Habitats

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birdie
birdie's picture
Habitats

I thought it might be a good idea to try something new with our photos. We all see a great variety of birds in a variety of different locations. Although what I am suggesting is not strictly photos of birds I think the best photos forum is still the place for it... at least till the new Forum gets underway.
Let's call it bird habitats and include some shots of where we see these beautiful birds. I for one would be really interested to see the locations and the types of birds found there.

I will start this off by ( surprise surprise) putting up some photos of the rainforests around my home and a couple of the birds I see there on a regular basis. If anyone is interested enough to follow on then please feel free. I think we need to inject some energy into this Forum :')
Despite being dark as a black hole at times, this area is home to some delightful and colourful birds.
Buderim forest Waterfall


One of the most common inhabitants...Eastern yellow Robin

Look forward to seeing other locations !!!!

joanneh
joanneh's picture

i love waterfalls and love the shots well done

Araminta
Araminta's picture

I love the energy in your photos, birdie! And I can almost hear the birds, even if I can't see them. I love the idea of locations beeing posted. Thanks birdie.

M-L

Owen1
Owen1's picture

what a cool patch of forest birdie.
the yellow robin pic is great.

Cheers, Owen.

birdie
birdie's picture

Thanks guys...any one care to add somewhere they see their birds?
here is another common visitor, they love to get in the dead palm leaves and hunt for insects
Can't work out which thrush it is...
Little Shrike thrush I think?

Sunshine Coast Queensland

Tassie

Very nice shots and a good idea.

ed
ed's picture

Hi Birdie, LST it is.I'll see if I can find some towncommon habitat shots.

Ed Townsville NQ

ed
ed's picture

But just don't expect anything as pretty as your waterfalls...great shots.

Ed Townsville NQ

birdie
birdie's picture

Hey Ed thanks, and I don't think it matters if they are pretty or not, it is just interesting to see the surroundings. Like I am fascinated with your common and would just kill to get out there and have a look around. Same with some of the areas Tassie has found stuff, it all emphasises how vast and variable our landscape is.
I am always amazed at how many pretty little birds there are around the lower vegetation in the forests where it can be so dark.

Sunshine Coast Queensland

Tassie


On the road between Moranbah and Clermont looking west over Sorghum crops to the Gemini and Twin peaks national parks.
I have seen the Singing honey eater,Barn owl,Tawny frogmouth,Nankeen kestrel,Brown falcon,Black shouldered kite,Bustard,Apostle bird,Wedge tailed eagle,Galah,Corella's and Sulphur crested cockatoo's here. Obviously there are many more species here, these are just the ones I have seen.

birdie
birdie's picture

Thanks Tassie..... where do all the birds live up there....from that shot there doesn't seem to be many trees! I am jealous of all those BOP that you see :) I was wondering about the singing HE and when I looked it up I see our coast is one of the only places in Australia where they don't live !!!
Love the earthy colours ... so different from what I see on a daily basis.

Sunshine Coast Queensland

Tassie

There are heaps of trees out the back there. You quite often see the birds of prey out over the crops with the exception of the Wedgies and Falcons which prefer to sit at the top of dead trees along the road side usually.

soakes
soakes's picture

A photo of my property from the road above:

As you can see, there are a lot of trees - mostly various wattle and gum trees, also lots of tree ferns especially in the valleys. Habitat is diverse and includes areas of bracken, sparse forest, damp rainforest and open areas.

- soakes

soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia

Tassie

Nice mate, obviously down south somewhere.

birdie
birdie's picture

Looks like nice country Soakes, no problems with trees there that is for sure! I guess the variety then makes for a good variety of birdlife?

@ Tassie... interesting you mention dead trees as perches, I get really peeved here in "the beautiful zone" when , especially in suburban areas, as soon as something appears dead and seemingly unsightly (or more probably litigious if in a public area!) along comes the council and chops it down.Hence the birds lose their lookout perches and a few hollows and so they are all driven closer together in the remaining trees and territory becomes more fought over with the aggressive species.

Sunshine Coast Queensland

Tassie

Ahhhh yes,good old councils, not the sharpest tools in the shed. They would be doing that there for OHS reasons,they could look at alternatives to cater for our wildlife.
Some do, some don't.

soakes
soakes's picture

@Tassie: yes, this is in Gippsland.

@Birdie: there is a good variety of birdlife. Here is a list of birds I have seen (or heard) there:

Crow/raven
Grey butcherbird
Grey currawong
Kookaburra
Magpie
Fantailed cuckoo
Australian grebe
Black duck
Dusky moorhen
Heron
Little cormorant
Wood duck
Falcon / hawk
Wedge-tailed eagle
Crescent honeyeater
Eastern spinebill
Lewin's honeyeater
Wattlebird
Boobook
Black cockatoo
Crimson rosella
Gang gang
King parrot
White cockatoo
Pigeon
Brown thornbill
Grey fantail
Pardalote
Red browed finch
Rufous fantail
Silvereye
Superb fairy wren
Swallow
White-browed scrub wren
Yellow robin
Crested shrike tit
Golden whistler
Grey shrike thrush
Olive whistler
Bassian thrush
Blackbird
Whipbird
white throated tree creeper

- soakes

soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia

Araminta
Araminta's picture

Hi soakes, my list of birds looks very similar to yours.But we have a bit more bush behind us. The only birds I haven't seen this year are the scarlet Robins! Nice arena, what kind of riding do you do?

