Australian Ravens share affection, saliva and samphire

How's this for a show of affection? Australian Ravens mate for life it's said. But that's not saying so much given they don't breed till age three and then usually for only four or five years. In fact most never breed since more than 60 percent are said to die before age one and others never find partners.

This resident pair in the Town Common have had two or maybe three families. They don't know how lucky they are. Now they're approaching another season and indeed their touching display may be testament to some quickening of the blood.

Also interesting the other morning was a rush to gobble wet samphire (in the mouth, above) - after they had been feeding on, probably, some other plant material at the side of the road. 

It appeared there may have been some transfer of the samphire, along with French kissing and the usual saliva. Samphire salad? French kissing tops French dressing.

Clinch Gouldian finch - aviary sneaky cinch

Hard to get close to Gouldian Finches in the wild. Very hard to find any close to Townsville. Except ... except for rare escapee, or - shudder  - inmate. But let's swiftly bypass arguments for and against aviaries (I'm mostly against) because they're too vexing. Let's just stare at a beautiful bird and hope it's happy and as healthy as it appears to be behind the fine-mesh enclosure at Queen's Gardens, Townsville. This bird had a red-headed and four black-headeds for company. Nothing sophisticated about photographic technique, determine best settings, then press 100-500 zoom lens firmly against metal mesh and shoot. 

No such ethical questions attaching to shot of Plum-headed Finch, one of up to 200 flocking here and there at north end of Townsville Town Common Conservation Park lately. Biggest flock of the seasonal and only sometime visitors to the park in recent years.

Zebra Finches haven't been making many prominent appearances in the Common lately, but can usually be found year-round nearby in Belgian Gardens Cemetery and Mundy Creek grasslands. Pictured bird was surprise bonus as I sat waiting for Little Kingfisher to appear at one of its favoured feeding spots.