WET DECEMBER

With all the rain and storms this month the birds around home have been laying low, but with a few breaks in the weather they come out for a preen and a feed and even a bath!

A couple of months ago we had up to five of these large birds roaming around the yard!

Brush Turkey
(the only Christmas turkey at our place this year)

Figbird - female

The males of this species are starting to lose the bright red colouring of their facial patch.

Figbird - male

The Brown Honeyeaters like to get wet anytime.

Brown Honeyeaters

Even the lorikeets have been a lot less noticeable than usual.

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet feeding on Grevillea.

Rainbow Lorikeet.



This moth took cover on our back verandah the other day.
I was able to identify it through this great website:http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/cato/selen.html

Southern Old Lady Moth ( Daspodia selenophonora)

BIRD BATH VISITORS

We have a couple of bird baths out back which the honeyeaters really enjoy.

Lewins Honeyeater

We sometimes get up to six of these ones splashing about.

Brown Honeyeaters

.

Shaking off the excess.



The three photos below were taken last earlier this year with my old 3x Panasonic, so not the best quality. The bird below is a Dusky Honeyeater.

This White-cheeked Honeyeater was a rare visitor up here on the range.

White-cheeked Honeyeater

We also have a small feeder which I fill with seed. This visitor, after having a bit of a nibble, decided to hang in this position for about 10 minutes, hardly moving at all.

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

SOME DOVES

We have a couple of Emerald Doves that come out into the shade of the camphor laurel for a feed occasionally.

We have yet to see them together.These pics were taken on separate days.

This is a male with the small white shoulder patch.

I think this one is a female.

Bar-shouldered Doves are common,but still a lovely bird with their striking patterns and pastel colouring. 

Bar-shouldered Dove

The same bird catching some rays.


I've quite often observed various species of pigeons raise a wing to the sun or to the rain during a storm.Just one of the ways they maintain there plumage I suppose.

The winged creature below was trying to drill a hole through my shorts while I was sitting on the back verandah. My borrowed camera takes reasonable close ups too!

 Common Marchfly

A FINE WEEKEND

After last weekends weather we've had a lovely clear and sunny couple of days and the birds are enjoying it too. We had a couple of locals drop by for a snack.

Pale-headed Rosellas snacking on the seeds of the introduced
Mexican sunflower.

 These  birds are favourites of mine with their pastel colours and chuckling contact calls.

Another parrot species common to coastal Qld is the gaudy Rainbow Lorikeet, 

always willing to pose for a snap.

Rainbow Lorikeet 

The black and white brigade were out and about too. 

Australian Magpie

Magpie-lark - this is the male with his black throat and bib.

WET,WET,WET

It's been wet and windy here in SEQ the last few days, so no new bird pics from this week.

Wet out the back.

Wet out the front.

I've included a couple of photos my wife took last year of an inquisitive Striated Pardalote checking out it's reflection in our tinted front window.

This is a bird of the Melancephalus race common in S.E.Qld

The photos were taken from less than half a metre away
through the glass with a basic point & shoot.

BACKYARD PICS

My first ever blog! So please excuse my amateurish attempts, 

but I will try to make it as interesting as possible. 

A friend has just purchased a new digital SLR and has lent me his old Panasonic FZ20, a 12x optical zoom point and shoot. So I've taken a few shots from my back verandah up here at beautiful Kureelpa, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, Queensland.

Scarlet Honeyeater

We've had lots of these visiting the flowering shrubs the last few weeks. 

Spangled Drongo

A favourite of mine with it's scolding calls and mimicry of birds such as Grey Butcherbird,

 Lewins Honeyeater and Pale-headed Rosella.

Lewins Honeyeater

A resident species with its machine gun calls, is one of the first to start off the dawn chorus.

Varied Triller

We have a pair that regularly visit. I think this one is the male.

All the photos above were taken at  the 12x optical range. I'm looking at purchasing one of the newer "bridge" cameras on the market with optical zooms that go up to 30x but was wondering about camera shake when photographing at that range.