Red-backed Fairy-Wren

I had walked right along the forest track without seeing or hearing any birds except way up in the canopy of the trees. I stopped at the end of the track close to the car park - and still nothing. So I got in the car and started the engine - then decided to look at the photos in the camera that I had taken out on the sand bank. Finally, I put the camera down and looked around before I began to back out and drive off. There - sitting just a few meters from the car and quite unafraid of the engine noise, were two Red-backed Fairy-Wrens (Melurus melanocephalus). They were sitting on a small branch that poked out from among the bracken fern and preening. All I had to do was open the window and point the camera out and take some photos. I am not sure if they were females or males in eclipse plumage. The books say that they are very similar. I guess if I spent as much time looking at "bush" birds as I do at shorebirds I would eventually get better at some of the finer points of ID. If anyone reading this knows - then please let me know.
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Wrens and Honeyeaters

Yesterday afternoon the morning clouds and rain moved out to sea and it turned into another perfect day. What could be nicer than to go out looking for birds with good friends who just happen to be expert birders! (Thanks Neil and Kel!)
The highlight of the day was this little female Red-backed Wren that was busy hunting around in the grass. You can see how tiny she is by the stems and blades of grass that she was hunting among. The caterpillar or grub that she caught almost looks too big for such a tiny bird.
The male Red-backed Wren was also around - but not nearly so easy to photograph successfully.

There were also a number of honeyeaters high up in the trees among the Paperbark flowers. The Scarlet Honeyeaters have eluded me until now - but they were still too far away to give really good clear views.

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Red-backed Wren

The Red-backed Wren is the smallest of the Fairy Wrens. These ones were busily feeding in the grass when I saw them the other day. They are so tiny that the long grass easily hid them. Only the males have the bright scarlet color - females and eclipse males are the plainest colored of all the Fairy Wrens.
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Ground Parrots

Season's Greetings to all who read this blog! The photo on the top of this post is a Christmas Bell (Blandfordia grandifloria) which I thought was rather appropriate for right now. I photographed it yesterday afternoon on an afternoon trip into the Great Sandy National Park with Kelvin and Amelia and their family. We were going out to try to see and hear the Ground Parrots (Pezoporus wallicus). This is a very special bird and certainly not one you see very often. First you must know the right habitat – then I think you have to have a good amount of luck! Of course it helps to have good friends who know the area well and have often seen the parrots.
We set off in the late afternoon with plenty of time to look around the area. It is a little late in the season for there to be a lot of wildflowers out but we did see a few of the yellow form of the Christmas Bells. We also saw some of these tiny grevillia flowers (Grevillea leiophylla) – the flowers are 6-8mm and the racemes 1-1.5cm. (My thanks to a very helpful young fellow who showed me a lot about photography in a very short time!)
There were a lot of tiny birds calling off in the very bushy heath. We caught glimpses of White-cheeked Honeyeaters, and Red-backed Wrens. It was impossible to go far off the tracks as the undergrowth was just too thick so I had to be content with distant photos for ID only.
We stopped and boiled the billy on a little camp stove for a cuppa and sat around in camp chairs and just enjoyed the quiet sounds of the bush and the feeling of space and emptiness out there.
To cap off a great afternoon I saw a Ground Parrot! Now I must admit that it was only a very brief glimpse before it dived back down into the scrub and I did not get a photo – but even a brief glimpse was great! Then we waited quietly as the darkness came, to hear the Parrots call. They only call for a very short time at dusk or dawn but it is a hauntingly beautiful call. The sound is not a bit like the usual harsh parrot call but is a series of clear ascending notes There were calls from six different directions so we assumed at least six birds in the area.
I wish I could find a way to give a better impression of the magical quality of the light and the space as night came down. A big 'thank you' to Kelvin and Amelia and family for a great time!

Birds in the Bush and on the Beach

Yesterday, I joined 22 enthusiastic birders for a most enjoyable day of bird watching at three different places in my local area. First stop was the Seary's Creek Picnic Area on the Rainbow Beach Road, then on to Bullock Point boat launch just across from Inskip Point, and finally we spent most of the time at Inskip Point.

We had a great day and saw a total of 56 species of birds.

The best thing about the day was the large number of honeyeaters we saw around the winter flowering trees. The most frustrating thing was the speed at which these little birds moved! I took so many photos of “blurs” in the tops of the trees! However, I got a couple of photos of birds that have eluded me until now – a Little Shrike-thrush (the rufous form) and a Red-backed Wren. This latter photo is still not showing the head and front of the bird but considering the number of times I have only managed blurred images in the long grass I am quite pleased with this one.

Little Shrike-thrush

Red-backed Wren

At the end of the day, when we were all sitting around in our picnic chairs and enjoying a final “cuppa” (cup of tea or coffee for those not familiar with the Aussie habit of shortening words and phrases!) and having a talk about what we had seen, two Beach Stone-curlews walked out of the grass right next to us. I have seen these birds before around the Inskip area and it always amazes me that these rather shy birds have taken residence here. This time I got photos of the birds showing how close they are to the fishermen in their 4 wheel drive vehicles.

Inskip Point and Beach Stone-curlew

Of course we looked for Black-breasted Button-quail which are known to be in this area but all we saw were the scrapes (platelets) they had left. Possibly our lack of success was because of the size of our group and all our excited talking about the birds we were seeing!