Baby black swans and ducklings
Baby swans are called cygnets. Pictures of cygnets from white swans are quite common, but what do baby black swans look like? Very similar to the white-swan babies, it turns out. They’re grey and fluffy, with black eyes, feet, and beak. I was delighted to spot a family of black swans while out walking a couple of days ago.
The parent swans were watchful, taking care to keep their little ones in a group. A male swan is called a cob, and a female is a pen. Five babies! That’s a lot of curiosity and cuteness to look after.
Did I say five babies? Yes. One of the cygnets was fossicking around in the undergrowth at the water’s edge. You can see the fifth little one in this video:
Common name: Black Swan
Scientific name: Cygnus atratus
Approximate length of adult: 120 cm
Date spotted: 9 October 2020 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’58.5″S 151°15’18.6″E
Nearby was a family of Australian Wood Ducks. The ducklings are almost as cute as the cygnets. But not quite!
Common name: Australian Wood Duck
Scientific name: Chenonetta jubata
Approximate length of adult: 50 cm
Date spotted: 9 October 2020 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’58.5″S 151°15’18.6″E
Cormorant with view of Bantry Bay
This morning I went for a long walk along one side of Bantry Bay, an inlet of Sydney harbour. The area is in the lovely Garigal National Park. Along the way, I spotted this Little Pied Cormorant:
The bird had chosen a perch with a stunning view of Bantry Bay. Here’s a zoomed out picture of the bird on its skeleton-tree perch (the bird is at the end of the bottom branch on the right), with the clear water and mangroves of Bantry bay, and couple of canoeists in the distance:
The next picture shows more of the view, following the bay inland:
Here’s a view of the bay taken (on another day) from The Bluff, the highest point overlooking the water:
Common name: Little Pied Cormorant
Scientific name: Phalacrocorax melanoleucos
Approximate length: 60 cm
Date spotted: 4 October 2020 (spring)
Location: The Bluff Track, Middle Harbour, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’23.9″S 151°13’52.8″E
Noisy currawongs enjoying blueberry ash berries
Currawongs are intelligent, curious, and noisy birds. The Australian dawn and dusk ring with their calls. Yesterday I was walking along a bush path when I heard a tremendous ruckus up ahead in the treetops. Currawongs whistling and whooping, branches swishing, and twigs clattering to the ground.
“Uh-oh,” thought I. “What have they found? Some possum caught in the harsh light of the day, or a bird of prey that dared to venture into currawong territory?”
The sound was all round me. At first it was difficult to find a single bird to focus the camera on:
Drawing closer, I saw the source of all the fuss. The blueberry ash trees are fruiting. Here’s a closeup of the berries from one of the trees that the currawongs were feasting on. The berries are small, and a pretty blue in colour. If you look closely, you can see the characteristic tiny yellow spots on the berries:
It seems these berries are irresistible to a currawong. What’s more, from all the commotion, you’d think there weren’t enough berries to go round! In the next video, I managed to catch some pictures of the currawongs themselves. At times you can hear a butcher bird interjecting too:
Here’s a cheeky glare from one of the critters making all the noise:
Common name: Pied Currawong
Scientific name: Strepera graculina
Approximate length: 45 cm
Date spotted: 3 October 2020 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’28.2″S 151°14’58.4″E
Yaayyy a Fairy-wren
Fairy-wrens are a reasonably common sight in this area of Australia. What’s not common is my being fast enough to catch one of them in the camera lens! Most of my photos of Fairy-wrens show a blue blur or an empty branch.
Today I managed to catch this male Variegated Fairy-wren fairly and squarely in my sights:
There’s something about the solid blocks of colour on this bird that makes it difficult to capture a clear image, even when the bird is still long enough for a photo.
The bird was with two other males, which is also fairly uncommon. Usually I’ve seen a male with a group of females.
