Some birds close to my heart of things

Home's where the heart is, close to home's where many of my birds are. Benefit of buying into retirement village surrounded by conservation parks and other wildlife and marine areas. Some sightings lately:

Brahminy Kite, one of pair often seen on local dead trees.

Brolga foraging and flying close to the kites' lookouts.

Australasian Figbird about 100 metres from Brolga's reed patch.

Pheasant Coucal close-up and close to Figbird's perch.

Scaly-breasted Munia (was Spice Finch, then Chestnut-breasted Mannikin) by coastal walkway.

Not quite all in one day's walk, but part of my recent days' walks.

 

 

Coming and going, going, gone (still)

Coming and going: Red-tailed Black Cockatoos.

Going: Pheasant Coucal on way across scorched trunk.

Gone (still): Tawny Frogmouth goes ... still.

Birds and birdwings fit images for green theme

Young (and so yellow-green) Blue-faced Honeyeater shows off colouring in golf course garden beside Townsville Town Common Conservation Park today.

Everything coming up green down below after plenty of rain lately, but black male Koel stands out while taking a break from preening today atop nearby paperbark.

Pheasant Coucal amid fresh shoots of grass on ground that was parched brown not so long ago.

Not so many Cairns Birdwings around this season. And not so commonly seen on mangroves but fitting image for green theme.

Life in the sticks stacks up for birds

Sticks. Some birds need stacks of them. Whistling Kite returns towards nest after seeing off cheeky young Brahminy Kite that ventured too close. But on the way home, why not stop off for a bit of extra for the relatively modest nest high in eucalyptus?

Young White-bellied Sea-eagle not so long ago stood upon stack of sticks vastly outweighing the kite's. Parent birds lately heard honking from their massive creation in Townsville Town Common Park. Be no surprise soon to see them carrying fresh stocks of sticks to the nest.

Then there's those that stick to standing stock still on sticks. Nankeen Night Heron, in early morning light, for example. Or Little Pied Cormorant.

Pheasant Coucal not sticking totally to the theme, half on, half off.

White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike goes one better, all on and all off.

Little Friarbird, meanwhile, sticks to daily preening routine, stock-in-trade for all birds whether from the sticks or the heights.

Satin Flycatcher quests lead to questions of quality

Satin Flycatcher rarity (previous post) Wednesday. No-show Thursday. Three kms up road Friday. Good picture (above).

Four kms back down road Saturday. Terrible picture. No-show Sunday. Ah, the joys of birding.

So much searching and walking, walking, walking. Leave hefty 600mm lens in Troopy. Revert to tired old 100-400. Image quality plummets. Pallid Cuckoo not only pallid but lacks feather detail.

Pheasant Coucal (one of many males out these mornings but getting little reward in hunt for females) not wholly up to scratch.

And yet. And yet with care and little trick or two things needn't look too bad. So, Brown-backed Honeyeater, busy weaving material stolen from Leaden Flycatcher nest, looks better with extra touch of sharpening to eye.

More care processing colour of Jabiru and fish pays off.

But for the real deal and detail, 600mm pointing from Payet Tower up at Osprey reveals so much more, with less sharpening required, though this image needed some colour adjustments.

Lesson: quality counts - and muscles matter!

Great Bowerbird tucks into last of figs

Great Bowerbird about to swallow one of fast-diminishing sweet figs from fruitful and recently fruit-full tree at entry to Townsville Town Common Conservation Park early this morning.

Earlier in week of scattered showers and some (but not enough) heavy rain found Galah tucking into morning greens alongside road to the Common.

Brief chat today with pair of young Magpies, but above image came during a previous walk across dry section (looking in vain for button-quail).

Continuing efforts to sort Torresian Crows from Australian Ravens, caught crow at Pallarenda showing diagnostic purple sheen in morning sunlight on breast.

Another happy sunlit shot (though better would have been natural perch), Pheasant Coucal beside road through the Common.

And Red-tailed Black Cockatoo launches from low during another recent early morning outing.

Branching out from woodswallows to coucals

Stiff breezes appear to have assisted prey up towards small appreciative groups of White-breasted Woodswallows in recent mornings.

Spent a few hours trying to catch a few birds in flight. Bit of cheating going on with these images.

Birds were coming and going from dead upright branch. Which has been cloned from the pictures. The birds are otherwise simply too fast for me.

Lots slower, Pheasant Coucals wandering down the road, singly, or often lately in hopeful or breeding pairs.

The birds frustrate photographers by almost always running, jumping, climbing or flying into the light.

Almost always. But then comes 'that' morning.

Welcome to the world of almosts

Close. Almost. Not quite right. One of those mornings in the Common today. Started with Brown Goshawk. Flew from ground and stayed in shadow and behind twig. Big adjustment made to lighten image.

Rainbow Bee-eater stuck  tight to branch and flew off before I could adjust camera angle inside Troopy to get full tail in shot.

Suicidal Black-fronted Dotterel walked along road even as traffic passed within two metres. But just would not look my way. And flew off teasingly whenever I tried to walk up on it.

Nothing new in grasses and branches getting in the way of course. Thus, Brolga the other day.

And Crimson Finch.

And Pheasant Coucal.

And Blue-winged Kookaburra.

Too difficult to fix many untidy images, but clone tool and tight cropping can work wonders. Others must be cast aside and prayers offered for better luck next time.