At first light I could hear the Red Wattlebirds making a racket right outside our window. So I got ready for an early morning bird walk along the Little River reserve. Mim was up too, although at first she wasn't that happy about all the noise the wattlebirds were making, not to mention that I had been up since before dawn. But she got her motor going and for her morning run and we made a plan to meet me at the river in an hour or so.
This place is no more than a little park out in the middle of nowhere, But the birding was fantastic and I had the place all to myself. As soon as I got down by the river I heard the Sulfur-crested Cockatoos making such a loud raspy noise that it made the wattlebirds noisy squawks and whistles sound like a lullaby. It was so incredible to see them in the first rays of the sun. Ten to fifteen of these mythological like birds and the light falling on their white feathers in such a way that made them appear like they were made of fresh fallen snow with a little reddish-yellow blossom on their crown. From the time of my childhood till I began birding, I really had no idea or had not given it much thought that they actually lived in the wild. And there they were, circling directly above me and then perching on a dead snag no more than twenty yards away. I'm telling you, it made me feel so incredibly grateful that I could experience this moment.
And then I thought, oh yeah I have a camera. This is going to be such an amazing photo shoot, it absolutely couldn't be better. So I began to frame the shot and soon the shutter is going off like a Ruffed Grouse in spring. I am grinning and whispering sweet nothings to the Cockatoos. Then it's just like one of them decides that it's time to go and she gives out an ear piercing screech and the rest of them are instantly inspired to do the same. The entire area is filled up with their sound. They dominate the acoustic landscape in a way that no other bird can get their message across so they just shut up and listen till the Cockatoos settle down or move on. What a wonderful morning in a beautiful world.
After the Cockatoos settle in a distant tree across the river. The New Holland Honeyeaters resume chasing one another through the trees. They make this sharp quick rasp at one another and it seems to say "either you get the hell out of my tree or I will chase you down and beat you senseless". They are so fierce and relentless. They occasionally land out in the open looking around with their pale eyes for someone's ass to kick and it is then that I do happen to get a few clicks of my shutter on them.
NEW HOLLAND HONEYEATER
Looking up in to the overcast soft blue gray sky I see a huge flock of Straw-necked Ibis flying in several V-shaped formations. Probably over a hundred birds, no doubt heading out to their favorite feeding grounds. They are locally known as the "Farmer's Friend" as their preferred food is grasshoppers and locusts. They spend their nights at the coast but travel sometimes hundreds of miles to find a field with favorable feeding conditions.
As the morning light grows brighter the cacophony of birdsong fills up the space vacated by the now quiet Cockatoos. The Red Wattlebirds are back at it as are the Superb Fairywrens. Several pairs of Dusky Moorhens are having heated debates as they chase one another back and forth across the river and into the reeds and then out again until one or both decides that it's enough for now and then they immediately return to what they were up to before the mess started up. I forget about them until the next brawl breaks out and then I just smile to myself and think, those moorhens are the silliest birds on earth. Well not really, but in that moment they sure seem like it.
I walk down the riverside and notice a dove like bird flying over but it's just too quick for me to really get an idea of what kind of dove it is. Or maybe it's not a dove at all, maybe a cuckoo, I'd sure like to know. Then my attention turns to a White-plumed Honeyeater that's singing a sweet song from a tree not ten yards away. But then I catch some movement off to the left by a large dead snag at the river's edge. It's a Galah! What a magnificent sight to see. I mean it's amazing to see this bird in the first place, but in this soft overcast ethereal morning light it is literally breathtakingly beautiful. After watching it for a time I raise my camera and click off several potentially great shots of this bird in this moment.
The peace of the moment slowly comes to an end as the Rainbow and Purple-crowned Lorikeets are up to something. In a few minutes they are giving the Cockatoos a run for their money in the noise making contest. But it's music to my ears. The single Galah is joined by two more and they decide to get in on the fun too. I watch them all, admiring the incredible plumage of each species and wondering just want the heck they are communicating to one another, and with such a passion. I mean these guys are all about it. There's nothing else going on in their lives at this moment, it's all about getting some message across. But for the life of me I don't know what it is unless they are arguing about where to go or when to leave or what to eat. I mean what else could it be. They aren't discussing climate change or the latest stupid thing the Orange Moron is tweeting. Whatever it is, they get it settled because sooner than later they all blast into the sky like flower bouquets shot out of a canon and are louder than when they were perched. It's kind of cool to listen to them fade off into the distance and then listen as the change in the acoustic milieu of the area takes shape.
