Hi all,
I know the usual standard of birding reports are pretty high round here, but I thought I’d pop in a post about birding for the vehicularly challenged. We went off to Rhodes for a trip to Ikea and for the girls to play in some of the parks round there. At McIlwain Park, there were a fair number of calling Figbirds and the first Koel I’d heard this season. Walking back to Ikea, we saw an Australian Raven fly down to the pavement one side of a pedestrian crossing and proceed to walk across it. A car approached, so it walked back to the pavement and waited. When it was clear, it walked all the way across to eat a discarded sandwich. No idea why it didn’t just fly to it in the first place but it seemed to understand the crossing. When it walked back, a car slowed for it. Along the waterfront of Homebush Bay, there are a lot of native plants in flower beds and it’s a great spot for tame New Holland and White-naped Honeyeters. Both species seem to spend half their time chasing each other up and down the flower beds, but it’s a great opportunity for some close-up photos. One of the nicest things is that there was a flock of 12 Zebra Finches, which we’d seen there a few weeks before. The girls got some practice using binoculars and were have fun identifying the White-face Herons, Masked Lapwings, Willie Wagtails, Little Black Cormorants and all the other birds near the park. As we got back to the house in the rain, we found 27 Galahs hanging on the wires outside – all calling and some hanging upside down, all with their wings out, possibly having a bath. Nothing spectacular, but it’s great for getting our kids interested and it’s only a short train ride. Cheers,
Tony
Photos, paintings and drawings of Australian, NZ, Swiss and British Birds www.tonykeenebirds.co.uk ===============================
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