25 Sep 16 Woodlands

Spring was very much in the air today. The yellow rumped thornbill was busy catching and transporting tasty bugs to his female in the nest.

And they might be 'common' starlings but they are still beautiful. This one by a opening in a tree which could well be a nest.

And finally a rufous whistler

24 Sep 16 Eurasian coot nest Manningham Wetlands, Parkville

The coots have a nest with three eggs, possibly more. The female spends a lot of time on the eggs but occasionally rises to allow me a quick photo. Hopefully they all hatch OK soon. Watch this space!

23 Sep 2016 Peregrine Falcons at Valley Lake, Keilor

Valley Lake is a new housing estate in East Keilor, a suburb of Melbourne. Properties are being built on the site of the disused Niddrie Quarry. The vertical cliff face is perfect for peregrines. Thank

Anna Lanigan for putting me onto the peregrines via the Facebook group Birds of Oz, a wonderful forum.

Today was my first visit to check out the peregrines and it took a while to find them but they were there OK. The female is low on the nest, which I guess means she has an egg or more then one. The male was out hunting as the pictures show.

23 Sep 2016 The tawnys are returning!

In another sign of Spring, our tawny frogmouth has start to return to Princes Hill. The two previous years have seen two adults appear with one or more chicks on or around Melbourne Cup day in early Nov. This year to date we have only seen a single adult, so hopefully the other is in the nest right now raising a chick that we will see soon. Watch this space!

20 Sep 2016 Woodlands

It was a beautiful spring day at Woodlands with lots of flowers and wildlife out. Good news for photographers. The roos were active...

Watched a grey shrike thrush drop to the ground, pick up a juicy caterpillar, fly back to a branch then put on a show as he ate it.

In this nest is a yellow rumped thornbill

And this is a better shot of the male, fetching either nesting materials or food

Not for the first time a little eagle was circling overhead, looking for prey

And the final two birds might be common but they are stunning all the same. First a cockatoo

And it wouldn't be spring without another shot of a male superb fairy wren

19 Sep 2016 Newstead

I nipped up to Castlemaine to get some work done on one of the basses and popped across to Newstead on the way home. Its a great spot for wildlife, especially birds. The Loddon had overflowed in the week, it was on the way back down when I got there.

A superb fairy wren in full voice

White plumbed honeyeaters can be tricky to photograph as they don't hang around long, but this one obliged

The aptly named SilverEyes are very cute...

And a cute weebill made an appearance

And finally, down by the bridge over the Loddon a couple of red rumped parrots were busy in a tree. they didn't seem overly bothered by me

18 Sep 2016 Princes Hill Wattle Chicks

The chicks have hatched. Mum has left the nest and if frantically fetching food for the two hungry mouths