Satima's Blogspot: Avian visitors

Saturday 5 March 2016

Avian visitors

Saturday, March 05, 2016 |

Posted by Satima Flavell

My friend Helen Venn recently created a blog post about watching birds play under the garden sprinkler. That’s one of the things I miss about living in an apartment – on the balcony of a fourth-floor flat there is no garden (unless you count a couple of dozen pot plants, mainly geraniums) and no sprinkler. I got very enthusiastic in my comments on Helen’s post, so I thought I’d better expand on the topic on my own blog rather than hogging Helen’s.

When I lived in a house (as opposed to a bed-sit flat) I used to love to watch birds playing in the sprinkler's fountain. Parrots seemed to be the main visitors, and they did a lot of excited squawking as they had their shower!

Where I live now I can watch flocks of birds at this time of year – often pink-breasted galahs, but sometimes the rare black cockatoo species – chattering excitedly as they feed in the trees across the road. The rest of the year is almost birdless, so it must be some kind of favourite seed they come to find when it’s in season. It seems to be part of a daily journey – they fly in from one direction and leave in another. I never see them going home at night: they must have a different route for that.

Wikipedia: Calyptorhynchus banksii

I can see why some people get really hooked on bird-watching! (Glenda Larke, for instance, is a master of twitching and has watched our feathered friends in many parts of the world.) However, poor eyesight prevents me from spending more time on the balcony, looking out for avian visitors. I can see the black cockatoos, but not distinguish the colour under their tail feathers. There are several subspecies, but the ones in question include a species with red highlights and another with white. Both are rare and becoming rarer, but the white-tailed one, known as Carnaby’s cockatoo, is closer to extinction than its red-tailed cousin.

Perth Now: Barnaby's cockatoo

The above picture comes from the Perth Now website. The accompanying article points out that government inaction on the destruction of habitat is largely to blame for the 'cocky's' rapidly decreasing numbers.

It’s probably just as well I have poor eyesight, because I should be working on book three of the trilogy rather than watching birdlife! Book two, The Cloak of Challiver, is scheduled for release within the next few weeks! Watch out for the Big Announcement!

6 comments:

Helen V. said...: It's lovely to see the birds, isn't it - and I'm glad you enjoyed my blog post.; Saturday, March 05, 2016
Satima Flavell said...: I should buy some binoculars so I can better appreciate them!; Saturday, March 05, 2016
Jo said...: I know what you mean about living in an apartment Satima. The trees are not really close enough to us to distinguish too many of the avian visitors either. In North Carolina we had lots of nesting boxes and a large feeder in our back yard as well as a couple of humming bird feeders and we would spend hours watching them. No sprinkler, but we had a bird bath with constant dripping water which the birds loved. Miss it but what can you do? Missed Helen's post too.; Monday, March 07, 2016
Satima Flavell said...: When I lived in New England, Jo, we had a bird feeder that attracted humming birds. I loved to watch them buzzing in and out to stay aloft as they fed. I also loved the squirrels and chipmunks, which the locals thought was very odd - they mainly saw them as a nuisance - but we have no animals like those here in Oz, at least not unless you live next door to a zoo, in which case you could be plagued by them. It's almost impossible to keep them in, apparently. :-); Monday, March 07, 2016
Jo said...: I haven't seen any chipmunks for years. Not country enough where we live maybe, not that we go right into the park often either. However, the squirrels are all over the place. We get the black ones here as well as the grey. I believe the black are originally grey. I like them, they are much prettier in my opinion.; Monday, March 07, 2016
Satima Flavell said...: I didn't know there were black squirrels. They must be very strking! Sadly, the ordinary grey ones from North America have been introduced to England, and they are bigger and bolder than the native red squirrels so are taking over their habitat, which is very sad.; Monday, March 07, 2016

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