[Cascade]

The local flock of Green Rosella's are one of the main reasons that I cage my rasberries.

They only get the ones that escape.

But it keeps them off the apple trees. (Most of the time).

[Mystic]

Poor birds, being starved by the nasty human who wants to keep all the raspberries to himself . Great capture Cascade

[Shane V]

They are cheeky little blighters. Very cool shot Cascade.

[Cascade]

A couple for Shane, just happened to catch the afternoon bathtime. Both a little bit fuzzed, as they were taken through a window at 45deg.

[Mystic]

They look quite soggy. Well spotted.

[Shane V]

Nice shots Cascade.

[dave]

cute little blokes and well shot!

[exislegirl]

Thanks for sharing these cuties.

[Cascade]

Thanks for the nice comments folks, although not the best of pictures, because they looked so ragged from their normal pristine presentation I just couldn't resist.

The photo I was really after was an Eastern Spinebill that was bathing just before the wrens arrived, the Spinebills tends to be superfast and had shot through before I had the lens cap off and was pointing in the right direction. The wrens saved the day. I would have missed them as well if it wasn't for the hurried shots from behind the kitchen window.

For anyone interested, the bird bath is a large satellite dish mounted horizontaly and it makes an excellent olympic size bird bath, I often have more than one type of bird using it at the same time.

[Shane V]

Go the Chippie chippies ...knew they would come in handy for something. Spponbills are beautiful aren't they. We get so many amazing birds down here. Great idea for a bird bath.

[dave]

yeah look you are indeed blessed, we sometimes get the little fellers in under our back veranda and in to our fernery (which is quite an achievement given the distance they must venture in under the roof line) on very hot days to either bathe in the fountain or the dogs water, the dogs dont mind and I just sit and watch totally enthralled, we've had up to six, one male and five females all at once, sometimes they stay in the yard for a while and then they move on,

as I say some folks have eyes but just dont see!

we had a pair of Willy wagtails that were hell bent on nesting in our yard but alas they have ventured to pastures greener, love the scruffy shots mate!, do you still get a signal or is the dish retired!

[Mystic]

Cascade, on 25 May 2010 - 07:27 AM, said:

For anyone interested, the bird bath is a large satellite dish mounted horizontaly and it makes an excellent olympic size bird bath, I often have more than one type of bird using it at the same time.

You got me thinking with this suggestion Cascade, as I have a large satellite dish in the yard and no intention of hooking up to pay TV. Bit the bullet today and converted it into a bird bath May even attach a couple of feeders to it as well and see how attractive the new swimming pool and food bar is to the locals.

[Cascade]

Well done, one thing though, most of the birds that visit do like trees close by so they are less exposed while they preen & dry. The wrens are happy to hop on to the fence close by and just show off as are the robins.

And a word of warning from experience.

I wouldn't put feeders out at all if you have a lot of sparrows in the area, one blabs about the source, next thing you know youv'e got fifty fighting over the goodies. They are absolute scavengers and will eat anything and end up taking over the garden. They will come early, hang around all day and just sit and wait for food. They also attack native birds on their nests and will kill the young.

I do have a bird table and I feed the ravens meat scraps and throw the odd road kill over my fence when they have young fledglings. Once they know there's easy food about, the parent will come in regular as clockwork, stoke up and take it back to the nest. I'll dig out a photo.
What the Ravens don't clean up during the day the Devils & Quolls do at night

I have lots of native flora which atracts all the honeyeaters and wattle birds and smaller birds, the wrens happily forage in the garden mulch and in the grassed areas. The raptors feed along the road verges and gullies. You might need a couple of my raspberry plants as they grow up to 4 metres high and attract fruit eaters when they fruit.

[Mystic]

Thanks for the tips Cascade. The dish is between the house and a hedge row, which tends to attract a lot of spoonbills and fairy wrens. My backyard is bush, but it is about 50 yards away from the dish, though there are no visible houses on the side the dish is on either. Nearest house is about 150 yards away, but hidden in a gully below me.

