticides and (many) birds like insects and spiders and reptiles

as far as cockatoos and galahs go, you need quite big trees really. The ones with honky nuts (I don’t know what you people call them) and fruits/berries… the bigger birds need better support and larger nesting areas, so small trees are not going to cut it for them, they also need a range of mature trees in different, but not too far, spots. Suburban areas can provide some of these, but certainly, most city areas do not.

we have been very involved with the planting of native trees in an area around Curtin University to help keep the populations of carnaby cockatoos happy… it’s going to take some time for the trees to grow into suitable eating/nesting areas, but you have to start somewhere and at least try.

I find the increase in rainbow lorikeets interesting. They seem to be present in large numbers in places where they weren’t before. They are, in WA, considered a ‘pest’ animal, because they are bastards to the local endemics.. but you have to give them points for adequate dispersal and adaptation…

Yep. No pesticides. Tick. :)
Yep, no cats. Tick. ;)
Yep if you have to start somewhere, at least try.

honkey nuts? In WA, the Karri have the small nuts and the Marri have the big nuts. Though E. macrocarpa probably has the biggest of all.

Yes a good environment for bigger birds does need some bigger trees and indeed some dead bigger trees. Also though, the smaller birds won’t be there unless there is ample lower shrubbery.

roughbarked said:

Arts said:

the key to attracting birds to your garden is don’t use pesticides.

insects and spiders ad reptiles don’t like pesticides and (many) birds like insects and spiders and reptiles

as far as cockatoos and galahs go, you need quite big trees really. The ones with honky nuts (I don’t know what you people call them) and fruits/berries… the bigger birds need better support and larger nesting areas, so small trees are not going to cut it for them, they also need a range of mature trees in different, but not too far, spots. Suburban areas can provide some of these, but certainly, most city areas do not.

we have been very involved with the planting of native trees in an area around Curtin University to help keep the populations of carnaby cockatoos happy… it’s going to take some time for the trees to grow into suitable eating/nesting areas, but you have to start somewhere and at least try.

I find the increase in rainbow lorikeets interesting. They seem to be present in large numbers in places where they weren’t before. They are, in WA, considered a ‘pest’ animal, because they are bastards to the local endemics.. but you have to give them points for adequate dispersal and adaptation…

Yep. No pesticides. Tick. :)
Yep, no cats. Tick. ;)
Yep if you have to start somewhere, at least try.

honkey nuts? In WA, the Karri have the small nuts and the Marri have the big nuts. Though E. macrocarpa probably has the biggest of all.

Yes a good environment for bigger birds does need some bigger trees and indeed some dead bigger trees. Also though, the smaller birds won’t be there unless there is ample lower shrubbery.

honky nuts… the cockatoos love them (green ones of course)

That’s so racist

Arts said:

Marri.

honky nuts are marri.

you haven’t really lived in Perth until you’ve been clocked by a honky nut… either by falling form a cockatoos mouth or from the hand of your school friend on the oval

Arts said:

you haven’t really lived in Perth until you’ve been clocked by a honky nut… either by falling form a cockatoos mouth or from the hand of your school friend on the oval

throwing honky nuts at someone was instant scab duty, even if you missed.

party_pants said:

Arts said:

you haven’t really lived in Perth until you’ve been clocked by a honky nut… either by falling form a cockatoos mouth or from the hand of your school friend on the oval

throwing honky nuts at someone was instant scab duty, even if you missed.

must have been difficult for the cockatoos to pick up FM bottles

Anyway, there’s a magpie on my empty bird feeder looking at me as if to ask why I haven’t got off my arse and topped it up yet. I’m just using the Woolworths wild birds seed mix, not sure what the magpies are eating, they seem to be very particular in picking something out of it.

A simple and effective food for a magpie, is Pedigree Puppy kibble soaked in cold water for about 1 – 2 hours. The kibble is made from rice and contains vitamins and protein which have been found to be effective in raising birds.

http://www.faunarescue.org.au/bird-insectivore.htm

party_pants said:

Anyway, there’s a magpie on my empty bird feeder looking at me as if to ask why I haven’t got off my arse and topped it up yet. I’m just using the Woolworths wild birds seed mix, not sure what the magpies are eating, they seem to be very particular in picking something out of it.

:) Twice yesterday a visitor commented upon what the birds were doing behind my back. Because I was facing the visitor.

One said that miner is sitting there just behiind you, watching us. The other said, that magpie is drinking water from that bucket of opal you’ve got there. I said, “which bucket?” There are several. I said. “that’s why they are sitting out in the open and they are too high for snakes”.

Arts said:

A simple and effective food for a magpie, is Pedigree Puppy kibble soaked in cold water for about 1 – 2 hours. The kibble is made from rice and contains vitamins and protein which have been found to be effective in raising birds.

http://www.faunarescue.org.au/bird-insectivore.htm

Unfortunately in northern aussie this is perfect for cane toads. ;)

roughbarked said:

Arts said:

A simple and effective food for a magpie, is Pedigree Puppy kibble soaked in cold water for about 1 – 2 hours. The kibble is made from rice and contains vitamins and protein which have been found to be effective in raising birds.

http://www.faunarescue.org.au/bird-insectivore.htm

Unfortunately in northern aussie this is perfect for cane toads. ;)

what is?

Arts said:

roughbarked said:

Arts said:

A simple and effective food for a magpie, is Pedigree Puppy kibble soaked in cold water for about 1 – 2 hours. The kibble is made from rice and contains vitamins and protein which have been found to be effective in raising birds.

http://www.faunarescue.org.au/bird-insectivore.htm

Unfortunately in northern aussie this is perfect for cane toads. ;)

what is?

Putting out dog food.

roughbarked said:

Arts said:

roughbarked said:

Unfortunately in northern aussie this is perfect for cane toads. ;)

what is?

Putting out dog food.

cane toads don’t give a shit, they’ll eat almost anything…

roughbarked said:

Arts said:

roughbarked said:

Unfortunately in northern aussie this is perfect for cane toads. ;)

what is?

Putting out dog food.

suspend it on a chain from a tree branch

people putting out dog food is not the reason we have cane toads nor the reason they thrive. You may as well not put out water, because cane toads breed in it. The information is valid if you want to easily feed magpies, or you can make up a mix as stated on the website linked.

anyways… I’m off to the shed for a while.

go the Cowboys.

roughbarked said:

When I first purchased this land, the two main species observed which are both long gone were the greenfinch and the goldfinch. These disappeared when I slashed and mulched over the Saffron thistle that was wall to wall on the block.

Since then the various things I’ve done have either attracted or dissuaded various species from using the garden and orchard and surrounds that I’ve planted with natives. When the first Jerusalem artichokes flowered and made seed, twenty Major Mitchells came at that time each year. Later when the nut trees fruited, these became daily visitors.

The heaps of grape marc I had dumped here brought the flame robin, the red capped robin and the jacky winter. In the early years the willie wagtail would nest only inches above my head where I regularly walked several times per day. Scissors grinders(restless flycatchers) were also common. I rarely see any of these birds thirty odd years since. The willie wagtail has been missing for at least twenty years. The butcherbirds cleaned up the winter visiting robins and I really miss such birds in my yard. I don’t miss the mosquitoes and midges that they mainly ate though. I get both the pied and the grey butcherbirds. though the grey butcherbirds come only as single birds during the winter. It was interesting to note that both species of butcherbird are quite partial to the drying remnants of persimmon left by all the other birds. In fact a persimmon tree is a great feature in any yard where one can sit in the warm winter sun and observe a multitude of birds taking advantage of the fruit and attendant insects because the fruit hangs on the tree well after the leaves drop.

Native trees like the sixty foot yellow box planted at six inches tall in 1981 may have up to five hundred galahs roosting at night when the wheat and other grass seeds are ripening everywhere.

Every year, on cue when the first bottlebrush opens in my yard, the little friarbirds show up. There aren’t huge numbers maybe at best half a dozen but they stay only as long as the bottlebrushes are open.
Bottlebrushes like most of the flowering plants, attract insects which so many birds feed on.

