Cockatiels checking out hollows

Cockatiels arrived mid September, treating us to daily flyovers in small groups of three to four birds. There was much squealing and excitement (from us and our guests) when a pair hung around one morning to check out hollows! Fingers crossed they choose to nest in one of our old gum trees.

Last year was much drier and we only had one brief glimpse of cockatiels on our property, although they were seen across the mallee moreso. This year it’s a bit surprising to see them so regularly, considering the wetter conditions. We thought they would have less reason to visit further afield if food is plentiful in their usual feeding grounds. Maybe they liked their holiday in the mallee last year and decided to come back!

Winner of the Cutest Bird Award!

We'd been hearing this gorgeous Owlet-nightjar calling during the day (January 2020), and being a nocturnal bird, this caught our attention. Despite looking around the most likely tree hollows behind our shed where we thought it was calling from, we couldn't find it. Turns out it was roosting IN the shed, in a pipe, high up in the rafters, maybe taking advantage of the shade and respite from the heat.

They are quite small, this pipe is around the size of a tennis ball. It seems to be used to us coming in and out of the shed now, sometimes disappearing back into the pipe if it wants some privacy. Our guests have absolutely loved seeing it and every single photo is nearly identical to this one, but that in no way diminishes the joy that everyone feels when seeing the winner of the Cutest Bird Award!

Abundance of Blue Bonnets

As the weather warms up our bird baths are becoming more popular. Most afternoons a flock of Blue Bonnets come in to bathe and drink before sunset, and we’re lucky enough to spy on them as we eat our dinner!

Parrots inspecting hollows for nesting

We have old gum trees around the house and where branches have broken off there are now hollows that provide essential nesting habitat for parrots. Over the last few weeks we’ve noticed Blue Bonnet Parrots, Red-rumped Parrots and Galahs checking out hollows of different sizes. All three of these species are regularly seen around our property so fingers crossed some of them decide to nest here.

- Louise.

Eagles munch on fox

Michael has been busy doing pest control and unfortunately that involves shooting foxes and rabbits. But over the last few weeks he was perplexed by a little mystery and has finally solved it, with surprising results!

He’d noticed that the fox carcasses were disappearing and he couldn’t figure out what was taking them (no obvious tracks or clues). So he left the next fox carcass in a sandy area and stuck a motion sensor wildlife camera on it to capture footage of the culprit. It turned out that ravens were the first to dine, followed by two Wedge-tailed Eagles, then finally a young fox drags off the grisly remains. After five days there was nothing left, but the mystery had been solved.

- Louise.

Emus out for a family stroll

Our usual view of Emus is a brownish/grey blur, sprinting through the fields as soon as they see us coming. So it was lovely to capture this footage of an adult male taking his family for a leisurely stroll. The soft whistling peeps of the chicks and their striped patterns are beautiful.

Emus have rather unbalanced parenting roles. After the female lays the eggs she moves on and the male incubates them by sitting on the nest for nearly two months. After hatching, the chicks stay with their Dad for four to six months.

- Louise.

Like Jack Nicholson said in 'A Few Good Men'... "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE CUTE!". Well I may be paraphrasing or misquoting, but who cares when you have this much...

Here’s a group of older Emus, very inquisitive of the wildlife camera!

- Louise.