We put in a bird table in February. Until a few weeks ago, it hadn’t seen much action.
We’ve had visits from Magpies, Butcher Birds, Peewees, Willy Wagtails, Black Chinned Honeyeaters, Sunbirds and Crested Pigeons. We’ve had Plumed Whistling Ducks, Masked Plovers and two kinds of Ibis hanging around the foot of it hopefully, which generally results in me turning out with the relevant rations. The ducks even go so far as to whistle loudly outside the back door to summon me, cheeky devils. Some nights we’ve heard in the distance the screams of the increasingly rare Stone Curlews, which sound a little like a woman being murdered…
Yesterday, though, the Husband put out a handful of stale Nut & Seed Mix left over from his lunch. Then the Rainbow Lorikeets discovered it.
Sorry it’s a bit out of focus – I grabbed my camera and was afraid of losing the shot so I didn’t get a chance to focus properly.
You can barely see the bird table under the weight of Lorikeets. More and more arrived, pushing the original visitors off. I lost count after about 15…
It’s wonderful, isn’t it? There’s a downside, though.
The noise is indescribable.
I hope you realise how lucky you are to live in a country with such gorgeous (albeit noisey) birds. We visited QLD twice and I was under the charm . . . where we get flocks of starlings you have flocks of lorikeets.
And parrots and galahs and budgerigars and cockatoos and lyrebirds and …. I do realise, I truly do. I keep my bird book and binoculars handy. I have to say, though, that for the most part they balance their beauty with the sheer racket they make!
Wonderful. I never tire of rainbow lorries. They are so cheeky… and noisy. Now they know you have amenities and goodies, they will make themselves quite at home, along with the rest of your feathered neighbours. I think its amazing that they are happy to live so comfortably among us.
I’ve had them before, just never in such numbers – and at such volume! It was hysterical watching them jockeying for space on the table, they’d fall off and swoop away and instantly another would take the space. Just one writhing mass of rainbow colour. I think I’m going to need a telephoto lens, though…
Oh, yes they are beautiful. I would like to repost this tomorrow if you don’t mind.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Of course! Yours to use as you please.
It’s up!
We feed the magpies & butcherbirds here in Brisbane. They’re a noisy lot as well. They are also very messy, but we love seeing them. A couple of crows & kookaburras have also dropped by at odd times. The lorries visit when the native trees are flowering, which is most of the time.
Magpies and Butcher Birds have such personality, don’t they, especially the young ones. Kookaburras are a bit less common up here. Magpie geese and Shelducks pass overhead but so far haven’t landed to see what’s going. We get a lot of birds of prey too, so when the chooks are finally installed, I’ll have to keep an eye out. Mostly it’s kites, Brahminy and Black. I’m just waiting to see who rocks up to help themselves once the mandarins start ripening!
The downside of observing birds is of seeing the cherries disappear like magic!
But the joy of such visitations makes up for losing the fruit…..
If I were able to grow cherries here, I would undoubtedly be devastated, since they’re a favourite of mine! I’m nervously awaiting the ripening of the mandarins… wonder if we’ll get a look-in.
I’ve planted a cherry tree in every garden I’ve ever had (umpteen) and never eaten a cherry yet from them.
My condolences…. Did you at least get to enjoy the blossom?
Oh yes. We even tried netting the last one, but the devious avians still managed to penetrate and clear every fruit.
Dratted things. Rather like the grasshoppers here, which made it through the mozzie netting cages I made at the last house.
I love a busy feeding station. 🙂 So fun to see all the different birds you have.
We are very fortunate in being placed between the sea and farming country, and to have a large backyard where the birds feel safe and not too hemmed in. I think if I sat outside for a couple of hours I’d be able to spot at least 25-30 species without even trying!
Our birds are a bit more boring, but the goldfinches have been making real pigs of themselves on our feeders, and we do get a lot of woodpeckers. Even more exciting, a friend and I saw a pair of Bald Eagles in a park near us when we were walking last week.
Wow! They’re impressive birds. I do miss the northern hemisphere finches. My favourites were always bullfinches, such gorgeous colours.
They are indeed, but less impressive than I thought, I guess, because it was on the news that a Canada Goose chased them away from their usual nesting area. :-@
You know what, I’m twice the size of an eagle, and I wouldn’t mess with a goose either. They can be incredible aggressive. I like birds of prey because they’re like racing cars; highly specialised, fast, sleek and designed to do only one thing!
We have geese all over the place here, and they’re a real nuisance, but apparently they’re on some protected list, so they just go everywhere, making a mess of people’s yards and frightening kids. Just nasty. I don’t like them much as you can probably tell.
The birds look so colorful there. Nice! Your yard looks very beautiful!