The walnut trees alone in my yard attract any local parrot with the capability of making use of the nuts. For example galahs aren’t attracted but major mitchells, mallee ring necked parrots and the odd stray sulphur crested are. There is hardly a more welcome parrot than the Major Mitchell. I deliberately avoided planting anything that would attract the sulphur crested parrots because though they are magnificent birds, my hearing can’t handle them close up. I get from two to sixty major mitchells. There is always one or two in the yard every day of the year but when the young of each season gather together I’ve counted up to sixty for a period of a week or so before they move on. They are a delightful bird on the eye and the ear. They bring their young to the tree and feed them on the green walnuts when they leave the nest. They also ravage my almond trees. My neighbours have planted almonds, not to eat but to attract some of my birds to their yards. How do I know? Because they asked and I provided the trees for the purpose.

The walnut trees also are attractive to magpies. Though magpies were around they didn’t frequent my yard so much until they discovered the walnuts. They can crack the nuts open and dig out the nut. Magpies also fed on the various insects that come to the nuts that are on the ground. The mulch created by all the trees also feeds the magpies and many other birds. I’ve seen the odd Australian Raven pinch the odd walnut and take it off somewhere. The grey currawongs or blackjays, come in a mob each year and hang around for a couple of weeks at a time. They aren’t specifically attracted to the walnut but certainly make use of them. Perhaps also surprising is that the crested pigeons flock in numbers to eat the smaller pieces of walnut that get scattered about by other birds and humans as part of the process. These rotters also clean up any self sown seed from the vegies. It becomes difficult to sow vege seed and beat the pigeons. Like so many birds the pigeons also like a bit of green pick and can get plenty of that in the vege garden.

The mallee ring necked parrots aren’t as attracted to the walnut as the almond and other fruits like nectarines and persimmons. I get on average four or five on every day of the year. They do eat the fallen nuts that have been cracked by other birds and humans walking on them or mowing them. They also fight with the yellow throated miners for access to the Eremophila flowers which they tear apart with a delicate hunger.

I’ve long ago christened the Eremophilas that are designed to be attractive to honeyeaters, the shaking bush. When people ask why, I say because any day of the year the bushes are shaking with birds in them. It doesn’t matter what the birds eat specifically because the plants are a great harbour and are used by any small birds that are around. There are a number of honeyeaters that are attracted to Eremophila. The main species I get are the yellow throated miner and the spiny cheeked honeyeater. Blue faced honeyeaters are almost daily visitors as well. Smaller honeyeaters also frequent both the natives and the fruit trees. The white plumed honeyeater, singing honeyeater, grey fronted honeyeater, white striped honeyeater, brown headed honeyeater, white eared honeyeater and even the painted honeyeater(though rare). Also rare but definitely seen in my yard is the black honeyeater, seen on both Eremophila and kangaroo paw.

The mistletoe bird nests in and around my yard as do the variegated fairy wren. Crested pigeons nest in and around the yard. Silvereyes nest here too.
The striated pardalote and the spotted pardalote appear to nest close by. The magpies nest outside the yard but spend most of the day here. Yellow throated and spiny cheeked honeyeater nests have been observed. The creme de la creme are the sparrowhawks which came to nest above my carport at the top of a huge Grevillea robusta. It was fun watching the young birds play chasing the major mitchell young. Both species seem to have a great time gambolling around the sky and weaving in and out of the trees.

In winter there is a small army of silvereyes, yellow rumped and chestnunt rumped thornbills and variegated wrens that do a daily hoovering of the insects on all the plants. Also the grey shrike-thrush is common during the winter along with a grey fantail as single birds. The black faced cuckooshrike are common also. They rarely sing but when they do, there is definitely rain about soon after. Spring usually brings both the oriental and pallid cuckoo. It was weird watching wagtails feeding such huge birds. Cockatiels are regular flyover and drop in birds in small flocks. Occasional small flocks of budgies flocks fly about. Strangely, the blue-bonnet parrots nest about two hundred metres away but never visit my yard. I also get the red-rumped parrot sitting in the trees around the yard and on the ground where I’ve planted natives. Masses of ruby saltbush regularly attract parrots and other small birds. A family of Kookaburras keep me awake at 4 AM and are regularly seen hunting among the trees I’ve planted. Either and both the Blue and Azure kingfishers always let me know which is the first day of spring.

Among the birds that used to nest here and now don’t are the rainbow bee eaters that had tunnels out back. These birds asphyxiated when the locals had their last burn to control fire risk weeds and snakes. This was in 1982. I’ve prevented burn-offs ever since but the bee eaters never nested there again. They did visit my bee hives for a while but they are no longer common and have become quite rare. Orginally had starlings so thick that they’d blacken the sky but these have become rare in my yard. Sparrows are still around but are becoming rarer. Interestingly the bloke down the road where the blue-bonnets nest, tells me that there are no sparrows two hundred metres away. I’d normally find that difficult to believe but he’s a long time bird watcher and he knows his stuff.

Occasionally a lone corella will come with the galahs. There are no lorikeets here though there are plenty in the town only 12 km away. Same goes for wattlebirds.

Ubiquitous black shouldered kites and nankeen kestrels are seen hovering about on or near the yard. Common to get tawny frogmouths which nest nearby and the southern boobook owl in my yard in the evenings and early morning. Have also observed the owlet nightjar.

There are a heap of fly over birds that ocasionally use my trees since I am situated within a kilometre of a wetland. this wetland is a listed one as three species of internationally protected birds regularly use it. These range from banded stilts to pelicans and wedge-tailed eagles and include swamp harriers, spotted harriers, peregrine falcon, black falcon, brown falcon, little falcon, brown goshawk and many others that I can list by simply sitting on the swamp and watching. I’ve even had a black duck sit on ten eggs only fifty metres from my back door.

Because I have planted trees and because out back there are small remnants of mallee that create corridoors I hear bronze wing pigeons and the little and peaceful doves on a daily basis.

There are sure to have been birds that I haven’t mentioned as casual visitors or fly through.

You must have got up early to write all that rb. A number of very interesting observations, which on a previous property of mine I could rival. As you have documented though, the bird build-up happens over many years as news of a good spot gets passed around their birdie world; it also takes a great deal of dedication of the property owner to make it happen. You have done well.

PermeateFree said:

You must have got up early to write all that rb. A number of very interesting observations, which on a previous property of mine I could rival. As you have documented though, the bird build-up happens over many years as news of a good spot gets passed around their birdie world; it also takes a great deal of dedication of the property owner to make it happen. You have done well.

Ta. ;)

I’ll have a look into this for the Redoubt, heaps of obscure birds there, would not be surprised if there is not a colony of passenger pigeons and the odd dodo.

…and the odd dodo.

you’ve moved in?

JudgeMental said:

…and the odd dodo.

you’ve moved in?

That’s why he wants a tractor.

roughbarked said:

You may be interested mollwoll, in the various Flickr groups that sprang up about birds in cities. There is one called city parrots for example.

It is clear that seagulls and ibis have become the garbage collectors along with birds like the indian mynah.

I don’t have the mynah out this far from the coast but I do have the more annoying English blackbirds.

I’m sure you know that the reason that the currawong now lives permanently in Sydney rather than only visiting down from the mountains for part of the year, is due to the planting of food plants that did not grow there before European settlement. That people also feed them is another reason for them to stay.

I’m very interesting in the bird list you posted above, nearly no overlap with what I have here.

Where are you, roughly? Not near the coast you say. I thought Mynahs went further from the coast than Blackbirds, but then Mynahs are scavengers (somewhat reviled like vultures), so don’t survive as well out of town centres as blackbirds, which eat fruit and insects.

No, I didn’t know why the Currawong has moved into Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne. In Melbourne it’s still seasonal, and around here relatively recent, only the last four or so years. For some reason they never eat any food we put out for the birds, they visit the yard for a few minutes about three times a year, take a look and then fly away. My main worry about the Currawongs is that the local Grey Butcherbird makes itself very scarce when a Currawong is around. I suspect it is worried about a Currawong raiding its nest. On the other hand, earlier this year I photographed a Currawong feeding a Channel-Billed Cuckoo in its nest in Bowral, so sometimes they have their own problems.

> quote=roughbarked
> When I first purchased this land, the two main species observed which are both long gone were the greenfinch and the goldfinch.

I like the goldfinch despite it being an import, it’s surprisingly common in Melbourne City Centre, especially to the far west in the region being bulldozed for new development. I’ve never seen a greenfinch.

