Saturday 29 March 2014

The Birds of the Gold Coast

It's always nice to get away, whether for work or pleasure. My trip to the Gold Coast last week was for work, and my days were pretty full, but it's usually possible to get out early in the morning (well that's never so nice for me), or in the evening and check out the birds too.

Most of the birds were quite familiar for me, and not that unusual. In fact I only got one new bird.

Birds I saw that I won't show you today, but saw.

Noisy Miner
Crested Pigeon
Rock Dove
Kookaburra
Pacific Black Duck
Australian Wood Duck
White Faced Heron
Dusky Moorhen
Currawong
Raven

I'm sure that I would have seen sparrows and starlings too, but I don't really remember them. I'm almost sure that I saw a white faced scrub wren, but didn't get a proper look at it.

So, what else did I see? And manage to get a somewhat decent photo of? Not surprisingly they're all largish birds.

My only new bird
Long billed Corella (Cacatua tenuirostris)
I've seen plenty of short billed corollas before but don't think I've seen one of these

The rather absurd Australian Scrub Turkey
(Alectura lathami)
They wander incessantly through the bush, so it's hard to get a clear shot

Until they start charging across the path in front of you

They build a rather large, extraordinary mound in which to incubate
 their eggs at a very precise temperature

The Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis moluccus) are everywhere,
but not quite as numerous as in Sydney

I always love seeing Rainbow Lorikeets
(Trichoglossus haematodus)
I know I've shown you them a few times before,
but these two were so cute grooming each other
and I like the building backdrop

One of my most exciting sightings was on the way to the bus stop to leave
Can't get much more last minute than that?
Blue faced Honeyeater
(Entomyzon cyanotis)

Not a new bird for me, but the best pictures I've managed to get of them,
they're often up in trees instead of exposed on this banksia

Saturday Snapshot is a wonderful weekly meme now hosted by WestMetroMommy

12 comments:

Brona said...

You get around just as much as I do Louise!!
I love learning about our local birds from you - if only you could add their sounds, so I can know who it is that wakes me up every morning :-D

The last 3 pics were particularly wonderful. Such clear close-ups & actions shots to boot. Well done!

Satia said...

The blue faced honeyeater is so pretty. I would have been excited too!

Sean @ His And Her Hobbies said...

I do miss hearing the sounds of Australia birds in the morning. American birds are much more subdued. I had never seen a scrub turkey until we were playing disc golf on a course in Brisbane last year and it kept trying to peck the disc once it landed. Hope you have a great week!

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

What unique (and gorgeous) birds! Thanks for sharing...and thanks for visiting my blog.

grammajudyb said...

As always, I love your bird pictures. I enjoy the birds in my neighborhood, but they don't "hold a candle" to the birds in Australia!

Sheila (Bookjourney) said...

Beautiful bird pics!

Anonymous said...

Just lovely! They all look 'exotic' to me. We're still having snow these few days, and, -11C now. Can you believe it? I know spring bird courses have started but wonder what they've seen so far.

Sandra Nachlinger said...

Beautiful birds and beautiful photos of them. I hope you'll keep sharing your birding experiences.
(I'm not participating this week -- just stopping by to look.)

Ginx Craft said...

What lovely photos. I hope you will post your kookaburra photos in due course, as I have a special commission to knit one.

Susan Lindquist said...

Blue honeyeater! Gorgeous bird! And I do love Ibis!

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

Must come do a little bird watching here in my town next time you are in the US.

Anonymous said...

I haven't seen a blue-faced honeyeater before. You know, I haven't seen a sparrow in ages. I'm sure that they're not as common as they used to be.