Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Rainbow Bee-eater lights up morning


Don't often come upon Rainbow Bee-eaters (Merops ornatus) low on branches, so above shot on a bright morning as I was beginning a lagoon edge walk hoping for Little Bittern sightings was an unexpected bonus. Luckily the bird paused for a few seconds after coming from over my shoulder.

After recent post about Red-browed Finch (Neochmia temporalis) clutching African Tulip Tree (Spathodea campanulata) seed envelope and Scaly-breasted Lorikeet (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus) taste for the seeds today came upon lorikeets feeding from split and drying pods. For every seed eaten 10 or more are scattered on the breeze. Little wonder the exotic tree with gorgeous flowers is proving nigh impossible to eradicate.

Immature Great Bowerbird still noisily busy near Tyto carpark, but seems to have largely completed the bower. Now the chief work is sorting out which end of the north-south alignment should be decorated with the assorted white, blue, green and red items it has gathered. No sign of any other bowerbirds in the neighbourhood.

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful shot of the bee-eater! Vagrant European bee-eater find their way up to the far north of Scotland so I live in hope that their antipodean counterparts may one day pay a visit to Tassie :-)

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  2. I'd guess one or two get blown across the strait now and again. Clincher would be if I ever saw them in parkas and mittens! :-)

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  3. Interesting that the Spathodea seeds are so popular but as you have mentioned it certainly isn't having any impact on the spread of this exotic tree. At least they are providing food for some our lovely native birds.

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