Was actually trying to think if I had seen any sparrows around here after reading what you said, and am not sure I have. I mainly get spoonbills, green rosellas, fairy wrens, black cockatoos, and those things I posted a pic of earlier (not sure if they are a Bassian Thrush or not). There are a few other birds that come around, some with absolutely beautiful songs (one almost sounds like a canary), but I just enjoy their songs and have no idea what they are.

I have a number of blackberry bushes around the place, and they definitely attract the fruit eaters quite nicely. Though I have had to chase off a couple of locals who wanted to pick them all. They thought I was crazy wanting berries left on the bushes to attract the birds .

Would love to see shots of your ravens. Have spotted an eagle flying around the bush in front of me, but never close enough to get decent shots of unfortunately.

[Cascade]

Sounds like you have the birds already laid on, just waitng for a bath.

A bit more advice if you can give the dish a coat of paint in the dish. It will help it survive a bit longer. The build up of bird droppings in the water even when cleaned out regularly are almost caustic and will eat through the dish in twelve months or so. I always have my eye out for spare ones at the tip.

I assume the spoonbills you have visiting are Royal Spoonbills and have a black bill and legs, which means you must have a water source close by.

The one that sounds like a Canary could be a European Goldfinch although there are also European Greenfinches in Tasmania and these have a Canary like song as well.



Here's the Raven ready for take off back to the nest.

[Mystic]

Nice shots Cascade, and thanks for the tip on the paint, I had thought the powder coating on the dish might stop it corroding.

The spoonbills I get are, I believe, Eastern Spoonbills. There is a pic of one taken in my front yard here

I know Shane has mentioned seeing gold finches around here, and both of those above look familiar to me. Like I said, I am no ornithologist, just love listening to the sounds that fill the house.

[Cascade]

Mystic, on 28 May 2010 - 12:47 AM, said:

Like I said, I am no ornithologist, just love listening to the sounds that fill the house.

I believe you.

The bird you are calling an Eastern SPOONBILL is the Eastern SPINEBILL. And yes they are super-fast spending little time in one spot. I have often considered putting out a nectar feeder for those little guys but I'm afraid it would tend to attract more wasps than anything else.

I was about to pack up and head for Queenstown yesterday if it was indeed a "Royal Spoonbill". These are rare visitors to Tassie and would have been a major capture. Having said that, they have been sighted and photographed either side of Midway Point between Sorrel & Cambridge down south.

This is the E Spinebill I mentioned that I was trying to photograph in the bird bath a few days ago. It perched in the tree for all of 5 seconds, a bit of a rough photo but it shows he was here.



If you can get a couple of layers of paint on to the dish all the better. Oh, nearly forgot, first of all I sprayed my dish with a can of FishOil ( a rust blocker )from Chickenfeed which will take a couple of days to dry and skin over properly before painting.

Looking forward to seeing some nice bird photo's from you.

[dave]

as i have already said "some folks have eyes but just dont see"

well done you pair, somebody's got to look after our littleys! hard enough for the natives to compete with the influx of foreigners, good shots as well

[exislegirl]

Cascade, on 25 May 2010 - 07:27 AM, said:

For anyone interested, the bird bath is a large satellite dish mounted horizontaly and it makes an excellent olympic size bird bath, I often have more than one type of bird using it at the same time.

Won't hog your thread with my photos, but I had geese for a few years and used a satellite dish as their pond for about a year or so - until they got too big for it - and then I dug them a huge pond.

Thanks for all the bird photos - enjoyed them all.

Natalie

[Cascade]

Thanks for the comments Dave and exislegirl.

Between us I reckon weve got it covered Dave, we'll look after the birds and you continue looking after the bee's and the butterflies plus the other creepy crawlies around your place and I reckon Mother Nature might just manage the rest.

Of course that is until some other mongrel spills oil everywhere or creates another similar natural bloody disaster.

I don't think it's possible for anyone to visualise what the final consequence of BP's oil well stuff up in the US is going to be. Because I know I can't.
For many years I've maintained that mans greed for that so called "Almighty Dollar" will take us all to the grave one of these days. I believe we need to learn from whats happening in this latest disaster and oil companies should decide that all underwater oil wells be capped off with 50 tonnes of cement and never be touched again. If it doubles the price of oil, then so be it.