> twenty Major Mitchells came at that time each year … the flame robin, the red capped robin and the jacky winter and restless flycatchers, grey currawong, mallee ring necked parrots, spiny cheeked honeyeater, singing honeyeater, grey fronted honeyeater, white striped honeyeater, brown headed honeyeater, white eared honeyeater and even the painted honeyeater(though rare). Also rare but definitely seen in my yard is the black honeyeater. Mistletoe bird nests in and around my yard as do the variegated fairy wren. Yellow rumped and chestnunt rumped thornbills. The oriental and pallid cuckoo. Small flocks of budgies flocks fly about. Strangely, the blue-bonnet parrots, Blue and Azure kingfishers … Southern boobook owl in my yard in the evenings and early morning. Have also observed the owlet nightjar.

Only ever seen one Major Mitchell and one or two singing honeyeaters. Mistletoe bird was said to have been seen near where I used to work one suburb away. There are thornbill regulars in a park about 5 km away, but I’ve never been able to pin down exactly which type of thornbill. Seen none of the others, not even wild budgies.

> In the early years the willie wagtail

They’re remarkably common in Melbourne city centre, and from south of Albury to north of Tarcutta on the hume Hwy.

> I get both the pied and the grey butcherbirds

That’s a bit unusual, pied live in Brisbane and Grey in Melbourne.

> both species of butcherbird are quite partial to the drying remnants of persimmon

No persimmons here, but many birds love the half apples and quarter oranges we leave out here daily. Persimmons would be great for birds, thanks for the tip.

> May have up to five hundred galahs roosting at night when the wheat and other grass seeds are ripening everywhere.

We count it a huge win when galahs turn up at our bird bath. The like the nearby primary school and park, and nature strips, bet very seldom come closer.

> On cue when the first bottlebrush opens in my yard, the little friarbirds … Blue faced honeyeaters

Used to have lots of little friarbirds in Brisbane. In Syd and Mel their place is taken by Little Wattlebirds. So many flowering garden plants in the street, school and neighbours yards that nectar-feeders are spoilt for choice. They completely turn their nose up at my bottlebrushes, but can be found in the neighbour’s trees which have red trumpet-shaped flowers. Blue faced honeyeaters are also a common Brisbane bird.

> The walnut trees alone in my yard

That worries me. Walnuts and pecans are very subject to insect diseases unless sprayed, and if sprayed then the birds wouldn’t like it.

> The sulphur crested parrots because though they are magnificent birds, my hearing can’t handle them close up.

LOL, I totally understand. Our nearest sulphur crested tend to be 5 km away. Instead, we get little corellas, which are much quieter.

> Magpies were around they didn’t frequent my yard so much until they discovered the walnuts.

That’s weird. Magpies tend to avoid here because it’s too crowded with other birds and they like their space, sometimes they try to chase all the other birds away from the meat and get really tired out from all their own squawking and attacking, so they just give up despite being very much top of the pecking order.

> Crested pigeons flock …

We have a resident family all the time. Every morning three or four of them, and hang around the rest of the day. Don’t flock here, always present in the same numbers increasing or decreasing as a new family member is born or dies.

> The yellow throated miners for access to the Eremophila flowers

You’re sure they’re yellow-throated, not noisy miner? When I see a miner I assume it’s a noisy miner so never look closely. What’s Eremophila?

> white plumed honeyeater

One of my very favourite birds. Remarkably common throughout Melbourne wherever water is nearby, I saw at least three on the Melbourne bioblitz. But never more that a few metres from water. I have seen them drinking from a backyard swimming pool.

> Silvereyes nest here too.

I saw them a lot in Sydney, very rarely in Melbourne.

> The striated pardalote and the spotted pardalote

Have seen spotted pardalote in a park just 1 km away, never striated.

> The creme de la creme are the sparrowhawks

Aren’t they great! One caught a small bird just outside my gate on the nature strip. Asking later I found that it lived in a park about 1.5 km away.

> Also the grey shrike-thrush is common during the winter along with a grey fantail as single birds. The black faced cuckooshrike are common also.

Can both be seen in Police Paddocks, a park east of here.

> Cockatiels are regular flyover

I have seen a cockatiel just 300 m from my place, but I’d lay very good odds that it was an escaped pet.

> I also get the red-rumped parrot

At the right time of year they’re everywhere. Three times in the past six months I’ve walked within three metres of a red-rumped parrot, two of those in Melbourne, the other in Holbrook. They just love grass.

> A family of Kookaburras … kingfishers

Nearest Kookaburra about 10 km away. Nearest Kingfisher (Sacred) about 20 km away at the Werribee sewage farm.

> Rainbow bee eaters

Only ever seen those in Darwin.

> Originally had starlings so thick that they’d blacken the sky but these have become rare in my yard.

Common in my yard, but only one or two at a time. 2 km away they can be seen in hundreds.

> Sparrows are still around but are becoming rarer. Interestingly the bloke down the road where the blue-bonnets nest, tells me that there are no sparrows two hundred metres away. I’d normally find that difficult to believe but he’s a long time bird watcher and he knows his stuff.

Same here, surprisingly. Only ever seen one sparrow in my yard, once, and that one only because I woke it from sleep, it hightailed it out of there instantly. Yet not far away there are dozens, and Melbourne City Centre has hundreds.

> Occasionally a lone corella will come with the galahs. There are no lorikeets here though there are plenty in the town only 12 km away. Same goes for wattlebirds.

More corellas, wattlebirds and lorikeets here. We get rainbow lorries at the house and the nearby school, and also musk lorikeets where I used to work.

> Ubiquitous black shouldered kites and nankeen kestrels

Now that’s a good question. Have seen black shouldered kites in the suburbs of Melbourne proper, but not for more than 5 years, I wouldn’t know a nankeen kestrel if it bit me.

> Common to get tawny frogmouths which nest nearby.

Nearest tawny frogmouth in a park about 5 km away. No wait, I tell a lie, there was one visited my former workplace. They don’t hang around for long because they attract gawking tourists.

> I am situated within a kilometre of a wetland. this wetland is a listed one as three species of internationally protected birds regularly use it. These range from banded stilts to pelicans and wedge-tailed eagles and include swamp harriers, spotted harriers, peregrine falcon, black falcon, brown falcon, little falcon, brown goshawk and many others that I can list by simply sitting on the swamp and watching. I’ve even had a black duck sit on ten eggs only fifty metres from my back door. Bronze wing pigeons and the little and peaceful doves

Nearest banded stilts just 2 km away. Nearest bronze wings 1 km away. Pelicans everywhere. Swamp Harrier at Werribee. Peregrine Falcon on Mornington Peninsula.

Great collection of birds, roughbarked.

I am Count Ducula, the Aussie Backyard Bird Count, MWAHAHAHAHA

My mother has currawongs, which she feeds, in Box Hill North. I don’t think they are seasonal. They sound different from ours out here in the Western District.

Eremophila come in all shapes and sizes from groundcovers to small trees. Their main common names are Emu Bush, Poverty bush. Thisnk the latter is because when there’s nothing left on the property, the grazier is headed for poverty. In general, stock don’t eat them and on overgrazed properties sudeenly they become one of the main so called, woody weeds. Long used in Aboriginal medicine, science has noted them and I’ll bet the Americans are already trying to copyright them. I’ve been an Eremophila cultivator/propogator for more than around forty years.

Think there was a docco on Catalyst about the currawongs in the eastern cities. Previous to recent times they were a mountain bird. They visited the coast only for a part of the year. Since the advent of introduced plants that bore fruit at different times and the clearing of the original plants, The currawong found staying on the coast to be a new lifestyle.

Yes I’m about the same distance from Melbourne as from Sydney. Apart from brief journeys elsewhere, I’ve been watching the birds in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area for some sixty odd years.

party_pants said:

Anyway, there’s a magpie on my empty bird feeder looking at me as if to ask why I haven’t got off my arse and topped it up yet. I’m just using the Woolworths wild birds seed mix, not sure what the magpies are eating, they seem to be very particular in picking something out of it.

Probly sunflower seeds.

I’d love to have a bird feeder here but it would only attract the neighbourhood cats…

I had three seed feeders which my fussy budgie wouldn’t eat, so I put them outside. The only time they got eaten was when they got knocked off the fence; I assume it was mice that ended up eating them.

The yellow throated miner is also known as the white rumped miner. As Cayley says, “Frequents open forest and scrubland. Replaces the Noisy miner in the west and over mot of the arid interior.”

Divine Angel said:

party_pants said:

Anyway, there’s a magpie on my empty bird feeder looking at me as if to ask why I haven’t got off my arse and topped it up yet. I’m just using the Woolworths wild birds seed mix, not sure what the magpies are eating, they seem to be very particular in picking something out of it.

