#todays bird is a currawong!

[daily-grian]

Hey watch it I'm stridin here!

[boombox-fuckboy]

Actually while I'm still a bird blog (literally just for today) here's some other birds I'm fond of/think would be GREAT in Skyjacks:

Willie Wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys)

Tiny, adjustable eyebrows, fan tail, fantastically acrobatic fliers. Two kinds of noises: angry shouting and beautiful singing. Diet is primarily insects but they have been known to eat carrion of far larger animals. Not afraid of humans. Made mostly of audacity: will often attack much larger birds including magpies, ravens and occasionally even osprey (sea eagles) or wedge-tailed eagles.

Currawong (Strepera sp.)

Three species of absolute clown disguised as dapper goths. Very clever and capable of bastardry: wild populations have been documented unzipping bags to get at the contents. All round omnivore. Social. Soup dragon noises.

Rainbow bee-eater (Merops ornatus)

Rainbow, eats bees (and other insects, but especially bees). Migratory, can fly far distances for a little bird. Makes and then nests in underground burrows. Very social. Makes delightful prrt noises and exhibits some very cute huddling behaviour.

Red-tailed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii)

Large, loud and social. Shy with humans but not absent from urban and suburban areas. Dangerous if you happen to be a delicious seed pod, or item that looks fun to chew on. Capable of high flying, rarely comes down to the ground (mostly hangs out in trees). A herald of coming rains, according to old farmer's tales. Brains. Incredible aesthetic really.

Splendid fairywren (Malurus splendens)

This tiny man is in fact more blue in person, (juvenile and female individuals being brown with a splash of blue on the tail). He flirts by offering flower petals and fancy flying. He's also a good dad. Always moving, fast takeoff and strong flight (but only in short bursts). Like all adorable round birds, very territorial.

New Holland honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae)

Small, social bird with dignified sideburns who subsists primarily off of sugar (with a side of insects and arachnids). Mobile, talkative, and known to gang up on larger birds, such as wattlebirds (below). Nimble fliers, but tend to navigate a flowering bush from the inside. Looks like an electric type pokémon.

Superb fruit dove (Ptilinopus superbus)

Medium-small pigeon with an absolutely unrealistic colour palette (yet impressively camouflaged). Indeed superb. Also a dove that eats fruit. Not great at building nests. Migratory or nomadic but sneaky about it: possibly at night, as they (unfortunately) occasionally collide with lighthouses.

Pacific baza (Aviceda subcristata)

Looks as though a wizard has turned a cuckoo into a bird of prey in a futile attempt to teach it the meaning of hard work. In fact a medium sized, crested hawk. An omnivore: hunts everything from insects to reptiles to smaller birds, but also actively eats fruit. Rumoured to be able to mimic frog-calls, which coaxes the frogs to respond in turn. Pretty chill and, like many other hawks, social. Documented aerial somersaulter. Also not the greatest at nest building.

Red wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata)

Not the prettiest, but interesting to watch. Large honeyeater and one of the few birds I am convinced has retained awareness of being a dinosaur. Loud about it, either with a gutteral cluck or lovely singing. Glides as much as flies, though they are perfectly capable of it. A decent climber, nimble. Will throw it's weight around with both smaller and larger birds. Unclear if it entirely understands it's place in the food chain.

Southern boobook (Ninox boobook)

A small, compact, cute and otherwise plain owl, but with very striking eyeliner. Does well in suburban areas. Named for the distinct noise it makes, though is (as most owls are) a totally silent flier. Feeds mostly on insects and small mammals but is also capable of catching bats.

[thylacinetears]

(this is fun so I'm gonna do my own version, hope you don't mind OP)

Rating the birds in my backyard by tendency toward violence, except I live in semi-rural southeastern Australia and said backyard is a few acres of horribly steep bushland

Pied Currawong, 2/10

One of these showed up on the decking a day ago. Was pretty big, but seemed like a chill guy. I once played "catch-the-stick" with a currawong at my old house, so I think they're just nice dudes.

Crimson Rosella, 1/10

Okay, I'm biased because they like to live in the nest boxes really close to the house so I see them the most, but come on. Look at them! So sweet and pretty! Worst thing they've ever done is sit on the TV aerial. They would never hurt anything bigger than a worm. (Probably because they're one of the smallest birds on the whole list and can't afford to get in a fight, but oh well.)

Laughing Kookaburra, 9/10

Do NOT let the cheery laugh fool you - these guys are PREDATORS, and they will eat anything big enough to fit in their beak. I once saw one of these crazy fuckers with a snake tail fully hanging out of its mouth. Thankfully they're also pretty lazy, and will come and sit on your decking in the hope that you feed them some ham slices. Just don't hand feed them...

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo, 4/10

They're not all that violent, but they are, well, cocky. Mostly they just want to sucker you into giving them birdseed. But if you count chewing up the wooden windowsill and the poor rosellas' nest box for no reason as violence...