That ridiculous tail, so much at odds with the round puffy appearance of the rest of the bird, makes you think there’s something wrong with the photo:
Common name: Variegated Fairy-wren
Scientific name: Malurus lamberti
Approximate length: 13 cm
Date spotted: 25 September 2020 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’50.6″S 151°15’04.7″E
Channel-billed Cuckoo in our garden
It seems to me that the Channel-billed Cuckoos were late in arriving from their annual migration this year. Some people were pleased about that, as these birds make a tremendous noise in the early morning hours! But I was pleased when I eventually heard their raucous calls earlier this week.
Today, one dropped in on a tree in our garden. As usual, the other birds were harassing it.
Channel-billed Cuckoos are impressive birds. They have fierce red eyes and a large, hooked beak. Like many other types of cuckoos, they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds rather than making their own nests. They also leave the task of caring for the young birds to the substitute parents!
This particular cuckoo was a little wet and bedraggled. What with the rain and the harassment of the other birds, the cuckoo doesn’t seem to be enjoying life much.
Common name: Channel-billed Cuckoo
Scientific name: Scythrops novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 58-65 cm
Date spotted: 20 September 2020 (spring)
Location: Allambie Heights, New South Wales, Australia
3 Glossy Black-Cockatoos and a tale of a Brush-turkey and a Raven
Two days ago, I encountered a group of three Glossy Black-Cockatoos on a Casuarina tree. These large cockatoos are not a very common sight. When I noticed them, I stopped walking and said “ooh” out loud. Luckily there was no-one around to hear, and the birds ignored me!
While I was watching the cockatoos, a couple of other characters appeared and contributed to the encounter. Read the story below!
First, the glossies
This picture shows two of the Glossy Black-Cockatoos. They’re quite different in appearance from the more common Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos. The feather arrangement around the glossies’ necks and the general setting of their heads make me think of a lion:
I think the bird on the left is a female, as she has a lot of yellow around her head. The one on the right is, I think, a male.
In the video below, the birds are munching happily on Casuarina seed pods. About half way through the video (at around 50-53 seconds on the timeline) the birds mutter to each other in low-pitched raspy calls. This munching and muttering is typical of the birds’ behaviour.
Below is a solo shot of the first of the three birds. This one has a lot of yellow around its head, which means it’s probably a female:
Glossy Black-Cockatoos depend on Casuarina seeds for their food. This choosiness puts the birds at risk when the tree coverage is depleted by land clearance or bush fires. Casuarinas, also called sheoaks or she-oaks, are a group of trees and shrubs native to Australia and other Asian countries. Evidently the name Casuarina is derived from cassowary (a big bird) because the branches look like cassowary feathers.
Next comes a solo shot of the second of the three birds. I think this one is a male. The feathers around its head and neck are quite brown in comparison to the darker black feathers on the rest of its body. The bird is holding a Casuarina seed pod. You can also see a few of the tree’s tiny red flowers:
It’s a treat to see these unusual, gorgeous birds. Definitely a moment for oohing and aahing.
Unwell Glossy Black-Cockatoo – beak and feather disease?
One of the three cockatoos has an illness which has affected its beak. It may be Psittacine beak and feather disease, or some sort of cancer, or maybe the result of a fight or accident?
I didn’t notice the hole above the bird’s beak until I got the pictures home and put them on a big screen. The birds were quite a distance away, and I was using my camera’s super zoom to photograph them. But even from the long distance, I did think that the bird looked duller and more skeletal than the other two.
Poor bird, I hope the condition isn’t causing it too much discomfort.
Video featuring the female Glossy Black-Cockatoo
Here’s another video of two of the birds, this time featuring the female. Hint: At the start of the video you can hear a bit of thrashing around in the undergrowth. That background noise leads into the story below!
