Spring is here, although it is more like summer now with the temperature at 35C or 95F. With Spring comes lots of new baby birds, how sweet they are UNTIL they start squawking to be fed at 4:30am. Then they are not sweet any more in my mind, as I'm trying to sleep.
They have a monotonous TWEET, TWEET, TWEET, TWEET call. It is an annoying sound. like a tap dripping. I go outside and call to them to be quiet until I am "blue in the face" but they ignore me and keep on tweeting. However, they are quite cute in an ugly way and I really love birds so I took the camera out to observe them.
I think this is mother bird. She is on the look out for danger from other birds.
I think this is father bird. He is a Blue Faced Honey Eater. He's probably gone blue in the face telling the chicks to be quiet.
He is finding food for the little ones from the Banksia flower, it is full of nectar.
Both mother and father have just fed the chicks.
Mother is keeping guard over the chicks while father has gone for more food. Throughout this whole process the smallest baby continued with its boring Tweet, Tweet.
A few days later I spied the biggest baby trying to feed itself....hooray. It had trouble trying to keep balance.
Then the smallest baby arrived. The bigger baby fluttered to another cone, Father is in the background and the little one continues to squawk to be fed, while sitting right next to the flower providing the source of food. I'm thinking..."C'mon kid get stuck into it and stop whinging"
Mother turns up but they all start preening and scratching, while baby continues to squawk
It finally had a little nibble and then both babies had a nap. Peace for a few minutes. It is fun watching them but I hope they hurry up and grow up and leave the nest. In the meantime I put in ear plugs at 4:30 am. The rest of the day I put up with it. At this very moment the baby is sitting next to the flower and it tweets and then pecks at the flower for a bit then tweets and eats and tweets and eats. I'm thinking...."Just eat and never mind the tweets." I can see them from my study window over the top of my computer. I actually photographed them through the glass.
Hi Diane
ReplyDeleteWell initially I thought that those birds were those horrible "Indian Minor" birds, thankfully for you they are not. The "Indian Minors" - now at last considered pests - attack like the German Stukkas when they have young. I even saw them rip apart a budgerigar, which obviously escaped from it's cage. A fellow in the street and myself tried to rescue the poor bird but in it's panic, we couldn't catch it and then it was ripped to pieces where we couldn't get to due to fences.
These "Indian Minors" have got rid of all the little Australian birds in my area and probably your area - the finsches, the blue wrens and the lovely willy-wag tails. They eat all their eggs in the nesting period and then kill the birds. Really so sad.
I have a long last after years of putting up with the "long drawn out cries" , starting at about 2.00am discovered what the culprit is. If you happen to wake up you can't get back to sleep, and the noise finishes when the sun rises! It is non-stop! Cooee - cooee - non stop! It's a half magpie and half pee-wee. I saw the horrible noise polluter at last a week ago. It was sitting on the telephone pole across the road. How I wish I had had a gun!
Now re: your friendly Wallabies. Be careful, as you will have noted in todays press. One attacked a two year old in the Cairns area. She's lucky - when it is "mating season" the bucks can be vicious and are able to rip you apart with their hind legs, so don't get too close when you photograph them.
Great story above as always.
Cheers
"HB"
Diane, this is a really pretty series of the "Banana" bird family. I have not had them in the garden for a long time. Lately I saw one, I think the female, collecting material for a nest...so soon it will be my time for the tweet tweet...it might be tweety bird!
ReplyDeleteDiane,
ReplyDeleteBeen warm down this part of Australia as well, but I love it.
Photos are lovely of the birds, amazing how well photos come out taken through glass, at least that way you don't disturb the birds and more likely to get a 'still' shot. I see your windows are lovely and clean.....spring cleaning, maybe!
I really like the look of these birds. I have never seen anything like them down here in the south. Great pictures.
ReplyDeleteDF
Beautiful birds. You guys are really lucky to have those to see every day.
ReplyDeleteAnnoying they may be but oh what beautiful and interesting birds they are. You've taken some wonderful photos of them. I used to feel this way about a woodpecker who for two or three years in a row would herald his arrival by sharpening his beak on the eaves outside our bedroom window. He was an annoying alarm clock ;)
ReplyDeleteHi Diane, Gorgeous birds--even though they wake you up EARLY... Our Cardinals do the same thing to me. They are the first at the feeders in the morning and the last to leave at nights.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Betsy
diane, Thanks for looking me up. I just checked into your blog and your bird pictures are great! It seems wierd to me that your spring is starting while we're right now going into the coldest part of winter. I'll check in with you and see how you're doing. Diane
ReplyDeleteDiane - These are lovely photos. Sorry you lost your sleep, but it was worth it for these shots. Now go take a little nap.
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely birds! I am enjoying getting to know your exotic world.
ReplyDeleteLinda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/
great photos as usual. do you have a special camera or just a run of the mill job like mine? they always look so profesh. ;) good looking birds btw. Fran
ReplyDeleteIt's so neat to see birds, trees and flowers I have never seen before! And it still gets me thinking we're in winter, waiting for snow, while you're on spring! Thanks for the post and for all your prayers for Owen this past week :-)
ReplyDeleteBrilliant photographic sequence and commentary.....once again have been catching up on your interesting life as have been absent from the computer....thank you again for sharing lizzie b.
ReplyDeleteThese photos are fabulous! You have some of the most interesting wildlife to show us. I was surprised to read that you took them through glass, they are so clear.
ReplyDelete