Wedge-Tailed Eagle, 8/10

We occasionally get these circling above, hunting in pairs. (I'm not 100% sure that they're this exact species but I think they are.) They're bad news if you're a small mammal, but otherwise they just kinda do their own thing. The Wurundjeri people (the traditional custodians of this land) worshipped Bunjil the eagle god, and I can see why - they're just so majestic and literally above it all. What a king.

White-winged chough, 2/10

They've been showing up a LOT recently, in giant flocks. Gang activity? It's probably hell on earth for the insects they're eating, but I've never seen them give trouble to another bird. I even saw them peacefully chilling and eating bugs near some other birds today, so that's cool.

Noisy Miner, 10/10

BULLIES. Once saw like 4 of them harassing a rosella. They're INTRODUCED and they're EVERYWHERE and they SUCK. Ugh.

Eastern Rosella, unrated

They're unrated because they don't show up here often, and also because they're my favourite bird and I am so very biased towards them. Look at them! They're rainbow and I love them so much…

King Parrot, 5/10

Several years ago one of them showed up, and sat right where the rosellas like to perch. The rosellas were Not Happy about it, but because it was twice their size they really couldn't do anything except chirp angrily.

Australian magpie, 9/10

They're pretty infamous for swooping people, but honestly? They've never given me any trouble. Mostly just want to beg for meat. Still, I've heard the stories...

Rating the birds in my backyard by tendency toward violence

Northern Cardinal, 4/10

I'm sometimes worried the male is sexually harassing the female but I'm pretty sure they're just doing some elaborate public pickup roleplay. The rest of us didn't agree to participate in your kink, guys.

American Robin, 1/10

Literally just some dude hanging out. Never bothered anyone but worms. Big fan of the way you just stand there in the middle of the grass like you forgot what you were supposed to be doing.

House Sparrow, 10/10

You're a gang. You're participating in gang violence. There's ten billion of you living in a single wood pile and it's been civil war for three years now. When will the bloodshed end?

Tufted Titmouse, 1/10

A shy baby. A pretty little guy. I saw you on the neighbor's garage roof and time stopped. There were anime sparkles around you. Come back.

European Starling, 9/10

Why is it always you? Listen, I know, I KNOW the sparrows are the problem, and YET. When the fighting starts, it's always you in the middle of it, provoking them and then screaming like you're an innocent bystander defending yourself. I'm onto you.

Carolina Wren, 3/10

This rating is not for physical violence, which you don't engage in, but for your role as an incurable narc. A tattle tale. I know they're fighting again, okay? I see it. Our yard has been a warzone for years, you don't have to make a big announcement every time someone misbehaves.

Eastern Wood-Peewee, 0/10

If this were "birds who think they're better than everyone else," you'd get 10/10.

Red-bellied Woodpecker, 6/10

It's a utility pole. It's not a tree. You're surrounded by trees that are full of bugs. But there you are, on the utility pole. Committing vandalism.

American Crow, unrated

For who am I to cast judgment on the actions of La Famiglia? I assume you are doing what is best for the neighborhood. If I could, though, without criticism, make a single observation. That when large numbers of you gather in the ominous dead cottonwood - no? No, you're right. None of my business.

Great Crested Flycatcher, 5/10

Frankly, I think you could be doing more. I think your name implies a great potential. I think you should massacre the insects. I think your beak should drip with viscera.

Stay tuned for more criminal activity!

[carryonlikewedidbefore]

I’m having a good Bird day today. In addition to my usual magpies there are 4 currawongs in my front yard and I’ve seen crimson rosellas and king parrots

[suzygen70]

Day 109. It’s funny that the first drawing I did for the year was a feather. I wanted to draw a bird but I could only manage a feather.

Now I am drawing all of the local birds, and today is no exception. The Pied Currawong reminds me of Winter. On those foggy, icy mornings, their call would echo through the clouds in the trees.

I have linked their call below. Get ready to be enchanted.

[todaysbird]

Today's bird is a pied currawong~

[lindoig7]

Tuesday-Thursday, 1-3 September

Tuesday

Spring has spronged and what a fantastic start to the new season!  A tad cool in the breeze, but looking glorious with the sun shining and the birds enjoying the day as well.  I had a magpie visit me while I was doing the dishes after lunch.  He was looking for his lunch in the small patch of grass outside the van so I chatted with him and next thing, he was on the step about 30 cm from my feet. Lovely! We had 6 Eastern Rosellas chasing each other and squabbling almost all morning low in the trees behind us, and our friend the Grey Butcherbird has been carolling in his crystal-clear melodious voice on and off all day.  Even the wonderful Blackbird got into the act first up this morning.  We got a great rendition of his complete repertoire in the tree immediately in front of the van last night, but he was back there again practising for a while early today too.

There are some birds that evoke special emotions and memories of times and places for me (some described in my Birding Blog at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lindoig6) but the sounds of Currawongs, Butcherbirds, Blackbirds, Galahs, Lapwings, Magpies, Australian Ravens, even some wild ducks, are particularly evocative for me, albeit for several quite different reasons.  They take me back to times and places of great significance in my life.  Very nostalgic and sometimes emotionally disturbing in a mainly pleasantish way.

