POWER LINE PERCHERS

We moved back to Kureelpa, a rural location in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, late last year, just down the road from the house where I first started my blog nearly five years ago. http://qldbirder.blogspot.com.au/2010/10/backyard-pics.html

The views are similar and the birds are familiar, like old friends we just haven't seen for a while.

View from patio

There are some power lines that run along a road easement opposite our back patio, a favourite hangout for the locals. Pale-headed Rosellas often land with a chatter and flash of colours, but they are flighty and don't hang around for long. 

Pale-headed Rosella

P.H. Rosellas - immature on right

P.H. Rosella - immature

The biggest honeyeater in the neighbourhood the Blue-faced, uses its perch to check for rival species encroaching on favourite feeding trees.   

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Our biggest kingfisher is intent on finding prey in the paddock below and doesn't concern itself with chasing off competitors.

Laughing Kookaburra

And one of our largest pigeons drops in occasionally, often during showery weather for some reason.

White-headed Pigeon

A pigeon pair

A convenient place to munch on a mantis for this young cuckoo-shrike.

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike - immature

A butcherbird gamely balances on one leg, with the other out of action through injury. 

Pied Butcherbird

This male Magpie-lark was taking a breather, after earlier being involved in an antiphonal duet with his partner. She was on the verandah rail doing the same.

  

Magpie-lark - male

Magpie-lark - female

A couple of immature Australian Magpies preferred the fence posts, another favourite perch for many, while engaging in some warble and natter.

Australian Magpie

Another patio view

Pacific dawn 

Cheers & Happy Birding

OUT AND ABOUT

It was back to work for Clare and myself after our recent holiday so I haven't had much of a chance to do any birding. I had a few pictures from before our trip that I had meant to post but never got around to it

.

While picnicking at Noosaville with some rellies recently I snapped some photos of the local denizens of the park. The heron had been hanging around our table hoping for scraps.

White-faced Heron

 The  ever present lorikeets although unusually quiet, brightened up an otherwise dull and overcast day.

Rainbow Lorikeets

Meanwhile closer to home and while walking the dog, camera in hand, I got close enough for a shot of a pardalote that was doing its best to be as inconspicuious as possible.

Striated Pardalote.

The immature cuckoo-shrike a little further down the road was much more obliging!

Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike

As I walked back and reached our front yard I saw an unusual flower that I hadn't noticed before. I'm not much of  a gardener but I'm guessing it is an orchid of some description.

Relaxing on the back verandah with a cuppa afterwards I watched this lone lorikeet tucking into some fresh seed in the feeder.

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

Followed by a visit to the birdbath by a Rufous Fantail that comes in most days for a dip. Getting a decent shot of it is another matter as it only has a quick splash then disappears. It is quite shy compared to it's less colourful counterpart, the Grey Fantail.

Rufous Fantail.

I was just about to head inside with the daylight fading when a pair of black cockatoos flew in nearby for a bit of a stickybeak. One posed nicely for me before they both took off for parts unknown.

Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo. 

A WATTLEBIRD AND THE BIG WET

We don't often get these birds around here, they tend to be more common down along the coast,

so it was a good opportunity to take a snap when this one came to the birdbath, 

while being eyed off by a Willy Wagtail.

Little Wattlebird & Willy Wagtail

This particular bird is a difficult one to photograph. A common enough species around here but very wary and flighty.When I first took an interest in birds as a 12 year old in suburban Doveton in Victoria, it was the first "exotic" bird I identified when going for Sunday drives with my parents in the country. It is still one of my favourites with its soft grey plumage, distinctive flight pattern and soft rolling call.

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

The cocos palm is flowering prolifically after the record rainfalls and getting lots of visits by various birds including these Scalies and Rainbows.

Scaly-breasted Lorikeets

Rainbow Lorikeets in the cloud.

This is a view from our back verandah of the Bli-Bli valley after the recent deluge.

The Sunshine Coast was spared the worst of the flooding and the depredations of Cyclone Yasi.

Our hearts go out to those who have been affected by these catastrophes and we, along with millions of others have been contributing to the Premiers Relief fund. 

Bli-Bli Valley

When the rain event earlier this month was at its peak there were a lot of landslips on the range including this one on the main road up and just around the corner from us.

According to some local long-range weather forecasters our area may experience a cyclone in the next month. Let's hope their prognosis is way off the mark!

Nambour-Mapleton Road

Another one of our local residents, the Grey Huntsman, tend to find their way in to the house quite often and I am constantly being asked to re-locate them by the rest of my arachnophobic family!

 Grey Huntsman spider.