Probly sunflower seeds.

I’d love to have a bird feeder here but it would only attract the neighbourhood cats…

I had three seed feeders which my fussy budgie wouldn’t eat, so I put them outside. The only time they got eaten was when they got knocked off the fence; I assume it was mice that ended up eating them.

Magpies are probably picking the weevils out of the porridge. Yes they will eat walnuts(in my yard) but I think that was a happy accident for them. At first they were attracted to the insects that also love walnuts that fall to the ground.

My swamp is on this list http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=874

It is also mentioned on the page linked below. Though the dolt reckons he saw White Breasted sea eagle soaring. I find that difficult to believe as I’ve never seen one soaring in my skies and I’ve lived nearby all my life. I think he was confused with a visit to Narrandera. As there is a nest there. Read: Club outing to Rocky Waterholes Narrandera here I believe it is one of the 65 Australian Ramsar sites.

I’ve obsrved the magpies carrying walnut pieces off to feed the babies with and teaching them to crack the nuts open. Their nest is about thirty metres from the back door and yes, they walk across my feet and don’t attack me wherever I walk.

roughbarked said:

I’ve obsrved the magpies carrying walnut pieces off to feed the babies with and teaching them to crack the nuts open. Their nest is about thirty metres from the back door and yes, they walk across my feet and don’t attack me wherever I walk.

Just took some photos of their nest site. It is on a clump of Box Mistletoe.

roughbarked said:

I’ve obsrved the magpies carrying walnut pieces off to feed the babies with and teaching them to crack the nuts open. Their nest is about thirty metres from the back door and yes, they walk across my feet and don’t attack me wherever I walk.

I put out rolled oats, which the magpies will readily eat, especially when other foods are limited. The oats have the added advantage that the finches and scrub wrens also like a peck, plus in the warmer weather all the large skinks (bobtails, bluetongues and the large King Skinks) all have a feed and become regular visitors. The other advantage is rolled oats are cheap and easy to handle, plus they are not so scrumptious as to become a dominant feature of their diet. I should add that a shallow container of water on the ground is appreciated by the reptiles after they have their oats.

• I put out rolled oats, which the magpies will readily eat, especially when other foods are limited. The oats have the added advantage that the finches and scrub wrens also like a peck, plus in the warmer weather all the large skinks (bobtails, bluetongues and the large King Skinks) all have a feed and become regular visitors. The other advantage is rolled oats are cheap and easy to handle, plus they are not so scrumptious as to become a dominant feature of their diet. I should add that a shallow container of water on the ground is appreciated by the reptiles after they have their oats.

Why you should not feed wild animals

“Observing wild animals is rewarding. Many people are attracted to places that offer such opportunities and encourage closer contact by offering food. Animals can become used to people and soon learn to take advantage of food scraps and offerings. Though this is usually done with good intent, feeding wild animals can upset the balance of nature and the Department of Parks and Wildlife strongly advises against feeding wild animals.

Wildlife can still be encouraged to live in or visit gardens or properties by providing and maintaining areas of suitable natural habitat harbouring natural food sources. Animals can still become used to the presence of people without being fed, allowing people to observe wild animals at close proximity without unnecessary interference.”

Tough sub

furious said:

• I put out rolled oats, which the magpies will readily eat, especially when other foods are limited. The oats have the added advantage that the finches and scrub wrens also like a peck, plus in the warmer weather all the large skinks (bobtails, bluetongues and the large King Skinks) all have a feed and become regular visitors. The other advantage is rolled oats are cheap and easy to handle, plus they are not so scrumptious as to become a dominant feature of their diet. I should add that a shallow container of water on the ground is appreciated by the reptiles after they have their oats.

Why you should not feed wild animals

“Observing wild animals is rewarding. Many people are attracted to places that offer such opportunities and encourage closer contact by offering food. Animals can become used to people and soon learn to take advantage of food scraps and offerings. Though this is usually done with good intent, feeding wild animals can upset the balance of nature and the Department of Parks and Wildlife strongly advises against feeding wild animals.

Wildlife can still be encouraged to live in or visit gardens or properties by providing and maintaining areas of suitable natural habitat harbouring natural food sources. Animals can still become used to the presence of people without being fed, allowing people to observe wild animals at close proximity without unnecessary interference.”

If we deliberately destroy much of the natural environment on which our wildlife depend for survival, then supplying a little food to help them along during hard times in my opinion is NOT unnecessary interference! Not everyone can live in a National Park and have high ideals as to what should and shouldn’t be, especially when their staff commonly do fuel reducing burns during spring and other inappropriate times. The level of hypocrisy from many of these institutions is enough to make you vomit!

PermeateFree said:

furious said:

• I put out rolled oats, which the magpies will readily eat, especially when other foods are limited. The oats have the added advantage that the finches and scrub wrens also like a peck, plus in the warmer weather all the large skinks (bobtails, bluetongues and the large King Skinks) all have a feed and become regular visitors. The other advantage is rolled oats are cheap and easy to handle, plus they are not so scrumptious as to become a dominant feature of their diet. I should add that a shallow container of water on the ground is appreciated by the reptiles after they have their oats.

Why you should not feed wild animals

“Observing wild animals is rewarding. Many people are attracted to places that offer such opportunities and encourage closer contact by offering food. Animals can become used to people and soon learn to take advantage of food scraps and offerings. Though this is usually done with good intent, feeding wild animals can upset the balance of nature and the Department of Parks and Wildlife strongly advises against feeding wild animals.

Wildlife can still be encouraged to live in or visit gardens or properties by providing and maintaining areas of suitable natural habitat harbouring natural food sources. Animals can still become used to the presence of people without being fed, allowing people to observe wild animals at close proximity without unnecessary interference.”

If we deliberately destroy much of the natural environment on which our wildlife depend for survival, then supplying a little food to help them along during hard times in my opinion is NOT unnecessary interference! Not everyone can live in a National Park and have high ideals as to what should and shouldn’t be, especially when their staff commonly do fuel reducing burns during spring and other inappropriate times. The level of hypocrisy from many of these institutions is enough to make you vomit!

Planting food plants is one better way to feed the wildlife without making the wildlife dependent upon being hand fed.

i supply a birdbath.

ChrispenEvan said:

i supply a birdbath.

Bird baths are great for feeding raptors.

ChrispenEvan said:

i supply a birdbath.

I have a deep birdbath with a rock in it. Those shallow type bird baths from Bunnings would be dry in a morning on a day like this. Mine takes about four buckets of water and as the level reduces they can just work their way down the rock to the water.

My birdbath brings all the birds to the yard…

Peak Warming Man said:

ChrispenEvan said:

i supply a birdbath.

Bird baths are great for feeding raptors.

I put a sprinkler on the garden, grow them the food and provide bathing facilities as well as cover from the raptors.

i’m just lulling them into a false sense of security. then when i get my air rifle….

Peak Warming Man said:

ChrispenEvan said:

i supply a birdbath.

Bird baths are great for feeding raptors.

AwesomeO said:

My birdbath brings all the birds to the yard…

If one walks into arid bushland in hot weather, one may be surprised that there are no birds visible. Park oneself near the rare waterhole and one will observe all the birds in the area.

roughbarked said:

Planting food plants is one better way to feed the wildlife without making the wildlife dependent upon being hand fed.

+1
the real goal is to create mini environments. plating area native plants to attract insects and reptiles and perhaps even frogs, and then come the birds. mini ecosystems if you will… but far too many people spray for insects around their homes, and then wonder why the birds don’t come..

i spray paper wasps.

Arts said:

roughbarked said:

Planting food plants is one better way to feed the wildlife without making the wildlife dependent upon being hand fed.

+1
the real goal is to create mini environments. plating area native plants to attract insects and reptiles and perhaps even frogs, and then come the birds. mini ecosystems if you will… but far too many people spray for insects around their homes, and then wonder why the birds don’t come..

It is what I have done. Build it and they will come.

ChrispenEvan said:

i spray paper wasps.

I spray them twice! Bastard things.

ChrispenEvan said:

i spray paper wasps.

I burn a newspaper under them. They can’t sting without wings.

ChrispenEvan said:

i spray paper wasps.

I feed them, I know I shouldn’t but they’re so cute.

Where my magpies nest. On the top of a box mistletoe. This image shows the changing of the guard.