We finished watching Series 1 of True Detective last night. It was not the best series we have seen (quite violent, often a bit hard to follow, not always quite credible, and with no likeable characters), but there are two more series in the set and they appear to be self-contained with entirely different characters so I hope we will enjoy them more.

We have been around the van all day. Heather did some light washing, I had a couple of small jobs to do on the car, a few bills to pay and emails to send, but with no real incentive to do much.  We even got to read a bit during the day and watched another Brad Pitt movie at night.

Wednesday

We had a great day driving around south-central Gippsland today.  We topped up with fuel in Traralgon again at 105.9 c/l – even cheaper than previous times with other servos in town still offering the identical product at 131.9 c/l!! Ah, the power of vigorous competition….!

We followed the highway to Sale then turned slightly south-east to a place appropriately called The Heart, and just past that we found the Heart Morass State Game Reserve on the shores of Lake Wellington.  We spent an hour of so exploring the area, avoiding the dozens of 600 mm deep boggy patches.  It was a really interesting area, partly wetland, partly woodland, partly grassland – all of it very muddy, but with quite a few birds.  We actually visited a few Game Reserves on the day (and have seen others previously so there must be quite a few around) and fortunately saw nobody else there at the time.  It seems odd that such easy access is available for shooters and birders who might well get in each other’s way.  (They also have quite a few Morasses around too – several of the Game Reserves and rural localities have Morass in their names too. Probably makes sense given the amount of water laying around.)  On the other hand, they seem to be really great places to find birds, including many that would be of no interest to shooters, so we will continue to look for them and explore them whenever we can.

(Many years ago, I was caught out in a shallow lake with half a dozen drunken shooters blasting away at ducks that may or may not have been near me and my brother-in-law.  We hid behind a dead tree with bits of branch falling all around us.  We shouted at them to cease fire until we got out of their way – to no avail – and had to make a run for it when there was a brief lull in the fusilade.  I would not like to be in that situation again so I was a little surprised at the likely proximity of shooters and birders at certain times of the year.)

We tried exploring a few roads that turned out to be impassable tracks or dead end lanes, but we also explored quite a bit of country in that isolated corner of Gippsland. There are a few quaint names around the area – Perry Bridge and Eagle Point are OK, but Meerlieu, Bengworden, Goon Nure…….  All very rustic and most attractive to us.

We explored a little at several places around the edge of Lake Victoria and eventually arrived at Holland’s Landing.  Not a lot to see there, but there is a very narrow peninsula that runs out from there for several kilometres separating Jones Bay from Lake King. It has a single road, Rivermouth Road, (presumably named for the mouth of the Mitchell River that appears to be no more than a small billabong nearby) that runs straight out with water within a few metres on both sides of the road.  It seems that the tip of the peninsula may recently have been purchased by someone because it is now a building site and the road is closed a little short of the point.  It was a very quaint little drive out there and back and a pleasant drive back into Bairnsdale.  We actually bypassed the township and headed straight back along the highway, arriving back in Warragul just after dark.  It had been a wonderful day exploring a less known (we think) corner of Gippsland.  We cruised country lanes with minimal traffic, avoided anything that looked like a town, and had a wonderful day, notwithstanding that some of the morasses were very hard to navigate and we were thrown all over the car when we lurched in and out of potholes, ruts and other obstacles in the mud.

Thursday

It was a beautiful morning, warm and sunny, and we did a few jobs outside. Being so lovely outside, we decided to walk into town to the supermarket for a few essentials.  On the way in, we called in at a florist to send some flowers to our wonderful travel agent whose father had just died.  Really feel sad for her because with the lockdown, funerals must be absolutely horrific – they always are of course, but that just makes it so much worse.

On the way home, we bumped into my former wife and her husband and stopped to have a chat for a few minutes.  They live in Drouin, ten minutes from Warragul.  It was odd because we were all wearing masks and as we walked past them, I thought the woman had an odd frown (a mannerism rather than a surly frown) that reminded me of Colleen and as we walked a few steps further, Heather said that she thought the woman looked a bit like Colleen and should we go back to check?  We turned around just as Colleen recognised us too and we spent a few minutes chatting about the vagaries of life under current restrictions.

Back at the van, I hosed the worst of the mud off the car.  It had rained again overnight and there was a vicious wind that had caked dust all over everything. It still looks pretty dirty, but more rain was promised (and the wind howled ferociously all day and half the night after we got back), so there was no point in doing more than simply hosing the worst of it off.

We had another Zoom session at 6pm – this one was the Annual General Meeting for our Owners’ Corporation at home.  It was a surprisingly quick meeting, much more formal that usual, so perhaps people were inhibited a little by the technology although most of those participating had been in Zoom sessions with the Committee before.  I was elected to the Committee again for my 18th year, but that was not unexpected.  The Committee rarely changes greatly from one year to the next and there are never enough nominations to cause us to have a vote anyway.

After dinner, we started a new series of True Detective.  It looks like being as obscure as the previous one with constant time switches and mid-sentence scene changes – obviously clever arty devices that the director imagines will win him some sort of accolade – but not from us.