Once again you can hear the Gray Fantail begin to sing his tinny little fiddle tune which has a flourish of ascending drawn-out silvery notes. The Little Raven adds a few croaks to the chorus as he conducts an ariel of the river's edge. A Willy Wagtail on the ground beneath a gum tree gets caught up in the moment and begins to sway left then right and back again and then a hop skip and jump and quick darting flight up on to a low branch where he does about a four step moon walk and then back down on the ground to begin another routine fanning his tail like a matador fans a cape. All the white he's really getting with his spirited song, like he's at the Hollywood Bowl performing for the Queen. What a big personality for such a small dainty creature. I have a video of him doing this dance but I am having technical issues getting it uploaded to my computer. When and if I figure it out I will post it on this blog.
Well it's about this time Mim shows up and tells me about the town and the birds she saw on her run. She is really getting better at identifying and spotting birds. Today I showed her a picture that I took of a Little Wattlebird and asked her if she knew what it was and she said without missing a beat, it's a Little Wattlebird. I was super impressed because we've only seen it one time.
Speaking of being impressed with her birding knowledge, today we had a stretch of highway that was unremarkable so to make the time go a little smoother and to keep me awake we played what Torrey and I call the "Bird Game". The rules are you have to agree on a letter of the alphabet, which today was A as in Australia and America. So I begin with Australian White Ibis and she says American Redstart. First one to run out of birds loses the game. Usually Torrey and I play with only North American birds but today we had special rules. The rules today would be that I had to stick to Australian birds but she could do any birds from any where in the world except Australia. Plus, if she couldn't think of a bird, she could use one that she had already used. I forgot to mention that if you come up with a bird that the first part of the name begins in an A and the second word also begins in an A, for example American Avocet, or if the bird has a one word name that begins in an A, like Anhinga, then the other person has to name two birds on their turn.
So the miles roll away and we are playing this game and she says Audubon's Oriole and I say wow that's a good one. I didn't think that she would remember that bird from Mexico. So then I say Apostlebird, yeah there's actually a bird called Apostlebird. Now she had to do two! So she studies on it for a mile or two and says American Finch, and I say no that's not a bird. And she gets a kick out of rattling me and says American Wood Duck and I say, no, there's no American Wood Duck, it's simply called Wood Duck. Now she had two strikes, one more and she's lost the game. So she hunkers down into her strategy and begins what can best described as phonic juggling. She takes an A and then couples it with another letter and such as T and then begins sputtering sounds like ATU ATO ATRA and then she switches to an entirely different set of letters. When this fails to produce a bird that she hasn't already used, like American Coot or American Crow, she suddenly somehow remembers that there's another oriole with a first name that begins with an A. I know which one she's talking about and normally I wouldn't tell her because I do like to win. But I have no doubt that she'll never remember this one because unlike Audubon's Oriole, this one is not named after a famous person or country or anything that someone not familiar with the birds of Mexico and Southwestern United States, or a cave in Spain would know. So I tell her "yes there is a another oriole with a first name that begins with an A but not in a million years are you going to get it". So this gets her goat and she starts phonic juggling and soon she's on Al and I get a little worried but I think, nah she's not going to come up with it. And then she somehow gets on to Alt and then probably because of her familiarity with Spanish she immediately says Alto and then Alta and I think, "crap on the rug --- she's gonna nail it" and then it comes out all smooth and confident-like and says ALTAMIRA ORIOLE and she wiggles around excited like and I'm like, Oh my God! you got it, how did you remember that one? Then she acts like it's been her favorite oriole from childhood and it just slipped her mind. But I'm proud of her for knowing and remembering that strikingly beautiful bird of the Mexican mountains and I tell her so. But she still lost the game ---- not once but twice.
Well remember all those great photos that I took this morning? I was so excited that after breakfast I uploaded them to my computer. Usually I don't do this during the day when I could be birding or hiking. But I just couldn't wait. So I opened the little door to the chip compartment on my camera only to find that it was empty. I had forgotten to return it to the camera from the night before. But that's okay because the images of that morning are vivid deep in my soul.
I did run down to the river for about thirty minutes and found a few birds to photograph. Those are the ones posted in today's blog.
Well that's all for now. Stay tuned for the Werribee Wetlands and the Great Ocean Road.
So far I have 74 lifers in two days!
Another incredible day, Bosque! Bummer about the missing card in your camera, but the colorfully detailed description of your experience created a strikingly beautiful image. Cuento estupendo! Looking forward to reading about your next adventure!
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