Birds – Page 3 – A Bellingen Diary

Proper Rain at last …

Published on August 27, 2014September 7, 2014 by FJB2 Comments

It has been been raining steadily for over twelve hours, the frog pond is overflowing, the ground is sodden, there’s a flood watch out for the Bellinger River, it’s a dark and dreary day … and everything is right with the world!

I’m going to take at least partial credit for this rain, as I’ve almost finished rolling out over 200 metres of hose and 100 drippers in preparation for a second un-seasonably dry Spring. Of course, I should have done this a few years ago when first planting, but I was lulled into complacency by regular and bountiful rain.

The birds aren’t too impressed with the rain, especially the Tawny Frogmouths who are still roosting under the leaves of a dying banana sucker. They look even more grumpy than usual if that’s possible?

World’s biggest bower bird …

Published on August 23, 2014September 2, 2014 by FJB3 Comments

The local rubbish tip is not the place you would normally expect to go bird spotting. And of course, we don’t call them rubbish tips any more, they are “Waste Management Centres”. Many have re-cycle or re-use shops attached. Ours used to be called The Eco House but it has been re-named in honour of the fabulous sculpture now standing at the entrance.

The sculpture which stands several metres high was created by local “found” artist Nick Warfield over three months, and is surrounded by blue objects, like a giant bower bird “nest”. Nest being the wrong word, because it’s really just a place for the male Satin Bower Bird to show off and to hopefully impress a female. These are the same birds that featured in my Mango War posting.

The bower bird was commissioned by the local council to celebrate the re-opening of the shop after some months of mysterious closure. (There are rumours of rubbish corruption!) So our re-use shop is now called The Bower House.

Unfortunately, it still contains mostly junk, but if you scrounge around the occasional treasure can sometimes be found.

A white-faced visitor …

Published on July 22, 2014 by FJB3 Comments

After a dry Spring and a dry Summer, now we’re having a cold dry Winter. It’s hard on the wildlife and I suspect that’s why I seem to have many more visiting birds than usual. There’s so much sploshing around in the bird bowl that I’m having to refill it twice a day.

Yesterday I noticed this White-faced Heron strutting around the pond. It had stopped in either for a drink, or to terrorise the few remaining goldfish by staring trance-like into the water. It seemed relatively un-concerned with my presence, and allowed me to get fairly close before retreating with its characteristic slow-motion walk.

After exploring the garden for half an hour or so, it wandered slowly and elegantly off down my driveway – probably heading for my neighbours pond.

You can’t see me …

Published on September 27, 2013September 27, 2013 by FJB1 Comment

Tawny Frogmouths subscribe to the Ostrich Theory …..

When approached, they freeze, stick their heads in the air and shut their eyes. Mostly this form of disguise works because their plumage matches the bark of the tree and their shape is almost indistinguishable from that of a branch. But the pair that has taken up part-time residence in my banana tree hasn’t caught on to the fact that brown stands out quite well against a background of green!

These two de-camped when their roosting spot, a huge old turpentine tree on my neighbour’s property, was cut down. I won’t get into the “which was there first the tree or the house?”, or even the “should you have built your house under a massive tree with branches as thick as a small human?” arguments …

Anyway, their loss is my gain. So I mow, clatter around with my wheelbarrow and even use my leaf blower a mere three metres below them, and apart from a few reproachful looks, there they sit with eyes resolutely shut.

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