[thistransient]

There's a grey currawong ("a large crow-like bird, around 48 cm (19 in) long on average, with yellow irises, and a heavy bill, and dark plumage with white undertail and wing patches") that lives around our compound. Within the past week or so its fledgling offspring has started following it around. It's very fluffy and cute, which may be its saving grace, because it's typical for young currawongs to make incessant, awful, pitiful whining noises when begging for food and at least one coworker is feeling murderous since these birds also run loudly across our metal roof at 04:30 on the dot to begin their vocalizations. The local group of ravens seems to be fed up too, and came over to our courtyard yesterday (perhaps also plotting an assassination), only to be swooped at by the adult currawong.

I'm complaining about this now because I went to bed late yesterday (as today's my off day), only to have one of my earplugs fall out during the night and thus I was subjected to the 4 o'clock racket with a particular intensity 😡

[dscgshauntingground]

we were planning to do some bushwalking today but we slept until noon in our lovely four poster bed listening to the bird song and the rain and the weather is pretty bad so we are going to hang out in a cafe for a while and maybe do some walking tomorrow. we have seen and heard so many birds just from our cottage. whip birds, kookaburras, crimson rosellas, willy wagtails, wattlebirds, currawongs (including a baby being fed by its mama!), cockatoos, magpies, fairy wrens, and others we couldn't identify!

[blamebrampton]

My cat, friend to birds.

This is my youngest cat.

He is an utter mupmup and enjoys eating innocent rats. Since we live near a river, he has a lot of opportunities to try this out. He does not eat birds. Weirdly, none of our cats have ever eaten birds, and I haven’t even had to train them for this.

I know he is good with birds because we have A LOT of local birds. I keep multiple birdbaths in the garden, and during the horrid drought we have been having, have put out snacks of seed. Of course, the downside of putting out seed is that it attracts pigeons. To be fair to the pigeons, they, too, have been having a horrible time in the drought, so I throw them a handful now and then rather than shooing them away. This leads to situations like this:

This is not a photo of a cat about to pounce on pigeons. This is a photo of the pigeons and the cat having a little chat about something. Bloody weirdoes.

Today, I looked out the front and saw this cat asleep in his favourite chair. On the back of the chair was a currawong. My phone was at the other end of the house, but for people who have never visited Australia, this is a currawong.

It’s about the size of a small raven and, although not a corvid, will happily eat small mammals. They’ve been known to peck cats they perceive as threats, and I confess I gave the bird an evil eye, concerned he was about to get in a blow while my dumbarse lad was asleep.

The cat rolled over and opened one sleepy eye. The bird nodded and chirruped something at him. The cat blinked in a friendly fashion and gave him a little mirrup back. The bird flapped over to the nearby waterbowl and had a good drink and bath, two feet from the resting cat, who made a few more soft vocalisations that had answering chirps.

I confess I have no idea how they see each other, but a part of me thinks the birds have noticed that the cats run the house, and so assume the boy cat, who has taken charge of the front garden, has issued instructions to us for regular bird watering and feeding and this ‘chatting’ is birdese for “thanks, man, that’s really thoughtful of you.”

[lindoig3]

Tuesday, 12th February

It was another really interesting day again today.

We got pretty hot and bothered during the morning in almost 40 degree heat. We put our hose-broom over the van and car and rediscovered that they were not both red underneath after all.  The hose connects to an extendable broom or mop that allows us to do a rough and ready wash up to about 3 metres or so high.  It is not a particularly easy thing to use - my shoulder is a bit sore tonight - but at least it makes it easy to apply some water and a soft brush to most surfaces and we removed several kilos of mud from both vehicles.  Heather washed all the windows while I did the sweeping and mopping and both car and van looked a lot better for the attention.  Regrettably, we didn’t!!

We were pretty whacked, but after we caught our respective breaths, we decided to cool off in the pool.  I think I said how much we like this park and we thoroughly enjoyed lolling about in one of the two pools – I even dog-paddled a couple of laps and pretended I was exercising.

We had a few other jobs to do, one of which was to fit some Solarscreens we bought well over a year ago.  They are supposed to attach to the windows with suction caps and reflect the heat and insulate the car a bit.  We have managed to get the side ones to stay put, but the one for the tailgate has defeated us.  I have been back to the manufacturer a few times for suggestions, but nothing works.  Suction caps, Velcro, silver tape, duct tape.......  The heat seems to be the problem, but no matter how we try to attach it, it falls off within a few minutes.  The product itself seems to be quite good - it is just not possible to fit it to get any of the benefits it offers.  I tried several more clever ideas today but eventually gave it up as an impossible task.

