Bird Life

I've been getting to know the locals around here over the last couple of months. I have stalked them, listened to them from afar and ignored their sideways glances as I've appeared out from behind a tree with camera in hand.

I should probably mention here I'm talking about the local bird life.


It's amazing what you notice when you really pay attention. I've noticed that the family of Mickey Miners living in the bush next to the house have a certain group call when there's a threat. If I hear it I'll usually find about 3 of them dive bombing a magpie. I've noticed that the Twenty-Eights have one bird that tends to leave the main group to sit in a nearby tree to watch me while I'm in the garden. I've noticed that it's a lonely world for the juvenile White Necked Heron.


And I've noticed that for me getting a good shot of a bird in-flight is down to pure luck.


Here's the passing lone White Necked (Pacific) Heron. The brown feathers on it's neck indicate it's not fully mature. It's also about 80km away from the nearest beach but there's obviously enough fresh water in dams out here for it. It's a pretty big bird, I'd guess the wing span to be about a metre. (Click the picture to open a bigger one)

 

 

 

 

And here are the Australian Ringneck Parrots or as most people in WA know them as Twenty-Eights. Even though that's what I'd call the ones in the picture, there are actually two races in WA, the Twenty-Eight (Barnardius Semitorquatas) and the Port Lincoln Parrot (Barnardius Zonarius). The Twenty-Eights don't have a yellow belly, the Port Lincoln Parrots do. So these two are actually Port Lincoln Parrots (I'll still call them Twenty-Eights though because I don't want people thinking I'm a SA sympathiser). We have a group of about 5 or 6 that hang around eating the apples off the apple tree and getting chased from their perches by the Mickey Miners.

 

 

 

 

I'll cover this Mickey Miner I keep going on about in the next post.