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| The way it should be! |
Local knowledge would have me believe that at this time of year I could enjoy long, dry, balmy days and cooler evenings, and for a good part of the month that was true, but on the 6-days that it rained...it wellied down! This would normally be a good time to be pruning, tree felling and cutting back the long grasses, but the 6-days of rain made things so wet that put a dampener (no pun intended) on all these activities. So, instead I built another garden bed and watched the birds.
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| First garden bed now established |
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| New bed for veggies, protected by chicken wire and bird netting. |
One of the high points of the month for me was finding an Echidna. They're probably fairly common in these parts, but this is the first I had seen. Unfortunately, it would turn over and let me have a look at its head and face and I wasn't going to do a Steve Irwin and poke it, so I only have a shot of its back.
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| Echidna |
Moving swiftly on to the birds...
Regulars (Seen at least x5 per week)
Australian Magpie
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| Magpie's singing on the back deck |
Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing
Bush Turkey
Eastern Spinebill
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| Eastern Spinebill & Brown Honeyeater feeding on Pineapple Sage |
Galah
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| Galah |
Mallard Duck
Pacific Black Duck
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| Pacific Black Duck & ducklings |
Peaceful Dove
Pied Currawong
Rainbow Lorikeet
Torresian Crow
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Common (Seen at least x2 per week)
Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
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| Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike |
Eastern Whipbird
Grey Fantail
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| Grey Fantail |
Pied Butcherbird
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| Pied Butcherbird |
Rainbow Bee Eater
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| Rainbow Bee Eater |
Spangled Drongo
Striated Pardalote
Welcome Swallow
Wood Duck
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Uncommon (Seen 2-5 times per month)
Brown Cuckoo Dove
Brown Honeyeater
Laughing Kookaburra
Little Corella
Little Pied Cormorant
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| Little Pied Cormorant |
Olive-backed Oriole
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Pacific Baza
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| Pacific Baza |
Pale-headed Rosella
Rufous Whistler
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| Female Rufous Whistler singing her heart out |
Spotted Turtle Dove
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| Spotted Turtle Dove |
Varied Sitella
Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-bellied Sea Eagle
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| White-bellied Sea Eagle |
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
Rare (Seen only once in the month)
Blue-cheeked Honeyeater
Brown Falcon
Brown Thornbill
Forest Kingfisher
Grey Shrike-Thrush
Golden Whistler
King Parrot
Lewins Honeyeater
Little Eagle
Little Friarbird
Little Black Cormorant
Scarlet-backed Fairy Wren
Variated Fairy Wren
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike
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| White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike |
White-bellied Tree Creeper
White-thoated Honeyeater
Which is 56 species, one more than May last year (see post June 2012), but what I do find odd is that some of the birds that were common this time last year have become less so this year. The Double-barred Finch disappeared altogether and I was worried they had been eaten by something, until they re-appeared in June. The appearance of the Pacific Baza increased my concerns at the time, as although their normal food is stick insects and bugs they will eat small birds, and we did have 4 Baza's playing in the trees. In fact the Baza'z (pronounced Bar Za) where in the mating mood - see below.
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| Incoming Baza |
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| Baza's in love... |
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| Happy little Baza |
And that's all for the Merry Month of May.