After lunch, we decided to go for a drive in the coolness of the car and went down to Byrock.  We have been there once before and loved the quaint pub with rustic mulga wood chairs that are almost too heavy to lift - unbelievable the weight of mulga!  We chatted with the proprietoress for an hour or so over a cold drink and soon heard about all the things wrong with politicians, city folk, the younger generation, country life, non-indigenous culture............ but without learning anything that might help to improve the situation.  But it was certainly an entertaining hour or so.  We then went to the Byrock Waterholes, an amazing area with an extensive area of rock holding several pools of warm water.  It is an aboriginal sacred site and an interesting place where you can find quite a variety of birds and plants in a very arid area.  We poked around there for perhaps an hour and I did a survey in which I identified 18 species - unusual to see so many species in such a dry environment.

We drove home via a different route, including perhaps 70-80 clicks of mainly excellent gravel, although towards the end the road was occasionally chopped up from recent boggings – all pretty dry now.  In fact, we drove several kilometres through a virtual dust storm - swirling orange dust that waxed and waned in density but had us down to 30kph a couple of times when visibility was down to about 10 metres.  Fascinating stuff and guess what colour our semi-clean car is again now!!!  We subsequently heard that Sydney copped a dust storm that day that was supposed to be 2300km long and that was expected to reach as far as New Zealand!  Where has all our topsoil gone?

Back home, I sat outside to log my bird survey and became fascinated by some of the local birds here.  Seven red-winged parrots settled very near to me and their colours are astounding: a brilliant light green with a vivid red splash on their wings - at least the males.  Really striking and the brightness of their colours is unavoidably eye-catching.

The subspecies of ring-necked parrots here are also quite beautiful.  They are much more muted, but just as absorbing to watch, especially when they also approach quite close looking for food and water.

My favourites though (for this week anyway) are probably the yellow-throated minors.  They are so petite, elegant and graceful, but also rather cheeky.  We were inside the van having lunch a few days ago and several were pecking around just outside the door when one hopped up on the step, then into the van and walked all around under the table and over our feet before deciding that we had nothing it wanted and it returned to its friends outside.

(Unfortunately, these photos are not  mine - they are all copied from the web.)

That evening, we were having a drink outside the van and a pair of magpies came across looking for morsels so we gave them a few crumbs.  Within seconds, we had 5 miners, a pied butcherbird and a magpie-lark in on the act too.  The miners happily ate out of my hand and hopped around our feet, even perched on my shoe, waiting to see if they could extract any more freebies from us.  The miners are quite beautiful with pale yellow around their heads as well as their delicately barred grey and white breasts and bellies.  Entrancing little gems, even if pretty precocious.  Just love them - but there are plenty of other delightful birds if we just take the time to look at them and learn a bit about them.  I really love the butcher birds too, but for their voice more than their appearance.  The ones we have seen here are not as sleek and painted as many we have seen, but their song is a total joy - clear bell-like and melodic, absolutely glorious.  I love the pied currawong calls, the magpies’ warbling and the evensong of the blackbirds - all are exquisite but the butcherbirds out-sing all of them.  They are quite matchless.

[lindoig6]

More on our Balcony Birds

A few weeks after I wrote my last post, the Currawongs came back: this time an adult with two fledged juveniles.  The adult bird looked superb in its black and white livery and stark yellow eye, whereas the juveniles were dark grey rather than black, and had yet to develop their remarkable adult eye colouration.  They were almost as big as the adult, but not quite as bulky.

They stayed on the terrace for perhaps an hour while the Sparrows cowered deep in the foliage of our shrubbery.  Two of our Spotted Doves stood guard during the visitation and calmly stood their ground when any of the larger birds approached, but there was no direct conflict.

In due course, they Currawongs left and the Sparrows emerged after quite some time and a few Common Mynas joined them in the terrace.

Over the next several days, we had numerous visits by one or both juvenile Currawongs, but not to our knowledge, the adult bird.  The first day, both juveniles perched on the glass along the edge of our terrace, quietly warbling to each other.  What a magical serenade it was: almost continuous, a simple melodious convivial conversation between siblings.  On another occasion, only one bird appeared, but it carolled quietly and melifluously, presumably calling to its companion for 15 minutes or so before flying away.  We have heard plenty of full-volume calls from some distance away, but this seemed to just be a gentle invitation to its sibling to join it on the terrace.

On each occasion the Currawongs have been on the terrace, we have also had one or two Spotted Doves present.  They appear to be protecting their traditional space, unafraid of the Currawongs, but clearly intimating that this is their primary space where interlopers are welcome to visit but will not be permitted to stake their own claim.  Of course, the Sparrows stayed out of sight as did the Mynas (to my surprise).  But the moment the Currawongs left, the smaller birds resumed their normal activities and relationships.

The last several days, only one Currawong has visited, albeit a few times each day.  It has foraged, along with our Doves (and once with a few brave Mynas - safety in numbers?), for crumbs and other scraps we have left out.  There has been very little sign of conflict and today, it even took a bath in our small birdbath.  It is not a big bath but has simultaneously accommodated a couple of Mynas in the past.  Today though, the Currawong wallowed in the bath and splashed almost all the water around the terrace.  It was so big that it hung over both sides of the birdbath and finally sat up on the glass of the balcony looking very scrawny and bedraggled.  Its wet feathers clung to its body and made it look half the size of its former self, but it soon shook itself out, preened itself industriously and quickly dried to its previous splendour.

