Australian Magpie

I’m still stuck inside but I do have quite a good view outside my office window and am able to watch the birdlife when it shows up. Not that it always stays still long enough for me to capture it and I have a limited width of viewing for following them with my camera.  However, this magpie obliged me by foraging in the garden in front of the window. He was aware of me but once sure I wasn’t coming any closer, he continued with his business. Below he is checking me through the window to see if I am going to move any closer, then he continues his business of looking for food and walking around the garden.

Will she come any closer?

Daily work

Magpie walking across the garden

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

I can always be sure that at least one of these birds is going to pose for me whenever I visit Grant’s Picnic Grounds, a popular place for tourists to hand feed birds.

Sulphur-crested White Cockatoo

This one appears to have a cracked beak.

Sulphur-crested White Cockatoo

Fat kookaburra

I was looking out my back porch the other morning and thought I saw a very fat kookaburra.

I titled this shot ‘I know it’s down there somewhere’.  The Kookaburras have amazing ‘binocular’ vision and can see things from a distance.  I can’t even see a worm moving along in the grass from a couple of feet but they do from greater distances.

I know it's there somewhere

I was pondering how fat this kookaburra looked when it shifted and revealed a second one beside it.

186-365 Two Australian blue-winged Kookaburras

Unexpected Visitor

We had an unexpected visitor this week. An Echidna. Well, we had been told it lived on our property but after 12 months of watching for it and never seeing it, I’d given it up as a myth. So imagine my surprise when I went outside to find out what all the leaf rustling was about and what had my cat’s interest piqued.

Echidna - our unexpected visitor

Echidna - our unexpected visitor

It had been under our house to hide from our cats so got covered in cobwebs and then finally came out, sniffed around for a bit and then went on its way.  I’ve got a video clip too if you’d like to see it.

Young Kookaburra

I paid a visit last Friday to one of my favourite places, Grant’s Picnic Ground, which is only around 10 mins drive from my home and halfway between my daughter’s and my homes.  So I will often drop in there after I’ve been visiting Melanie.

That day there were quite a few kookaburras hanging around the kiosk, although it had closed up and there were no patrons. However, it allowed me to get up close and personal with my camera.

This is a young kookburra with an older one behind it.

Two kookaburras

Daily Walk

One day I went for a walk at Lysterfield Lake Park which is not far from where we live.  I ventured down to the beach by the lake and as I walked near the bushes I heard a rustling and 3 kangaroos hopped out and bounded down along the beach.  Here are some shots from that day.