M-L

soakes
soakes's picture

Riding? Motorbike, pushbike and tractor. :-)

What you see there is a freshly mown garden area - soon to be a small orchard.

- soakes

soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia

Birdsong
Birdsong's picture

Beautiful birds and beautiful habitats. What a beautiful country we have. I haven't had time to upload some suburban habitat photos, feathered friends here have to make do with a mixture of trees, bushes, TV aerials and the washing line. It's amazing the visitors the washing line attracts, anything from goshawks to owls, sparrows, parrots, doves and anything else that decides to visit. I wonder whether Hill Hoist ever envisaged how useful their invention would be to wildlife?

birdie
birdie's picture

That is so true Birdsong... I often think as I am walking through suburban streets how interesting it is to see the territorial fights over the various TV aerials and how amazing it is that the birds can adapt to some of our urban landscapes so well. Look forward to seeing your pics .
@ Soakes, that is a fairly good list. I will have to write one.... I am a very disorganised birder I regret to say :)

Sunshine Coast Queensland

birdie
birdie's picture

I have been playing with a new application and thought this may be a good way to add heaps of pics without taking up pages on here. I love wetlands and here is a link to some of the pics I have done, I will add more habitat shots when I can find them and presumably it will update to the link live when I do.
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/wetlandlife

Sunshine Coast Queensland

ed
ed's picture

I've uploaded some Townsville Towncommon habitat pictures to flickr, some need to be viewed larger than possible here (before and after rain shots). Here is a link.(I hope)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22001271@N05/

Ed Townsville NQ

birdie
birdie's picture

Wow Ed, now that is a habitat! Amazing comparison shots between the wet and the dry. It is definitely on my list of "places to visit when you drop the family off somewhere else for the day" next time I get up North. And to think we just drove through Townsville years ago and thought ....boring ='~

Thanks so much for taking the time to add the link to that.

Sunshine Coast Queensland

Owen1
Owen1's picture

gday ed. great wetland there for the birdlife.
looks like its absolutely sniving with them.
love the mountains in the background.

Cheers, Owen.

Tassie


Here is the large water fill point for the water trucks at the mine.....the pic is from my phone so plz excuse the quality.
This dam has a pair of Crested Grebes, Reed warblers, Little pied cormorant, Black ducks,Australasian grebes, Zebra finches, Red backed wrens, Nankeen Kestrels, Brown Falcon, Crows, Darter and 13 Black Swans of which 2 pair have 8 little grey signets between them.
All of these birds are there every single day and so far appear to be local residents, the thing that really surprises me is the fact that all of them are tame.
The Brown falcon was perched no more than 30 mtrs from me the other afternoon and the Swans sit on the edge of the dam with their babies without a care in the world over my presence.

birdie
birdie's picture

That is quite a list to compile while driving past in a road train Tassie !! LOL I gather you have been doing some reconnaissance work ? Hope you get your camera out there some day. Was that at dawn?

Sunshine Coast Queensland

Tassie

Ahhhh no, that list was compiled when I spent two days driving the water truck, it takes 20 minutes to pump in 80 ton of water so I just sit on the main water pipe and spot birds....lol
As for having my camera, I would have already done that if it was allowed, they are not permitted on site on the mine lease.

birdie
birdie's picture

Aha ...so your phone is illegal too then ! Pity as it would have made a nice shot.
It is amazing to think that the birds do so well in the midst of our mining boom really isn't it! I guess it is a big country out there so there is plenty of room for them :')

Sunshine Coast Queensland

Birdsong
Birdsong's picture

Using the built environment - I don't know what my feathered visitors would do without the extras. White Cockatoos resting.

Birdsong
Birdsong's picture

Grey Goshawk resting? hunting?

Birdsong
Birdsong's picture

Goshawk made it in twice here are the White Cockatoos.

abeleski
abeleski's picture

Here is a pic of the creek where I found the azure kingfishers. The water is salt water. The tide is about half way down so water level is a bit low. The place is mosquito heaven and you have to be brave going in there. Especially when you have skin like mine :)

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_18jLGQph2W8/TbNnNPW2QzI/AAAAAAAAEps/q3UVueYdyik/ACE_0768.jpg

I was born to live and I live to die.

abeleski
abeleski's picture

I was born to live and I live to die.