Interestingly, our Doves have also been very active in the past week or so: perhaps one of the reasons they have been passively enforcing their rights over our terrace.  They were quite amorous with each other for a few days and mated at least once a couple of days ago and are now building a nest in a street-tree right across the street from here.  During lunch today, they visited our terrace at least 15 times, scratching around in our garden and collecting small sticks to build their nest. I have seen quite a few Dove nests and they are never more than about 20 small sticks placed together to form the most scruffy fragile-looking structure that seems impossible to imagine holding eggs, hatchlings and chicks prior to fledging.

We would love to have them nest in our shrubs but at least we are now confident that we will soon have both adult and juvenile Doves residing on our terraces again.

[adamandbrittanyinhawaii]

Australia: Day 3

Today, we finally slept in! Well, kind of.  It has been a long first few days of a vacation to say the least and we really haven’t slept normally since last Wednesday.  And it is now Tuesday.  But it is Monday in Hawaii.  Aaah!  I think my mind is slipping.  

 We stayed in a port town called Devonport which is central part of the northern coast.  Nothing really to see or do here, though if we had an extra day here it is a decent spot to start for driving around the northern coast like we did yesterday.

 Today we are headed south though into the mountains.  The scenery is gorgeous.  It is a lot like New Zealand with long sloping mountains and beautiful countryside. One notable difference: a lot less sheep.  That’s baaaaaaaaaaaad!  The livestock is more cows.  It does make you wonder what happened to all the bulls though.  The drive was also notable because every house had a custom mail box. I’m not talking fun arts and crafts, I’m talking one was made from an old car engine, another was a 6 foot angel, another one was made to look like a life size cat and there was even one built like a tractor.  It was as if there was a county-wide mailbox creation contest and nobody opted out.  I didn’t get any pictures snapped because my wife gets car sick and apparently felt it wasn’t safe for me to take pictures while doing hairpin turns through the mountains.  You know sometimes I sense a bit of an Uncle Brian and Aunt Pati dynamic between the two of us!

Cradle Mountain is a national park, but is sort of unique in that they encourage you to park outside the entrance and then take the shuttle bus in.  To our knowledge, there isn’t much to do here except hike so a lot of people there were doing more or less the same thing as us.  

Our path we chose started where the 6 day overland track hike starts.  That journey is much more rugged than the one we embarked on later in our travels as the cabins are quite a bit more rugged, and it is 50% longer! This region is well known for spotting wombats and as seen in my video I posted a few weeks ago, we got pushed off a bridge 10 minutes into our hike by a wombat.  I didn’t even know what it was!  We found out later that it only eats plants which is a good thing because it looks like it has the strength and claws to rip a man’s face off.  

The path we took was a longer walk up to the popular Marion’s lookout which meant all the old people snowcaps got off the bus closer to the end point and left us to hike by ourselves.  It was a gorgeous and peaceful hike although, much like New Zealand, felt like we went through 4 seasons in a day.  We started with winter gear on and completely bundled up and finished up in shorts and a t shirt with excess heat.  

Cradle mountain as you can see from Marion’s lookout gets its name because you just feel like you can curl up inside that little dip in the mountains.  While we ate lunch on top of the lookout this crow looking bird (black currawong) came up nearby which made for a great photo.  I thought it was a fascinating looking bird with the creepy yellow eyes but by the end of our trip I was totally over them.  They show up all the time and apparently are a bit of a nuisance to hikers as they are very smart and for people on the Overland track have even learned how to unzip bags with their beaks to get at the food.

We hiked a bit further up the mountain just to explore and came across snow for the first time since our hike on Routeburn Track 2 years ago in New Zealand!  It was a treat, mostly because I didn’t have to drive in it or shovel it!  Eventually the path got covered in so much snow that it wasn’t clear where the path was and we weren’t equipped to trudge through snow so we headed back down.  

As we descended we were graced with lots of wonderful views and Britt was even met by a snake along the trail.  Now personally I find this hard to believe, but she says that is the first time she has ever come across a snake in the wild!  Who knew she just needed to travel across the world to find one.  I had one slither up to me in my parent’s basement while I was playing video games once and Grant covered it with a blanket to confuse it and smashed it to death with a mallet.  I don’t remember what blanket it was but hopefully we got that cleaned up!

We finished up at Dove Lake (above) and then headed to the bus stop to be picked up.  While waiting we met Kristen from California (sort of rare to meet an American here in Tassie) who was spending a year traveling the globe and was almost 2 months into her journey.  She started in Central America and was now headed west.  I picked her brain about long term travel since that is something Britt and I aspire to do and she also showed us a cool app she uses to show all the places she’s been while also comforting her mom back home that she is safe and sound.  An interesting thing I learned from her since she was a solar energy engineer is that the biggest constriction right now that people are trying to solve is how to manage the volume of power being added to the grid by solar because cities with high adoption are cutting off new additional flow onto the grid.  Hopefully someone smarter than me can figure out the answer because Hawaii can benefit from that solution.