Peak Warming Man said:

ChrispenEvan said:

i spray paper wasps.

I feed them, I know I shouldn’t but they’re so cute.

lots of birds love paper wasps

Peak Warming Man said:

ChrispenEvan said:

i spray paper wasps.

I feed them, I know I shouldn’t but they’re so cute.

One has no need to feed paper wasps.

Arts said:

Peak Warming Man said:

ChrispenEvan said:

i spray paper wasps.

I feed them, I know I shouldn’t but they’re so cute.

lots of birds love paper wasps

In turn paper wasps love lots of the pests in your garden.

Peak Warming Man said:

ChrispenEvan said:

i spray paper wasps.

I feed them, I know I shouldn’t but they’re so cute.

Hehehe, love your work.

AwesomeO said:

Peak Warming Man said:

ChrispenEvan said:

i spray paper wasps.

I feed them, I know I shouldn’t but they’re so cute.

Hehehe, love your work.

I allow them to nest above the doors to my house. Kereps out intruders and door to door type peeps.

I put flystrike powder down the European wasp nests. Works better than any of the stuff marketed to kill them. It’s probably incredibly toxic.

buffy said:

I put flystrike powder down the European wasp nests. Works better than any of the stuff marketed to kill them. It’s probably incredibly toxic.

Lucijet kills everything. Stops rats about 50 mm from the last mouthful.

Good news. They’ll be putting bird list submission forms on the ABBC website.

Any idea what and how I could feed white plumed honeyeater and grey fantail? Both birds (and two other species) came up to have a close look at me today when I visited a large local park. I’ve never known how to feed insectivores.

> My swamp is on this list http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=874

Your swamp is a sharp-tailed sandpiper? Sure you’ve go the correct link?

> Why you should not feed wild animals

I saw a notice today “Don’t feed the …”. I wanted to add a protest notice “You can’t feed them anyway because they’re all dead. Nobody fed them”. It’s true, wildlife numbers there dropped by a factor of five when people stopped feeding them. England now has public notices saying “Please feed the …”, which makes a lot more sense.

> Planting food plants is one better way to feed the wildlife without making the wildlife dependent upon being hand fed.

Persimmons and walnuts are not “natural food sources” for Australian wildlife. ROFL.

> I have a deep birdbath with a rock in it. Those shallow type bird baths from Bunnings would be dry in a morning on a day like this. Mine takes about four buckets of water and as the level reduces they can just work their way down the rock to the water. My birdbath brings all the birds to the yard…

Almost the same here. Was very lucky that the birdbath I bought has both deep and shallow patches. The crows love a thorough bath in the deep patches and smaller birds drink from the shallow patches.

> I feed paper wasps, I know I shouldn’t but they’re so cute.

LOL.

Have I ever posted a complete list of the inner city wildlife that mrs m feeds?

mollwollfumble said:

Good news. They’ll be putting bird list submission forms on the ABBC website.

> Why you should not feed wild animals

I saw a notice today “Don’t feed the …”. I wanted to add a protest notice “You can’t feed them anyway because they’re all dead. Nobody fed them”. It’s true, wildlife numbers there dropped by a factor of five when people stopped feeding them. England now has public notices saying “Please feed the …”, which makes a lot more sense.

one of the reason they ask people not to feed is because people generally feed them the wrong things. You shouldn’t feed bread to ducks, it isn’t good for them digestively and then causes problems in their waterways when they release or undigested bread encourages algae/bacteria growth (all that great yeast) which kills other pod dwellers etc…

there are a whole host of other reasons, including keeping the area clean from waste, not encouraging cats and foxes to the area (by bringing the birds) encouraging and feeding non native species…

Arts said:

mollwollfumble said:

Good news. They’ll be putting bird list submission forms on the ABBC website.

> Why you should not feed wild animals

I saw a notice today “Don’t feed the …”. I wanted to add a protest notice “You can’t feed them anyway because they’re all dead. Nobody fed them”. It’s true, wildlife numbers there dropped by a factor of five when people stopped feeding them. England now has public notices saying “Please feed the …”, which makes a lot more sense.

one of the reason they ask people not to feed is because people generally feed them the wrong things. You shouldn’t feed bread to ducks, it isn’t good for them digestively and then causes problems in their waterways when they release or undigested bread encourages algae/bacteria growth (all that great yeast) which kills other pod dwellers etc…

there are a whole host of other reasons, including keeping the area clean from waste, not encouraging cats and foxes to the area (by bringing the birds) encouraging and feeding non native species…

Yet Eric McCrum encourages it because of our destruction of habitat.

Arts said:

mollwollfumble said:

Good news. They’ll be putting bird list submission forms on the ABBC website.

> Why you should not feed wild animals

I saw a notice today “Don’t feed the …”. I wanted to add a protest notice “You can’t feed them anyway because they’re all dead. Nobody fed them”. It’s true, wildlife numbers there dropped by a factor of five when people stopped feeding them. England now has public notices saying “Please feed the …”, which makes a lot more sense.

not encouraging cats and foxes to the area (by bringing the birds)

Take it you don’t like birds?

Arts said:

mollwollfumble said:

Good news. They’ll be putting bird list submission forms on the ABBC website.

> Why you should not feed wild animals

I saw a notice today “Don’t feed the …”. I wanted to add a protest notice “You can’t feed them anyway because they’re all dead. Nobody fed them”. It’s true, wildlife numbers there dropped by a factor of five when people stopped feeding them. England now has public notices saying “Please feed the …”, which makes a lot more sense.

one of the reason they ask people not to feed is because people generally feed them the wrong things. You shouldn’t feed bread to ducks, it isn’t good for them digestively and then causes problems in their waterways when they release or undigested bread encourages algae/bacteria growth (all that great yeast) which kills other pod dwellers etc…

there are a whole host of other reasons, including keeping the area clean from waste, not encouraging cats and foxes to the area (by bringing the birds) encouraging and feeding non native species…

Equally there are many reasons why it helps many birds survive, especially during hard times. I recall a time when over 90% of people would not have a native plant in their garden. I think things have changed a little since then, but not by much. You cannot expect young birds that move to an area to survive on a few shrubs planted by a few conscientious people, although the plants might be sufficient for their needs during highly productive periods like spring. However due to territories taken up by adult birds, young birds cannot just move from one area to another when the food supply in one place peters out.

The survival rate of wild animals is particularly low for the young, especially when they try to make a start for themselves. To not offer a helping hand when we have taken over vast tracks of land making it totally unproductive for most wildlife, is in my opinion, callousness in the extreme. This is coupled with a complete disregard for the reality of the environment we have created, yet still expect other species to thrive in it with minimal assistance.

PermeateFree said:

Arts said:

mollwollfumble said:

Good news. They’ll be putting bird list submission forms on the ABBC website.

> Why you should not feed wild animals

I saw a notice today “Don’t feed the …”. I wanted to add a protest notice “You can’t feed them anyway because they’re all dead. Nobody fed them”. It’s true, wildlife numbers there dropped by a factor of five when people stopped feeding them. England now has public notices saying “Please feed the …”, which makes a lot more sense.

not encouraging cats and foxes to the area (by bringing the birds)

Take it you don’t like birds?

quite the opposite, I love the birds and don’t like cats. Actually, let me rephrase that… I don’t like irresponsible pet owners. still, after years of telling people to be responsible cat owners, far too many are not, but will plant natives to attract the birds (thinking they are helping).. yet insist that their cat never hunts them or kills them – do you see the problem? it’s not the animals, it’s the humans. Sometimes even the humans with the best intentions but the incorrect information.

But in this case, I was talking about in public urban areas where pigeons, seagulls etc are fed by well meaning humans. It, of course, attracts more animals ad perpetuates the cycle of humans feeding birds chips, bread, processed foods which essentially harm the animal and area.

yes arts, i think the message “don’t feed the wildlife” is a coverall to stop the people who don’t know the correct food to feed wildlife. it isn’t for those that know and do the right thing.

I have been doing some work at Native Arc (an animal rehab and release center) It amazing how many birds come in from well meaning locals who have been feeding them almost to death. It’s not only the food itself that is bad, but the amount of food.

and also this sentence, “I found my cat playing with this in the backyard” (a quoll, a bobtail, a whatever) “I don’t understand it because my cat has never brought me a kill before. and I feed them well, so it won’t hunt.”

that stuff pisses me off… cats hunt.. hungry or not, they hunt for sport and when they are not hunting (or sleeping) they are playing.. and they play for sport too. Keep your kitties inside people!

