Special Juveniles

This post is for Bird Photography Weekly.

It's really nice when you have friends with special birds in their yard and you are invited around to see them. It's even nicer when these friends take photos of special bird events!
Back in July I went and visited the garden of Brian and Sue where there was a pair of Bush Stone-Curlews (Burhinus grallarius). This is one of the photos I took then of one of the birds.
This time Brian and Sue brought photos around to my place so I could see the two very young birds that the parent birds were raising this year. This pair of birds have lived in this garden for a number of years and have raised other young during this time. They are also very used to Brian and Sue working in the garden and coming close to where they are resting during the day. This photo shows a parent bird crouched down on the ground with the two little ones right next to it.
The next moment the bird got up and left the young ones and came toward Brian telling him in unmistakeable terms that he was too close!
He backed off! The parent bird went back to the young ones and peace again descended on the garden!

Bush Stone-curlews

This post is for World Bird Wednesday

This morning I was invited to visit a beautiful bird-friendly garden. Brian and Sue have been living here for about twenty years and they have a garden filled with mature trees and shrubs as well as areas of low-growing foliage and flowers. Many of the trees and shrubs are flowering and fruiting varieties that the birds love. There are also areas of low growing foliage where the ground is mulched and plenty of dried leaves are left for ground dwelling birds to hide in among. Add to all this beds of veges and herbs and large beds of strawberries.
I could see birds flying between the trees but I had come to see a special pair of Bush Stone-curlews (Burhinus grallarius). These birds have been in this garden for a number of years and have nested and raised young ones here. There are no cats or dogs to bother them and they are used to people moving quietly through the garden. They have a couple of favorite spots where they can sit down among the plants and get lots of winter sunshine. (Click on photos to enlarge them.)
(Added later! I should have given an indication of the size of these birds. Length 550mm including 180mm tail and 45mm bill. These birds are NOT small!)

Birding books say that Bush Stone-curlews are shy and more often heard than seen. However, they can also become used to people around them in places where they feel safe. The garden this morning was very peaceful and it was great to have the opportunity to see these birds so close. Thanks Sue and Brian!

Bush Stone-curlew

I photographed this Bush Stone-curlew Burhinus grallarius) this morning after trying to do a shorebird count at the Crab Creek Site. A group of these birds is living on the Tin Can bay golf course. This morning they were close to the road and easy to photograph. It was an early tide this morning so I was out on the water by 7am. However, the fog was so thick that it was almost impossible to see the birds until I was very close to them. The fog started to lift after another half hour or so but even then the birds were very 'flighty' and disturbed and flew up and away when a Little Egret flew overhead. I saw Bar-tailed Godwits, Whimbrells, Eastern Curlews, Common Greenshanks and Pacific Golden Plovers as well as the usual Australian shorebirds such as Pied Oystercatchers and Red-capped Plovers. However, I was not close enough to get good photos.Because the fog was so thick it had left water droplets on all the spider webs.There was almost no wind and the reflections in the water were perfect.Later when the fog lifted it turned into a hot and sunny day. Then by late afternoon the thunderstorms rolled through and we got over 45 mm of rain in less than an hour. (That's close to 2 inches!) It has certainly been an interesting day.To see more bird photos visit the Bird Photography Weekly.

Birds on the Golf Course

I know very little about golf and my only sight of the golf course at Tin Can Bay has been as I drove by on the road. However, when someone told me that I could see Bush Stone-curlew (Burhinus grallarius) there nearly every day I had to get a closer look. I contacted Mike Clifford who is a member of the committee of the Country Club and he told me it would be OK to go and look as long as we were not there at a time when there were golfers wanting to play. He also said he would show us where the birds could usually be found.

The golf club is beautiful! It was early in the morning and there were birds walking around where later on there would be golfers. Mike led us to the curlews right away. I concentrated on photographing the birds and Janet looked at the bigger picture and got some great pictures of the golf course.

Tin Can Bay Country Club Golf Course

The curlews were in some longer grass under the trees. Some were standing quietly in the shade of the trees and others were sitting down almost hidden in the grass. Their colouring makes them very hard to see in this habitat. They only moved when we got too close. When I wondered why they were not disturbed by all the people around later in the day, Mike reminded me that golfers do try to stay away from the trees. Of course!

Bush Stone-curlew