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

11 Sep 2016 Bald Hills

Today was a day for forest birds at Bald Hills. I think this is a brown thornbill, but it looks like many of the other thornbills. There were heaps of them darting from tree to tree, very difficult to capture, but I got a few decent shots among the photos of just a tree!

I was lucky enough to watch this grey shrike thrush pecking the tree bark for bugs, and come up with one

I think this is a varied sitella, a new sighting for me

A yellow faced honeyeater

And finally, what looks to be a striated pardelote nest

6 Sep 2016 Princes Hill

A pair of red wattlebirds have nested in our next door neighbour's garden in Princes Hill (Nth Carlton). We hope for chicks soon...

28 Aug 2016 Woodlands

Some bird sites are consistent - you know what you are going to see more or less. Woodlands is incredibly varied. Other blog entries show lots of raptors on previous visits - not today. It was all about roos and smaller birds.

Spotted pardelotes present but are harder to find and Woodlands but striated pardelotes are more common

The red rumped parrots seem to be pairing up for Spring

Long billed corellas are quite common but this was a first sighting and shot for me

And his big relative the Sulphur crested cockatoo put on a bit of a show

And finally a two headed kangaroo!

20 Aug 2016 The Briars, Mornington Peninsula

Whilst doing a series of concerts at the Beleura Homestead on Mornington Peninsula I nipped over to a few birding sites inbetween the gigs. One of them was The Briars. I didn't have much time but will return - the wildlife is awesome.

Common Bronzewings are anything other than being common. They are beautiful birds with remarkable wing colours

The eastern yellow robin might be seen regularly but its still an awesome bird. Its bright yellow tummy reminds me of the red robins from the UK. Its remarkable it survives as it stands out against the bush.

And this wallaby was just about tame - I got within a metre or so and it didn't seem to bother. I had to move further away to get a good shot with the big lens

16 Aug 2016 Woodlands

It was a bright sunny winter day at Woodlands and there were a few surprises. The back paddock is really good for smaller birds, and they were out today as ever. But there were more raptors and normal. First a brown falcon...

...who had a major spat with a little eagle...

I reckon the falcon won! And way off in the distance was a wedge tailed eagle

This thornbill was busy building a nest for Spring

And while this blog is primarily about birds, we can appreciate other wildlife also! This is a shot of the flying kangaroo with the real thing!

13 Aug 2016 Werribee

Back to Werribee and lots of raptors, as ever. First a pair of black kites were either eating or nest building

The holy grail of bird photography must be in flight shots. This one of a brown falcon is not bad...

A gathering of little pied cormorants

And a white fronted chat

6 Aug 2016 Yandoit

Back to Yandoit - and what a wonderful weekend's birding. Gordy and Jodie have 50 acres. We have three main birding routes - 1 to walk the main block, 2 the road to the front of the site, 3 just sit outside the front door by the bird feeder. The best of the photos below came from the bird feeder - I could sit there all day.

New Holland honeyeaters are tricky to capture - they don't hang around long if humans are around. The bush they were in was clearly in bloom!

The red browed finches were so happy with the bird seed that one started dancing!!

A pair of white browed scrubwrens

And a pair of white browed babblers. Pls note that the one on the Right is in mid air. The photographer would like to take full credit for this, but it was pure luck!

Hello cockie!

And another common member of the parrot family, a galah

And last but by no means least a Jacky Winter. Local birdy dudes reckon this bird is rare in Yandoit - we see them every trip. They might be small and lacking bright colours but they are cute.