Bird of the Week: 30th September - nesting

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Holly
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Bird of the Week: 30th September - nesting

A pretty obvious one this week seeing as we are getting into spring. Lets see photos of nests or nesting activity (birds carrying nesting material etc). I watched a pair of ravens getting divebombed for 10 mins straight by Noisy Miners last week, all so they could break a twig off a tree and carry it to their nest. Whilst I took some video, I was too far away.

If you are going out to photograph nesting birds - please be careful. Don't disturb the birds (during the building stage is when birds are most likely to abandon).

Araminta
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The male Silver Gull, fetches some sticks, brings them to his girl who sits on a half finished nest and offers them to her. She takes them (or sometimes doesn'twink), he then rushes off to find or steal more and brings them back.

M-L

Lachlan
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Well, I promise not to disturb the nesting birds, but I can't guarantee anything about this guy-

Araminta
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Lachlan, I love your commentwink How clever is thatcool? I hope others are going to understand the "irony" in itcheeky

M-L

shoop
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Eurasian Coots

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

shoop
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Bee-eaters nests .Brown Honey-Eater in its nest , blending in well , see if you can spot it .

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

Woko
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Those Rainbow Bee Eater nests show how carefully we need to tread, shoop.

shoop
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So true Woko ,you really dont know that they are there until you see one fly in, then fly out. The yellow sand photo( first one .. that was taken straight across the road from where I live)  first time I had ever seen bee-eaters at our local park ( but hey it could because maybe the first time I actually was taking real notice) anyway the second photo was taken all the way over at Gwelup which is a long way from where I live and apparently it is a favourite spot for the bee-aters . The local council now  put up partitions and closed off boundaries where their nest holes are, so to protect them. It is still so hard for me to contemplate birds make nest is variety of ways not always just in trees.

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

shoop
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Noticed today there was alot of activity going on as I kept popping outside to hang the washing. I had a pair of White-cheeked Honeyeaters recently nesting close to my patio in the fenced area away from the dogs . But unfortunally the babies didn't out smart my little Jack Russell Lily ( we won't go there or I will not talk to her for another week and a half ) Anyway ... sad to say the babies are no more and now I have a pair of Honeyeaters ( if not the same ones , who knows? ) who have built another nest slightly closer than the last. All day long I saw them endlessly gathering material for thier nest high up on the wall covered by Ivy. Excited that there are going to be more babies smiley  so, most certainly need go buy a rather large bell to string around one's neck ( Lily) tomorrow . Even tried grooming my old girl Miss Kitty ( our blue heeler cross) and put her fur ball in the tree... Well it was like Xmas when the Honeyeater saw it ... mouth full already and wanting to fit a massive fur ball in as well .

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

Lachlan
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A dog called Miss Kitty?

shoop
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Hahaha yes Lachlan. About 9 years ago our daughter wanted a dog for her birthday so we went to our local pound and got this scared little Blue Heeler X that what was about 8 months old hiding in the end pen behind the door . My daughter had already decided on a name for her dog but her two siblings were not convinced that she looked like a ''Katarina'' . So we all compromised on the name ''KittyKat'' , but most of the time we are formal around here with our pet names and like to put a Miss in front of them ( hehehe) . Ironically the name was a good fit cause I swear she acts likes she is a cat with the weird things she does most of the time. We built a fence in our garden to divide an area for us and the dogs for when we have people over and entertain , the minute we finish the fence and closed the gate , sat back to admire our hard work we had done all day, we saw her do this. What dog sits and walks along a kopper log fence ?  

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

Woko
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Good on your local council for protecting the rainbow bee eater nesting area, shoop. Pass my congratulations to them for a job well done!

davethewonder
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Ok - so I may have a lot of photos of nests and nesting-related activities, and I haven't posted for a little while, so forgive me if I go overboard a little

Below are some nests in the classic sense of the word. 

Eastern Spinebill raiding a Brown Gergygone nest
Pied Currawong at nest

 

Dave, Sydney. 

davethewonder
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So the above theme was "the classic nest." The next theme is "nesting material gathering". 

Spotted pardalotes gathering bark

Red Browed Finches like twigs

Yellow-throated gerygone likes paperbark

Spotted pardalotes it seem also like paperbark wink

Variegated Fairy-Wrens love to give yellow flowers as "nesting" presents to the females. Very thoughtful
 

 

Dave, Sydney. 

davethewonder
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Ok so next mini theme is the "hollow nest" site
 

Spotted pardalotes will have a look at the hollow - although I usually see them nest in riverbank sides etc

Striated pardalotes it seems also inspect hollows

Tree martins, surprise surprise like tree hollows too

Little Corrella

Eastern Rosella (could have posted this last week too)

Red-rumped parrots

Long-billed corella



 

 

Dave, Sydney. 

davethewonder
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Ok - so more again. 