ChrispenEvan said:

yes arts, i think the message “don’t feed the wildlife” is a coverall to stop the people who don’t know the correct food to feed wildlife. it isn’t for those that know and do the right thing.

IKR, it’s just like those so called speed limits are aimed at people who don’t know how to drive safely at 200 km/h.

dv said:

ChrispenEvan said:

yes arts, i think the message “don’t feed the wildlife” is a coverall to stop the people who don’t know the correct food to feed wildlife. it isn’t for those that know and do the right thing.

IKR, it’s just like those so called speed limits are aimed at people who don’t know how to drive safely at 200 km/h.

Bill would absolutely agree with that

Arts said:

I have been doing some work at Native Arc (an animal rehab and release center) It amazing how many birds come in from well meaning locals who have been feeding them almost to death. It’s not only the food itself that is bad, but the amount of food.

and also this sentence, “I found my cat playing with this in the backyard” (a quoll, a bobtail, a whatever) “I don’t understand it because my cat has never brought me a kill before. and I feed them well, so it won’t hunt.”

that stuff pisses me off… cats hunt.. hungry or not, they hunt for sport and when they are not hunting (or sleeping) they are playing.. and they play for sport too. Keep your kitties inside people!

My cats are inside, Insane, but inside.

Arts said:

I have been doing some work at Native Arc (an animal rehab and release center) It amazing how many birds come in from well meaning locals who have been feeding them almost to death. It’s not only the food itself that is bad, but the amount of food.

and also this sentence, “I found my cat playing with this in the backyard” (a quoll, a bobtail, a whatever) “I don’t understand it because my cat has never brought me a kill before. and I feed them well, so it won’t hunt.”

that stuff pisses me off… cats hunt.. hungry or not, they hunt for sport and when they are not hunting (or sleeping) they are playing.. and they play for sport too. Keep your kitties inside people!

Many people are irresponsible, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Properly made nectar feeders ONLY feed honeyeating birds. Many of our native seed eaters can hang onto suspended seed parcels, as the feet of introduced birds are better equipped to walking on the ground. So you can feed the birds without attracting all the introduced species. As for cats, purchase a possum trap, bait it with meat and catch them, but don’t hand them back to the owners who will only let them roam again. Where there is a will there is a way.

And I might add a nectar feeder is no different to a highly productive shrub producing nectar, but can be kept operational all year by the owners. We have a responsibility to our wildlife which we have disadvantaged in so many ways, with many on the verge of extinction due to our irresponsibility. Plant native plants by all means, but be prepared to also offer them additional food, water and protection from predators; the days when our wildlife can just look after themselves in many cases is no longer feasible.

Education is certainly the way to go, but it applies as much to the do-gooders, as to the ignorant and irresponsible.

I have a king parrot that turns up at irregular intervals and hangs off the guttering, whistling and asking for a hand-out. This has been going on for over 20 years.

Started when I was making up horse feeds in the shed and the parrots would sometimes come around picking at any spilled black sunflower seeds. I started occasionally putting a dribble of seeds on top of a fence rail and one or more king parrots as well as some rainbow lorikeets would turn up around fight over the little bit that was there.

One king parrot was particularly game and I though that I’d try befriending it a bit more. So I put a cut-down plastic cup on the brim of my hat held on with a bit of tape, and put some seeds in the cup.

At first I held the hat at the end of the row of seeds and after a while the parrot would climb onto the brim and feed. Then it was just a matter of slowly putting my hat on with “Kingy” attached. This only took a few days.

Funny thing was though, after many years, Kingy would see me walking past with hat on, in the season when they turn up, and just come and land on my hat without any seed reward.

Now it just turns up, years apart, and asks for something to eat even though I very rarely bring out any reward.

Ian said:

I have a king parrot that turns up at irregular intervals and hangs off the guttering, whistling and asking for a hand-out. This has been going on for over 20 years.

Started when I was making up horse feeds in the shed and the parrots would sometimes come around picking at any spilled black sunflower seeds. I started occasionally putting a dribble of seeds on top of a fence rail and one or more king parrots as well as some rainbow lorikeets would turn up around fight over the little bit that was there.

One king parrot was particularly game and I though that I’d try befriending it a bit more. So I put a cut-down plastic cup on the brim of my hat held on with a bit of tape, and put some seeds in the cup.

At first I held the hat at the end of the row of seeds and after a while the parrot would climb onto the brim and feed. Then it was just a matter of slowly putting my hat on with “Kingy” attached. This only took a few days.

Funny thing was though, after many years, Kingy would see me walking past with hat on, in the season when they turn up, and just come and land on my hat without any seed reward.

Now it just turns up, years apart, and asks for something to eat even though I very rarely bring out any reward.

Ha. The beggars live long out your way :)

The beggars live long out your way :)

——

King parrots live to about 40

Bubblecar said:

Ian said:

I have a king parrot that turns up at irregular intervals and hangs off the guttering, whistling and asking for a hand-out. This has been going on for over 20 years.

Started when I was making up horse feeds in the shed and the parrots would sometimes come around picking at any spilled black sunflower seeds. I started occasionally putting a dribble of seeds on top of a fence rail and one or more king parrots as well as some rainbow lorikeets would turn up around fight over the little bit that was there.

One king parrot was particularly game and I though that I’d try befriending it a bit more. So I put a cut-down plastic cup on the brim of my hat held on with a bit of tape, and put some seeds in the cup.

At first I held the hat at the end of the row of seeds and after a while the parrot would climb onto the brim and feed. Then it was just a matter of slowly putting my hat on with “Kingy” attached. This only took a few days.

Funny thing was though, after many years, Kingy would see me walking past with hat on, in the season when they turn up, and just come and land on my hat without any seed reward.

Now it just turns up, years apart, and asks for something to eat even though I very rarely bring out any reward.

Ha. The beggars live long out your way :)

Are not most parrots long lived?

I have a crow that arrives about midday, he has a drink of water and inspects the lawn for bits of lunch that I throw there.

Are not most parrots long lived?

the 28s around these parts aren’t if they’re slow flyers.

sibeen said:

Bubblecar said:

Ian said:

I have a king parrot that turns up at irregular intervals and hangs off the guttering, whistling and asking for a hand-out. This has been going on for over 20 years.

Started when I was making up horse feeds in the shed and the parrots would sometimes come around picking at any spilled black sunflower seeds. I started occasionally putting a dribble of seeds on top of a fence rail and one or more king parrots as well as some rainbow lorikeets would turn up around fight over the little bit that was there.

One king parrot was particularly game and I though that I’d try befriending it a bit more. So I put a cut-down plastic cup on the brim of my hat held on with a bit of tape, and put some seeds in the cup.

At first I held the hat at the end of the row of seeds and after a while the parrot would climb onto the brim and feed. Then it was just a matter of slowly putting my hat on with “Kingy” attached. This only took a few days.

Funny thing was though, after many years, Kingy would see me walking past with hat on, in the season when they turn up, and just come and land on my hat without any seed reward.

Now it just turns up, years apart, and asks for something to eat even though I very rarely bring out any reward.

Ha. The beggars live long out your way :)

Are not most parrots long lived?

Ya.

“Whilst the maximum lifespan of the white cockatoo is poorly documented; a few zoos report that they live 40–60 years in captivity.”

wiki

Sulphur-crested cockatoo lives to 70 plus apparently.

Ian said:

Sulphur-crested cockatoo lives to 70 plus apparently.

Yes. Several of our cockatoos do.

up to 100 has been recorded, from memory. Most likely, in captivity.

changing of the guard. by
roughbarked.

This bird is not attacking me. There is no aggression towards me. They keep their short hopping distance if I move. My yard has become a domain they share with many birds. They will walk across my feet if I don’t display too much activity. That matters not at all because they are aware that any activity on my part only generates food opportunites for them. NO. I do not feed them. However, my quiescent activities do.

Sorry, my wife thought that was gangbusters.

starts today… happy counting!

I was really keen on this..then I found out they were talking about the avian variety.