Just a little snippet of yard. One day it’ll look the way I want it to…
A nice bit of fertlizing material for your grass too I imagine. How lovely they look. Not as exotic but, I think, just as beautiful and certainly less noisy, are our blue tits, nuthatches, robins and various finches. However, my favourites are blackbirds – although they don’t come up to the balcony for the feeding table – I love the way they run across the ground like little cartoon characters. Perhaps you should put a telephoto lens on your Christmas list – I think you would have plenty of opportunities to use one in your location.
I was thinking the same sort of thing about the lens. I’m always spotting some bird or plant I can’t get close enough to! You’re absolutely right about the noise from European birds being whole orders of magnitude quieter. There are trees in the main street of Mackay which are occupied by vast flocks of lorikeets at night. It’s impossible to hear a word someone’s saying when you pass underneath, not to mention the hazard to hair and clothing!
and maybe a fixed tripod focussed on the bird-table….
Also an excellent suggestion.
Because I can never get my photographs level! A tripod is on my list, too.
There was a fabulous tv programme on BBC4 last night. No human voices, no “background” music, just bird-song. European birds may not be as colourful as yours, but they make up for that in the variety and beauty of their song.
There are some very melodious little chaps here too, but none of them belong to the parrot/cockatoo/lorikeet family. My personal favourite is the plaintive minor-key song of the pied butcher bird (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGzasKOtjXIa), closely followed by the joyful giggles of currawongs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l25A-sFT-4w)
Ooh, thank you for those links. The birds seem to be having conversations with themselves. I love the name Currawongs – so very Australian.
My personal favourite is the Spangled Drongo… Closely followed by the Splendid Fairy Wren, which is bright royal blue and about two inches tall.
Wonderful…. I really enjoy all your exotic plants and birds… Ignore the noise, look at the colour – pure inspiration.
I do, I do! One day, though, I must try and record a little video and post that, so you can see what I mean…
I’m quite envious of your birds. I love watching ours come to our feeders. We usually have blackbirds nesting in the trees, and we have a pair of robins that seem to live here too. I’ve also identified Great tits and we’ve had a couple of spottings of something that may another type of tit. We get the odd magpie, starling, sparrow, thrush and some honking great pigeons. Nothing like the range that you get, but it’s lovely to watch them come and feed.
Isn’t it? They’re so endearing, so lively, and in the case of the lorikeets, so brilliantly colourful. We’re very lucky that this part of Australia isn’t really that developed yet, so the wildlife hasn’t been totally edged out.
[…] Kate sent me a different kind of rainbow 🙂 […]
Here in Sweden we are waiting for the springbirds! Wagtail, Chaffinch, Redbreast Robin and Spotted Flycatcher! Had to look the English names up, so they could be wrong 🙂 Of course there are more birds, but these are the ones I remember right now!
Gun
You got them all right! I’m discovering how many of my quilting and gardening friends also love birds – it’s great!
what a gorgeous vision! i’m sure the noise is worth it.
Especially with the patio door closed…
what I would give for a birdtable full of colourful birds ! love that 2nd picture !!!!
It hasn’t been that crowded up to now, but it was amazing to watch; they were all there for about 20 minutes.
I love to watch birds from my loggia too – titmice, bullfinches, magpies, pigeons, blackbirds. New last year were jays, this year we have woodpeckers and a pair of very noisy, big gulls in the neighborhood. For a couple of years now oystercatchers have been breeding on the roof of the seniors’ home across the street – they love to complain loudly if anything disturbs them. 🙂 And the occasional red squirrel, not exactly a bird but nice to watch anyway.
You have a great selection visiting you. Lucky also to still have red squirrels, which are becoming quite rare. Now that the birds know there’s food here, we can expect plenty of repeat visits.
I love this! We don’t have birds like these in texas. I have seen a few hummingbirds by our patio though. 🙂
It’s worth putting out a feeding station with an assortment of foods, and just wait and see what turns up. Great fun to watch!
Certainly more colourful than a sparrow! Although we have had a few slightly more colourful finches around recently. And pigeons. Big, fat pigeons . . . it’s entertaining to see them swinging off the feeder!
I’d enjoy watching them even if they were sparrow brown, they’re such clowns. We have crested pigeons here, small dove-sized jobs with a bizarre spike on top of their heads who run around looking neurotic and will perch directly in front of a moving vehicle. Clearly not Mensa candidates…
Bit like pheasants then in the lack of brains department . . .
Exactly, or like girls who rely on their looks to get them through life…
We’re thrilled that our feeders attract colorful birds like rose-breasted Grosbeaks, bluebirds, and red-bellied woodpeckers but wow, your feeder crowd win in the avian fashion world.
The lorikeets are definitely Versace-wearers rather than Armani, aren’t they?
[…] seen lorikeet frenzy already, but the ducks have become regular and endearing […]