Tassie

Love the Goshawk shot Birdsong...very nice.
Abeleski, that certainly does look like superb mozzie turf alright. When I see habitat like that up here I stay well away from it, we don't only have the mozzies, we have some very large crocs and they love habitat exactly like that.

birdie
birdie's picture

Love the clothesline shot Birdsong . I had one here once and was so surprised to see what I had! Through the trees I had thought it was a White corella or Cocky LOL

Alex, if that was up here I would be fighting off midgees as well as mozzies!!! At least I don't have Tassie's problem though this far down. It is a nice habitat shot Alex and thanks for posting .

Sunshine Coast Queensland

abeleski
abeleski's picture

Tassie: I wouldnt even get close to the water if there were crocs in there. The mozzies were very agressive though. They were like swarms. After last time I went there with Bushmans repellant 40% deet which i had to reapply every hour but the little buggers kept biting me through the clothing so eventually i just sprayed myself all over.

birdie: Your welcome. I was on way home and I remembered your habitat post so I thought I would take a photo.

I was born to live and I live to die.

ed
ed's picture

Speaking of Crocs, croc warning signs have gone up at the Towncommon gates and these tracks have appeared on the salt flats over by Bald Rock.

[img] http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5307/5660067223_ec02b895a5.jpg [/img]
[img] http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5186/5660065813_d0d0736181.jpg [/img]
[img] http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5064/5660065591_fa14194d33.jpg [/img]
[img] http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5065/5660634778_5fd55eb4e5.jpg [/img]

Should I be worried!! ;-)

Ed Townsville NQ

Owen1
Owen1's picture

Take care ed. they definitely look like croc tracks. they are very sneaky animals and can catch you unawares.

Cheers, Owen.

Tassie

Gidday Ed, I am using the posts in the foreground of your pics and going by them that is no baby croc.
No need for concern though mate....we know they are here so we just do things with them in mind.....one thing for sure, if you drop the ball in croc country you most certainly will not get a 2nd chance if a big fella is around.

ed
ed's picture

Hi Tassie and Owen, not a baby, but not a real big fellow, I've seen tracks from a much bigger animal in this area a couple of years back. Here's a picture of a little fellow (about 1200mm,(4 foot for us oldies))taken back in January out the front of Freshwater hide on the Towncommon.

Ed Townsville NQ

abeleski
abeleski's picture

I don't know ed. I guess it could be a well endowed duck but I would put my money on a croc. You guys are brave. I get sidetracked easily and I guess if I see a bird I would be thinking aperture and angles and exposure and sooner or later I would be easy prey for a croc. Thank god we don't get them here or I would be history.

I was born to live and I live to die.

Tassie

Nice one....thx for that Ed, not the thing you want to see when your fishing in your Tinny.
I found it interesting recently when I watched a doco on National Geo about some research people that had been contracted by the NT government to find out why there has been an increase in croc attacks in recent years.
To cut a long story short, they found that since crocs have been protected for 40yrs its the 40 yr old crocs that have reached the 5 mtr/16 ft mark and are ruling the river systems again forcing the smaller crocs out into the lagoons and creeks,the smaller ones have been responsible for taking humans.
Years ago when the big ones were all shot out the smaller ones could stay in the rivers, now they can't.....so they are only going to get more and more common.
This year would have been a bad year for their breeding as the floods would have wiped out most of their nests...floods are the major killer of nests and eggs.

Tassie

Abeleski, we are not brave mate, you get used to them being here just like mozzies and believe me mate when you see them you will never forget that they are there...even when you are out birding :)

birdie
birdie's picture

Well I have only been away for two hours and look what we have in our habitats now!!!! Thanks for posting those shots Ed. You and Tassie can have them thanks. I'll take my chances with the mozzies and midgees down here LOL
So Tassie... re the crocs.... are you saying that another greeny theory has gone bad then up in the NT? That is interesting huh?

Sunshine Coast Queensland

Tassie

Gidday Birdie, I know that they are not a crowd pleaser but the bottom line is that they have been around for some 2 million yrs and are a master at what they do, in addition they are a very important link in the food chain.
My belief is that they should be left alone and we should have to live around them the same as the Great whites etc.
Aboriginal people managed to do it for thousands of years.
One of my mates brothers was taken in 2003 in the Finnes River and he is still very upset by the attack however he wishes crocs no ill will and knows that as unfortunate as it was, his brother was where he should not have been.
If anyone wanted them dead then it would be people like Ben.
I did find that doco very interesting, it is a known fact that if the smaller crocs remain in the rivers the bigger dominant males will kill them ASAP, so they move out....things are finally getting back to normal for the Salties after they were nearly shot out all those years ago.

birdie
birdie's picture

Ok then...I see where you are coming from. You know me I am not a fan of killing anything . I was just interested to see where you were going with it. Years ago I went on a river cruise on the Adelaide river ( I think) in the NT. Rightly or wrongly they would feed the crocs from the top deck over the edge of the boat ... they were absolutely fearsome looking and awesome... the ultimate prehistoric looking predator, I have never forgotten what it felt like to stare down those jaws. I agree with you ....leave them all alone :)

Sunshine Coast Queensland

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