I’ll get my coat

remember there are two ways to submit your list

There are two ways to submit your counts:

1. You can click on the ‘Submit Checklist’ at the top of this screen

or

2. You can download the FREE Aussie Bird Count app

Arts said:

remember there are two ways to submit your list

There are two ways to submit your counts:

1. You can click on the ‘Submit Checklist’ at the top of this screen

or

2. You can download the FREE Aussie Bird Count app

Their submit checklist doesn’t respond to some words. I’d have to waste time trying to work out why the mallee ring-necked parrot doesn’t exist at my location. what a crock.

well, I suppose if you took the time and let them know they would explain. But noone is forcing you to participate, even if your stats could be very useful to them, given your knowledge

Arts said:

well, I suppose if you took the time and let them know they would explain. But noone is forcing you to participate, even if your stats could be very useful to them, given your knowledge

I’ll work on it later. Other more important things to do now.

Update. There’s no limit on how many checklists you can submit.

I started two days early (after visiting five places to “get my eye in” before that).

According to the website I’ve now submitted 37 checklists with 63 species and a total of 1,971 birds.

I’ve been concentrating on the local council (Kingston) “Green wedge” from Karkarook Park in the NW to Braeside Park in the S. The most successful idea is to drive to the end of a road that goes nowhere and record everything I see near there. Also successful is to look for a good water source, it’s been fairly dry here the past few weeks.

Almost as interesting as those birds I have seen is those that I haven’t. I’ve seen birds like red-browed finch, white-faced heron and hoary-headed grebe each in multiple locations. On my “most wanted” list, I haven’t yet seen or heard any of:

ANY Raptor – eg black-shouldered kite or whistling kite.
Any Wader other than pied stilt or masked lapwing – eg. oystercatcher, sharp-tailed sandpiper or dotterel
Kookaburra – the closest one I’ve ever seen is 13 km away.
Any Tern
Any Cockatoo
Currawong – was around a month ago
Red-rumped parrot – was around a month ago
Bellbird
Grey Fantail
Spoonbill – I never know when I’m going to see one.

Although environmentalists bemoan the loss of small birds (blue wren, red-browed finch) from suburban areas, it’s the complete loss of raptors that is more worrying, could be due to the loss of rats, mice and snakes.

I’m beginning to hate the Noisy Miner. Not because it attacks me – that’s fun – but because the miners attack everything else. The more miners there are the fewer other birds there are. There’s a direct inverse relationship between the number of noisy miners and the number of other birds. In one local park I counted 26 Miners, and literally nothing else.

mollwollfumble said:

Update. There’s no limit on how many checklists you can submit.

I started two days early (after visiting five places to “get my eye in” before that).

According to the website I’ve now submitted 37 checklists with 63 species and a total of 1,971 birds.

I’ve been concentrating on the local council (Kingston) “Green wedge” from Karkarook Park in the NW to Braeside Park in the S. The most successful idea is to drive to the end of a road that goes nowhere and record everything I see near there. Also successful is to look for a good water source, it’s been fairly dry here the past few weeks.

Almost as interesting as those birds I have seen is those that I haven’t. I’ve seen birds like red-browed finch, white-faced heron and hoary-headed grebe each in multiple locations. On my “most wanted” list, I haven’t yet seen or heard any of:

ANY Raptor – eg black-shouldered kite or whistling kite.
Any Wader other than pied stilt or masked lapwing – eg. oystercatcher, sharp-tailed sandpiper or dotterel
Kookaburra – the closest one I’ve ever seen is 13 km away.
Any Tern
Any Cockatoo
Currawong – was around a month ago
Red-rumped parrot – was around a month ago
Bellbird
Grey Fantail
Spoonbill – I never know when I’m going to see one.

Although environmentalists bemoan the loss of small birds (blue wren, red-browed finch) from suburban areas, it’s the complete loss of raptors that is more worrying, could be due to the loss of rats, mice and snakes.

I’m beginning to hate the Noisy Miner. Not because it attacks me – that’s fun – but because the miners attack everything else. The more miners there are the fewer other birds there are. There’s a direct inverse relationship between the number of noisy miners and the number of other birds. In one local park I counted 26 Miners, and literally nothing else.

Come inland and you’ll see all those birds except the bellbird. You’ll have to head into the mountains for those. I see terns on the irrigated rice country. Spoonbills aplenty on inland water bodies. Presumably the same near coastal waters but inland anyway. Almost all the waders come here to within a kilometre of my door.

The miners including the noisy one are a mob of cowards compared to a single blackbird. The English blackbirds don’t like any non-blackbirds to be about.

I’ve watched the white rumped miner try to send off a ringnecked parrot. No contest. If the parrot lands, it is after food. It is a waste of energy running away from a bird that isn’t going to eat you.

roughbarked said:

Come inland and you’ll see all those birds except the bellbird. You’ll have to head into the mountains for those. I see terns on the irrigated rice country. Spoonbills aplenty on inland water bodies. Presumably the same near coastal waters but inland anyway. Almost all the waders come here to within a kilometre of my door.

The miners including the noisy one are a mob of cowards compared to a single blackbird. The English blackbirds don’t like any non-blackbirds to be about.

I’ve watched the white rumped miner try to send off a ringnecked parrot. No contest. If the parrot lands, it is after food. It is a waste of energy running away from a bird that isn’t going to eat you.

Interesting, I was thinking I could see them all on Phillip Island. (Checking up sightings already on Phillip Island) Hmm, no kookaburra, tern, waders, spoonbill listed there yet, and only one raptor – a swamp harrier – on Phillip Island so far.

Am jealous of your waders but – how do you tell them apart? I can usually only classify waders by “small” (red-necked stint), “medium” (sharp-tailed sandpiper) and “large” (godwit). Apart from those three species I haven’t a hope.

The English blackbirds here are not at all belligerent, they’re frightened off by nearly everything, even spotted dove. They keep an eye out while they’re eating their apple, ready to fly off at the first approach of, for instance, a wattlebird or myna.

At this time of the year, teenage noisy miners will attack moving cars, they think it’s a great game to wait until a car slows down to turn left at an intersection and then attack the hubcaps. Crows and pigeons have mostly learnt how to deal with attacking miners. When really harassed, a crow will do a body roll so legs upwards grab towards the miners, but the miners think that’s great fun so most crows just land and wait for the miners to get bored and go off and do mischief elsewhere. The Rock Dove when harassed from above just flies harder – which results in a powerful loud wing clap above the body that stuns the attacking miners for a while. Raptors such as the Pacific Baza have no protection against miners, and just get out of the city and suburbs as fast as they can. I’ve been attacked 3 times by noisy miners in the past four days.

Oops, looking up the 63 bird species I submitted. I got two of them wrong.
Never saw a banded stilt, it was a black-winged stilt.
Never saw a splendid fairy wren, it was a superb fairy wren.
Did see a domestic duck, accidentally put it down as a black+mallard hybrid.

You’ve got to be careful.

mollwollfumble said:

Am jealous of your waders but – how do you tell them apart?

A pair of binoculars and the glove box edition of what bird is that.

I do not have a back yard but I am a short walk from parks with a great variety of bird life

dv said:

I do not have a back yard but I am a short walk from parks with a great variety of bird life

Doesn’t have to be your own backyard. Can be anybody’s, including farms and industrial estates, and back-roads and golf courses. Go to your local parks, especially if you’ve been there before. I even went to the local Westfield Shopping Centre to record birds in a maximally disturbed environment, finding only four species there – sparrow, feral pigeon, starling and swallow. I’ve reported in from 38 different places so far, 19 of them from within the Council’s “green wedge”, an area that includes parks, farms, an airport, golf courses, and large numbers of rubbish tips.

You could ask to be permitted entry to non-public places such as the local “water retarding basin” (for waterbirds), the main council tip, the super-exclusive golf course or the closest sewage treatment works.

Or travel further afield, go on a road trip. http://aussiebirdcount.org.au/statistics/ Looking at places where birds have been reported, I ‘doffs me ‘at’ to whoever posted a bird list from several hundred km SE of Alice Springs, a good list, too. Places where no bird submissions exist so far include the entire inland WA (other than Kalgoorlie area), all of northwest NSW, all of western Tasmania, practically all of northern SA. Closer to me in Victoria, there are no submissions from NW of Bendigo, or from the Gippsland highlands.

Which tern is this?

It was blowing a gale so was lucky to get this photo.

mollwollfumble said:

Which tern is this?

It was blowing a gale so was lucky to get this photo.

Crested tern?

I hate these tern based games

dv said:

I hate these tern based games

one good tern deserves another…

dv said:

I hate these tern based games

Use a ternary diagram to sort the games out.

dv said:

I hate these tern based games

I took my tern.