This next theme is simple - Galapagos Islands from 2 years ago. Lots of nesting birds there. I have only picked a few this time

Red-footed Booby

Red-tailed tropic bird

Frigate bird (greater I believe - juvenile)

Lava gulls nesting

 

   

Dave, Sydney. 

davethewonder
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Ok last one - will go out with a bang. 

Below are pictures from a journey to Antarctica a couple of years ago. Faulkland Islands and South Georgia were also on the way.

Black-browed albatross and rockhopper penguins nesting on Faulkland Islands

Black-browed albatross on Faulkland Islands (my favourite)

Heron species on Faulkland Islands nesting 

King Penguin collony on South Georgia 

Gentoo Penguins on South Georgia

Gentoo Penguin in Antarctica - when it comes to nest building and rituals associated with it, rocks are very important comodities 

Gento Penguin with egg

Chinstrap Penguin

Adelie Penguin - again with stones

 

     

Dave, Sydney. 

shoop
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Wow I am speechless with these photos ... Amazing davethewonder Thankyou for sharing.

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

davethewonder
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Thanks Shoop

I have a few photos in my archive, but I don't get time to post often, so I hope I didn't go too overboard this week. 

Loved your photos too - especially the one of Miss Kitty hehe
 

 

Dave, Sydney. 

shoop
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Striated Pardalotes.

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

shoop
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Williewagtails

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

shoop
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Galah Black Swan Welcome SwallowDusky Moorhen

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

shoop
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Where is everyone's photos?  I feel a tad shelfish here guysblushAustralian White Ibis

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

shoop
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Australasian DaterTwo in the same tree

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

shoop
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Nests in general

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

Elsie
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Here are mine Shoop! I've been really enjoying all of yourssmiley

Elsie
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Here are some Pardalote pics

Araminta
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Elsie, those W- Swallows are gorgeousheart, are they this year's? Mine are still flying in and out observing last year's nest. No idea if they will stay? We now park the car outside in the rain until they settle in.

Did you put the stick as a pearch infront of the Pardalote's nest? Or did they do it?

M-L

Elsie
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The first photo and the last photo are this years babies, they fleged last month.

The parents are looking at the nest again, and I think that they want to have a second batch!smiley They didn't have to build the nest this year, because they used their one from last year. So instead of having to use August and September to build their nest, as they did last year; they have time for to lots of babyscheeky

The Pardalote nest in in a small cave of this clay. They tried about three different holes before choosing this one. The stick is a root growing out from the roofsmiley

Araminta
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Thanks Elsie. This afternoon I saw my Swallows sitting on the nest. We are all walking around the back of the house now, we do not want to disturb them and abandon the nest. Wish them (and me) luck.

M-L

Annie W
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Aww shoop, I am so envious.  I just never seem to "find" nests crying, I look & I look (carefully of course), but....such beautiful shots.  Look at that Australian White Ibis chick, so cute!!!!

davethewonder, you are a wonder mate laugh!  Amazing amazing shots there, I am just gobsmacked!

Might be days before I stop drooling over some of these shots everyone!!

I have only two blush to share.

Little Wattlebird

I was sitting on the river bank behind a tree & reeds, spying on some approaching ducks, when a very very close eye caught my...eye laugh.  I had absolutely no idea this poor lady/gent was nesting so close by, so apologised and got out of there as fast as I dared.  I was surprised that this nest was so far above the water line in a tree, around 2m+.  Perhaps they were being extra cautious due to the recent high rainfall & the resulting higher than normal water levels?  A good lesson to be more cautious myself!

Tasmanian Native Hen

West Coast Tasmania

Elsie
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Wow! Thats a very beautiful eye Ruby!

Here are my last onessmiley

I really enjoyed watching the white throated gerygone biuld it's nest. It was also interesting because, the chick it ended up raising was a fantailed cuckoo! I tryed to get photos of it but it was very flighty.  

Annie W
Annie W's picture

So many lovely shots, I had to go back through again for another look!  M-L in that second shot his eyes almost look like they're pleading with her to like his grass offering, laugh, lovely series.  They do have beautiful eyes Elsie, not too shabby for a "Turbo Chook", haha.  Did your heart just melt taking those swallow shots?  Mine did looking at them - look at those round little cherubic faces in that second shot, just waiting for meals on wings to arrive wink.  Really lovely, all of these.

West Coast Tasmania

davethewonder
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This one was taken this morning! 
 

Earlier last week lachlan posted some Channel-Billed Cuckoos who are notorious for disturbing the nests of others. Well, I caught one in the act this morning - flying off with a Pied Currawong baby, which it gulped down later on. It all happened very quickly so I couldn't get a good shot. But I have a couple below. 
 

Enjoy. Dave. 

 

Dave, Sydney. 

pacman
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From the weekend - Pied Butcherbird nest, the bird flew away and the Striated Pardalote building inspector flew in, Eastern Yellow Robin nest

Peter

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