We stayed at a hotel in Cradle mountain which was gorgeous.  It had a Jacuzzi in the room, a hot tub, steam room and even a fireplace and lounge in the middle of the hallway to complete the cabin feel.  And there were a ton of wallabies just bounding around the hotel constantly.  We returned to cradle mountain for our evening of viewing the Tasmanian devil sanctuary, or as they are called here, devils.  

We were reminded ~100 times during the 2 hours there that the population is fighting extinction due to a facial disease that is spread when these devils bite each other, something they do quite often.  These little guys live up to their name (earned by Europeans who came over and coined the term because they thought they were pure evil) because they are carnivorous, nocturnal and basically only make sounds when they are snarling at each other or chomping on the corpse of an animal.  They rarely kill, rather let smaller creatures like a quoll (below) kill then swoop in for the body after the kill has been made.  They also eat an entire animal: bones, fur, the whole nine yards! These things are savages and that is a shame because they look pretty darn cute.  

The exhibit also had quolls which are facing extinction threats but just due to predatory/prey imbalances due to humans.

While devils have lost 85% of their population in the past 20 years there is hope.  They recently introduced a healthy devil population on an island within Tassie where they had gone extinct which means the disease isn’t able to spread there and the population can at the very least have one place where the population can grow naturally and safely.  That is also your best chance at seeing one in the wild.

The guide of our tour, which you can hear in some videos, clearly spent a liiiiiiiitle too much time with the devils and not enough with people.  He seemed bothered by people’s questions and it was clear that he loved the animals like his own offspring.  Of course he had the long unkempt hair and clothes to match the stereotype.

On our way out we saw a very rare light skinned wallaby which was pretty neat.  That night we chilled in the hot tub, steam room and Jacuzzi before eating dinner by the fire place.  What a rough life!

[papergyroscope]

Hey I’m an Australian who moved over to the east side a little while ago and today, fresh after Halloween while I was hanging out my washing, I saw the most cursed-looking, yellow-eyed bird ever.

And in my head I was trying to figure out what the hell it was, because it sure as fuck wasn’t a common crow, and it wasn’t a magpie either

In the instant I cycled through several possibilities:

It was a hallucination

It was a shapeshifter who couldn’t remember what either common bird looked like so decided to go with a mix of both in order to steal mandarins from my back yard

Someone pissed off a witch

It’s a hybrid of those two birds isn’t it OH GOD THEY’RE INTERBREEDING NO ONE IS SAFE WE MUST AS A SPECIES EVACUATE TO THE INDOORS-

But it turns out it’s called a currawong, and it is actually not even related to crows at all.

(My distress was not helped by the fact that these birds are hillariously clumsy at flying, meaning as the bloody thing awkwardly flapped away from me it practically smacked into several tree branches, leaving me to wonder if somehow the bird was real but I and everything else on the planet was actually just its drunken hallucination.)

[bjoeljohnsond91]

Regular Day in Australia: Huge Python Tries to Eat Bird [VIDEO]

Regular Day in Australia: Huge Python Tries to Eat Bird [VIDEO]

We cull the internet in search of the latest outdoors-related tidbits, YouTube clips, photos, memes, you name it. Stuff you HAVEN’T seen before, hopefully. If it’s amusing, entertaining, educational or astonishing, you’ll find it here. Check back every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and see what’s new.

Today’s video has been making the rounds on social media, and for good reason.

This isn’t something you see everyday. At least here in the USA. Maybe this is the norm in Australia.

In it, a big python hanging from an electrical pole attempts to eat a big black bird known as a currawong.

Check it out:

WATCH: A python has been filmed trying to eat a currawong on the roof of a Kingscliff home. Warning: Video may upset some viewers. #9News | http://9News.com.au

Posted by 9 News Queensland on Tuesday, 19 February 2019

It’s unclear if the snake actually killed the bird, or if he’s looking for an easy meal.

Either way, we’re never going to Kingscliff, Australia.

The post Regular Day in Australia: Huge Python Tries to Eat Bird [VIDEO] appeared first on Guide Outdoors.

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[lindoig7]

Sunday/Monday, 8-9 November

Sunday

It was a really great day today with some spectacular sights along the way.

Our first excursion from Orbost exactly 6 weeks ago was the Amboyne Loop and we saw a few things on the way home that day that we thought might be good to visit.  We didn’t do the whole loop again, but drove in the opposite direction and did perhaps a third (or a bit more) of it and came home the same way.  But what we saw was really great.

We drove to Buchan – a really lovely drive in my view, quite varied with some beautiful pastoral areas, some forests and all quite delightful.  We drove north from there, heading for Tulloch Ard, but saw a sign for the W-Tree Falls (no idea where the name comes from, but there were quite a few tracks, water holes and so on that included W-Tree in their names) so we detoured there.  The Falls are very pretty and splayed out quite widely across the rocks so they looks quite stunning.  We climbed down from the road to the top of the Falls and clambered around looking for some special Streaked Rock-orchids that are sometimes seen in the cracks between the rocks.  Obviously, we were there out of season because we never saw them (maybe they were all on their Spring break?), but it was a lovely little detour – well worth the climb down to the Falls themselves.