We have had a pair of pale-headed rosellas visiting the garden for the last few weeks.

:)

Michael V said:

We have had a pair of pale-headed rosellas visiting the garden for the last few weeks.

:)

You have something they enjoy.

mollwollfumble said:

Which tern is this?

It was blowing a gale so was lucky to get this photo.

lesser crested tern

PMSL.

But first some background. Cheated a bit and went to four of my favourite birding spots, not close to anybody’s backyard.

Anyway, was trying to ID some waders when a nearby small dead tree started swarming with parrots and also had one other bird (later ID’d as Horsfeld’s bronze cuckoo, a first for me). I took some blurry pics of the parrots thinking, “wouldn’t it be nice if they were orange-bellied parrots”, “what looks like an orange-bellied parrot?” and “If I pretended they were orange-bellied parrots then I’m sure to get an email back from the organizers and could then use to opportunity to fix the other mistakes (two wrong species and one wrong location) in my submissions”.

I’m red-green colour-blind so orange, dirty yellow and yellow-green all look alike to me.

At home, check the photos, ask my wife, orange-bellied parrots, can’t be anything else. PMSL.

—-

Thanks for the tern ID.

Have nearly all my “most wanted” birds now. Only currawong and spoonbill still to find.

Smoked salmon chowder tonight. Similar to this recipe, but with some new season baby Bismark taters, asparagus instead of celery, Greek yoghurt instead of cream, and tarragon instead of chives.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/smoked-salmon-chowder-240816

oooops, sorry :)

Bubblecar said:

oooops, sorry :)

That’s what happens when you get carried away with the thought of parrot pie.

Ooo, this is so exciting. To see bird species that I’ve never seen before, or only seen once before, or only seen rarely before. Finding new species going through the photos afterwards is almost as exciting as the actual bird-hunt.

eg. Extreme telescopic photos of waders found a wader species that shouldn’t be there, and a pair of dotterels that I didn’t initially see.

It also revealed that 5 birds that I thought may be white ibis were actually spoonbills – all 5 had their beaks tucked completely away inside their feathers.

Other birds stand out. I can’t help wondering if the very prominent Magpie Goose currently at the Edithvale bird hide is the exact same bird that I videoed there in Jan 2004. That would make it more than eleven years old, not impossible.

Still looking for birds (not so worried now):
Bellbird, there used to be some in the suburb of Heidelberg near Bell Street. (I’ve seen some much closer in to the city but they’re not there now).
Grey Shrike-Thrush and BFCS, there used to be plenty of both in Churchill Park.
Currawong. Be funny if this was the one bird I couldn’t find in Melbourne.

Have reported 73 species (excluding the 2 mistakes) and not yet reported at least 3 more.
I wish, as I’ve often wished before, that birders recorded birdsongs in a standard notation that makes sense.

>>It also revealed that 5 birds that I thought may be white ibis were actually spoonbills

You must have been a fair way away.

Good work all the same Mol.

While finding a small flock of 9 orange-bellied parrots in a new area is great news, finding them in the company of a cuckoo is not.

Peak Warming Man said:

>>It also revealed that 5 birds that I thought may be white ibis were actually spoonbills

You must have been a fair way away.

Good work all the same Mol.

You’re right, I was a fair way away. This is 41* zoom.

mollwollfumble said:

Still looking for birds (not so worried now):
Bellbird, there used to be some in the suburb of Heidelberg near Bell Street. (I’ve seen some much closer in to the city but they’re not there now).
Grey Shrike-Thrush and BFCS, there used to be plenty of both in Churchill Park.
Currawong. Be funny if this was the one bird I couldn’t find in Melbourne.

Was woken up a few minutes ago by a familiar bird call. Two currawongs IN MY FRONT YARD.
Naturew is certainly cooperating with me this week.

The birdsong thing is something that is irksome. This is true. What does “queek” atually sound like? or “geogie-georgie-georgie-georgie”

There are websites that put up actual bird songs. ie: Graeme Chapman is a good chap for that.

http://www.graemechapman.com.au/resources/bird-calls.php

I had approximately a dozen white winged chough here hiding on the ground under a clup of Aacia salicina suckers while the local magpies stayed around trying to move them along. I tried taking photos but it was difficult to portray the actual scene though I was standing only three or four metres away.

defensive choughs

If you want to see the birds I’ve managed to get any sort of photograph of in my backyard, then look here

Yes, I planted the tree in the photos above and over the years it has turned into a clump of its own suckers.

As for the mallee ring-necked parrot eating flower petals of Eremophila specifically?

or magpies cracking walnuts?

and choughs being defensive?

stop chasing me with that pointy thing

As for whether sparrowhawks nest here

Cayley says georgie-georgie.. Chapman gives these http://www.graemechapman.com.au/library/sounds.php?c=262&p=36

roughbarked said:

Cayley says georgie-georgie.. Chapman gives these http://www.graemechapman.com.au/library/sounds.php?c=262&p=36

Strange thing and the twitterers would love it, I can hear that outside my window now.

This is one rare bird.

THe oddest thing about this survey is that though I may hear many, in a twenty minute period, hearing only one birdsong is far from unusual.

No more bird counting by me, nature has been cooperating greatly, but my body hasn’t. I did my ACL in this morning. 50 minute drive to get home. Yow, had to lift my leg up with my hand to brake. Saw a Shelduck because of it – was it worth it – no.

Highlight of this morning was a not a bird, it was a Rakali
I’ve never even heard of this before, never seen it on a wildlife documentary. Found it in the centre of Koo-wee-rup township at dawn, being hassled by 6 miners and 2 magpies as it crossed the road. I can’t help wondering if this is Australia’s biggest rodent, the Australian equivalent of the Capybara.

mollwollfumble said:

I did my ACL in this morning. 50 minute drive to get home.

Holy cow, that’s a terrible injury to get :(

Sigh, someone had to raise the injury stakes. Hope your knee heals soon, moll

Divine Angel said:

Sigh, someone had to raise the injury stakes. Hope your knee heals soon, moll

I’ve got a hangnail.

sibeen said:

Divine Angel said:

Sigh, someone had to raise the injury stakes. Hope your knee heals soon, moll

I’ve got a hangnail.

Sook.

Had a look at my local park (Langley Park). Sadly I didn’t see some of my favourites: the Australasian Darter, the Little Corella, the Black Swan or the Galah. No magpies.

But did see rainbow lorikeets, willy wagtails, a not quite adult little pied cormorant, eurasian coots, a duck that was probably a Pacific Black Duck, and of course plenty of rock pigeons and silver gulls.

There was also some pale brown and white pigeon or dove that I have not identified, and also a honeyeater I could not identify for sure.

Weird … when I enter “Rainbow Lorikeet” it says “unlikely based on location”.

It might not be native to these parts but there are a few of them here…

dv said:

Weird … when I enter “Rainbow Lorikeet” it says “unlikely based on location”.

It might not be native to these parts but there are a few of them here…

Try dodo.

dv said:

Weird … when I enter “Rainbow Lorikeet” it says “unlikely based on location”.

It might not be native to these parts but there are a few of them here…

Seems kosher enough according to Birds in Backyards.

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Weird … when I enter “Rainbow Lorikeet” it says “unlikely based on location”.

It might not be native to these parts but there are a few of them here…

Seems kosher enough according to Birds in Backyards.

The Rainbow Lorikeet is not native to WA, plus a number of other place. It is a very successful coloniser.

mollwollfumble said:

No more bird counting by me, nature has been cooperating greatly, but my body hasn’t. I did my ACL in this morning. 50 minute drive to get home. Yow, had to lift my leg up with my hand to brake. Saw a Shelduck because of it – was it worth it – no.

Highlight of this morning was a not a bird, it was a Rakali
I’ve never even heard of this before, never seen it on a wildlife documentary. Found it in the centre of Koo-wee-rup township at dawn, being hassled by 6 miners and 2 magpies as it crossed the road. I can’t help wondering if this is Australia’s biggest rodent, the Australian equivalent of the Capybara.

Sad to hear of your injury. Hope it heals up soon. The water rats used to be common in my area but I haven’t seen any for fifty years.

dv said:

Weird … when I enter “Rainbow Lorikeet” it says “unlikely based on location”.

It might not be native to these parts but there are a few of them here…

They are everywhere. They oughtn’t be but they are.

Plenty of rainbow lorikeets here.