Bushwalk Australia

We will be posting pictures of Elephants & Giraffes in our backyards before long.....

Giraffes would be cool. They'd trim back the higher shrubbery so I get more winter sun.

Time for the required alpine giraffe callout:

http://forums.ski.com.au/xf/threads/the ... affe.5042/

An eagle just flew past my kitchen window

walkabout wrote:An eagle just flew past my kitchen window

Wow
You win!

Moondog55 wrote:Wow You win!

We often see them in the paddocks and trees around us, and I had 2 fly low over my head a few weeks back.

We get plenty of bird life including wedgetail eagles, kites, kookaburras, sulphur crested cockatoos, yellow tail black cockatoos, corellas, gang-gangs, rainbow lorrikeets, eastern and crimson rosellas, galahs and king parrots. We also occasionally get wallabies, echidnas and wombats.

Here are a couple of photos of a male and female gang gang that we had visit us a few months back.

Lovely photos MB - I didn't realise they had red stripes on the breast feathers.

I agree with Walkabout. Great shots!

+ 3

Great photos Micky

Thanks for the compliments Walkabout, Cajun and S.A.Hiker. Very much appreciated . They are beautiful birds but I rarely get to see them as close as I did on that particular day.

Just had the small flock(5) of Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos that normally over fly us decide to check out the trees in my front garden 3 in the Melaleuca 2 in the Hakea and one that landed in the Bottlebrush to pluck a big flower only to drop it before the all flew off,never had them so close

A few photos of our resident a pair of Long billed Corellas from yesterday. In the first two photos the pair were sitting in a shady tree with one grooming the other.

Awwwwwww - a couple of love birds

Great Pics. Cheeky bEggers! They certainly do have long bills!

Had a call from a friend today that had 3 dead ducks in her orchard & two large tiger snakes mating.
After driving to her home for 45 minutes the two snakes were still at it,
visible in the long dry grass beside a low rock wall covered in blackberries & plants.
One snakeman & two snakes lively at that, as it was 26 degrees.
Outcome, one got away and the other one I caught and is here at home.
It is rare to see them mating and usually they stick together when you come across them as the male doesn't want to let the female go. He had enough trouble courting her in the first place.
There isn't a way of telling if the ducks died from envenomation without a blood test, but it is possible.
Ps, with high temperatures, two snakes, it gets your adrenaline pumping.
Regards OLM

Well done, Overlandman!
Question - (not too delicate I hope) - How do you tell if they are male and female, or if it's two males wrestling for dominance?

It's Eastern Rosella season! One of my favourite birds. Although I wish they'd stop peering in the bedroom window while I'm getting dressed . . .

A couple of wedge tailed eagles circled low over the place today. The cats freaked out and went into hiding!

walkabout wrote:Well done, Overlandman!
Question - (not too delicate I hope) - How do you tell if they are male and female, or if it's two males wrestling for dominance?

Hi walkabout.
When tiger snakes mate they get jerky, also sometimes one or more of the males hemipenes are visible (they have two).
Their heads move in jerky movements & their body's twitch down the back end.
It is hard to tell a male from a female, just by looking.
Most herpetoligist probe the snake with an instrument to tell the sex.

When there are two or more males wrestling, you can see the strength in their muscles as they twist together.
You can google it. There are videos of snakes mating, but make sure you read the comments as most videos are males wrestling

Regards OLM

Overlandman wrote:When tiger snakes mate they get jerky...
Their heads move in jerky movements & their body's twitch down the back end.

Sounds a lot like some people I know.

We have had this fella visiting us today. Last visit was at least 5 years ago.

Found this little native fellow in the backyard. I have never seen one before and to be honest, I had no idea they even existed.
A female (she has four bands) Blue Banded bee - Amegilla cingulata and a very purdy lady she is.
http://bluebandedbees.com/index.htm

Happily perched on a wire on the Hills Hoist

I had breakfast with a friend today


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neilmny wrote:Found this little native fellow in the backyard. I have never seen one before and to be honest, I had no idea they even existed.A female (she has four bands) Blue Banded bee - Amegilla cingulata and a very purdy lady she is. http://bluebandedbees.com/index.htm

Thanks for the link neilmny. I used to watch these cute little bees buzz my roses when I lived in WA. I'll have to read the link and find out if there are any in Tas.

Giddy_up wrote:

I had breakfast with a friend today


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Lucky you the closest they come to my yard now is the Hydro pole across the road, your free tucker must be tastier than mine

We have lots of birds visiting our place including wedge tail eagles , in one two or three (apparently a couple and young one nesting not too far away) black cockatoos , rosellas, wrens and finches, tree crawlers,grey currawongs, honeyeaters and kookabarras and others that I don't recognise.
A flock of 7 rosellas is here most days typically coming for a drink from our bathtubs (in the garden....)
Occasionally white cockatoos land too but mostly cross overhead , several flocks every day.
We have a semi resident wallaby (Wally) and a mother and daughter roo , every few days a male joins them and a few times 7 or 8 in total including one very large male.
This is Elsie and her joey having breakfast by our veranda :


and yesterday very close to the spot above :



Mickey,
I love the Gang Gang , beautiful photos !!!
I have a gum tree that does a very good Gang Gang impersonation.
For the first few days here I kept looking out for the birds but eventually I realised that it was just that stupid tree.

The local potoroos have started invading my yard and digging a little too close to the roots of some plants for comfort. Been an echidna recently too. Wish it would hang around and permanently de-ant the place.
The usual birds are still regular visitors - Eastern Rosellas, Kookaburras, Magpies, Butcherbirds, Miners - and many are getting sufficiently accustomed to me to hang around while I'm outside. Hoping to get some different honeyeaters when some of the grevilleas and other flowering natives have grown a bit.
No Corellas this summer. They were all over the place last year. Maybe just too dry for them this time around.