Tulloch Ard is quite a few clicks off the main road and we were the only visitors on the day.  It is supposed to be a 3.4 km return Level 3 walk.  It was certainly Level 3 – very steep and rocky, but our Fitbits both showed the walk to be at least 5 km – well over the predicted 3.4 km.   Incidentally, I lost my Fitbit somewhere late in the day.  It was in my pocket and I imagine it must have been dropped out when I was getting something else out of my pocket – probably my other lens.  Heather had ‘tried’ to lose hers early in our trip, but someone found it for her.  Alas, not for mine though.

Getting to the Lookout at the end of the walk was almost all downhill – so it was a very tiring climb back to the car.  It was worth it though.  The Lookout spread the entire valley before us with the raging Snowy River far below, just visible between our toes.  It was certainly an impressive panorama – a huge valley – but our photos don’t start to do it justice.  The viewing platform hung a little over the edge and didn’t inspire confidence in this little chicken-heart.

It was a sturdy steel structure with various tones available on the rails, the cross-members, the floor and so on and we spent a few happy moments hammering out a tune with our sticks.  Not sure the Currawongs enjoyed our harmonising, but I reckon they would have recovered once we retreated to the track and the climb back to the car. There were quite a few birds singing to us too, but not many showing themselves.  At least we could recognise 5 or 6 of the more familiar calls.  Two of the smallest birds did show themselves and I was able to identify both the Brown and Striated Thornbills.  We also saw more examples of the wildflowers that we have photographed so many times.  Oddly, every time we see a really good specimen, the cameras come out and we add yet another image to our already massive library of ‘perfect’ specimens.  I have given up trying not to duplicate/triplicate/quadruple/quintuple……. pics of particular species on my blog.

We ate lunch in the car while we recovered a little of our energy and then set off for a very short walk on the other side of the road to The Big Tree.  It was definitely a Big Tree but all I can really add is that we saw it.

We drove back to the main road and turned north again to Little River.  The map we were using declared that we were on the McKillop’s Bridge Road, purported to be the most challenging road in Australia.  Rubbish!  When we drove this loop in the opposite direction 6 weeks ago, we noted that the road deteriorated after McKillop’s Bridge, but we have certainly driven of many far more challenging roads before, including many on this trip.  Sure, it was rough, muddy in places, potholed and with rocks and fallen trees to navigate, but not all that terrifying.  Some parts were a teensy bit terrifying for me due to my acrophobia – the edge of the road fell away into the abyss for quite a few kilometres (and the abyss looked like kilometres deep too!) – but we have still driven much worse roads in the past week or twenty.

Not far from the McKillop’s Road was the carpark for the Little River Falls – another spectacular cascade, spreading and falling in numerous rushing runnels between the rocks, before falling into the pool below and continuing its headlong cannonading eventually to join the Snowy River and thence to the sea.  We explored the immediate area and took some photos.  It was impressive but the real thrill was a few clicks further downstream at the Little River Gorge (and it was gorgeous) – another humongous valley with multiple Falls and at least two rivers joining below us.  The Gorge is the deepest in Victoria (or is that Australia?) and is more than 500 metres deep in places – one of which seemed to be immediately below where we stood at the Lookout.  It was a loooong way down and we could see where at least one massive rockslide had occurred across the Gorge – almost from the top to the very bottom.  The signage mentioned the instability of the cliffs and I was just a tad nervous as to whether that included the foundations of the Lookout from which we were overhanging the precipice.

I have often commented that when I saw the Grand Canyon in the US, I was not as impressed as I expected I would be. I think this is because it is sooooo big, that I couldn’t take it in – I found the nearby Little Colorado River gorge much more impressive.  But the Little River Gorge is just the right size to be awe-inspiring without quite losing perspective.  It is massive.  Stupendous, but you can see almost all of it and get a feel for its grandeur – rather than catching many disconnected mini-glimpses of the Grand Canyon. Definitely one of Australia’s iconic features in my book: certainly more impressive than Uluru.  It was the experience of the day in my view, something never to be forgotten.

It was getting late in the day so although we would have liked to take the long way home through McKillop’s Bridge and the rest of the Amboyne Loop, we decided to retrace our steps and enjoy a slightly more leisurely drive home.

Monday

We spent the day around the van, editing photos and writing – yes, I will post some pics soon!

We had a series of emails about our 2022 travel plans and sorted our way through all the details for that and locked it in.  We will be doing two more Expeditions with Aurora: the first starting from Tokyo, flying to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (Kamchatka – where we started our 2016 Odyssey) and following the coast, including Chukotka, and across to Nome.  Then back-to-back, we head west again to circumnavigate Wrangel Island, both covering some of the most spectacular and pristine wildlife regions on earth.  It should be fantastic – but we have a lot of other adventures planned before then!

Heather had a kip in the afternoon to recover from our previous day’s excursion and seemed much the better for the couple of hours’ relaxation.