Common name: Glossy Black-Cockatoo
Scientific name: Calyptorhynchus lathami
Approximate length: 50cm
Date spotted: 18 September 2020 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Park, near Sydney: 33°46’55.0″S 151°15’10.1″E
A tale of a Brush-turkey and an Australian Raven
If you listen carefully in the first half of the above video, you’ll hear a bit of a kerfuffle in the background. I heard it too, and turned to look when I stopped filming. I saw an Australian Brush-turkey flapping around among the trees a few metres away from me. “Ah, just a brush-turkey,” I thought, and turned back to the cockatoos. Brush-turkeys seem to specialize in making a fuss about nothing.
The kerfuffle turned into a whoosh of large wings, followed by a downdraft of air and the sound of claws on metal. I turned around again, to discover that the brush-turkey had landed on a gate less than two metres away from me. (The gate was one of those that the authorities use to close the park when the danger of bush fires is critical.)
“Hallo, mate,” said I. “What are you up to?” I do talk to birds when they approach me, partly to make us both feel comfortable.
The brush-turkey look at me, then teetered slightly and looked down at the ground with some apprehension. They do that, when they’re off the ground. They’re no doubt thinking, “I got myself up here, but now that ground is a long way down. How do I get down there?”
Two seconds later, a large, fierce Australian Raven arrived. Eyes ice blue. Beak long, strong, and pointy. Being the focus of that glare is rather daunting, even if you’re a large human.
The raven glared at me. I stood my ground. One point five metres of empty space between me and that beak.
The raven decided I wasn’t a threat, and turned its attention back to the brush-turkey. Obviously, the raven wanted to continue the altercation that had been the cause of all that kerfuffle in the trees.
The brush-turkey looked at the raven, looked at me, and hopped off the gate. A few hurried steps, and it was at my feet. It got as close to my knees as it could, then started walking round my legs. When it comes to a choice between a raven and me, it seems I’m a safe haven.
The raven looked thoroughly peeved. It leapt into the air and spotted the Glossy Black-Cockatoos, who were still peacefully munching and muttering in the Casuarinas. With a caw and a swoop, the raven dislodged the glossies. They floated into the air with easy grace, and came to land again a few trees away. “Ah, ravens,” the glossies were no doubt thinking. “They seem to specialize in making a fuss about nothing.”
The brush-turkey was still jittering around my legs. I wanted to continue filming the cockatoos, so I waited for a gap in the brush-turkey’s circle, and strode out along the path towards the cockatoos’ new roosting area.
Within a second, I heard the tick-tick-tick of brush-turkey claws on the path. The turkey had decided to stay with its safe haven for a while, in case that nasty bird with the ice-blue eyes and big strong beak came back.
So there we were, the cockatoos munching and muttering, I oohing and aahing, and the brush-turkey click-clacking companionably at my heels.
I wish I’d got all of that on camera! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story. 🙂
Here are a couple of pics of a brush-turkey and a raven, though these are not the same birds that appear in this story.
Pale-yellow Robin eating a spider
This robin was cheeping loudly enough to attract my attention. I snapped a shot of it, to see what it was up to. When I zoomed in to the picture, I could see that the bird had caught a spider. Perhaps the loud noise was a boast or an expression of glee at the coming feast.
I think this is a Pale-yellow Robin, though it could be an Eastern Yellow Robin. Pale-yellows are smaller than Eastern Yellows (12 cm in length as opposed to 15) and have more white around the beak and throat.
Common name: Pale-yellow Robin
Scientific name: Tregellasia capito
Approximate length: 12 cm
Date spotted: 12 September 2020 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’24.0″S 151°15’08.0″E
Grey Fantail
This is only the second time I’ve managed to get a picture of a Grey Fantail. Grey Fantails are smaller than Willie Wagtails, and softer in colouring. They make a similar squeaky call, but not quite as piercing as Willie Wagtail.
I’ll try to get a good photo of a Grey Fantail, if one of them will stay still long enough! In the meantime, here’s the earlier video that I took of one of these birds, about three years ago. The bird was showing off its tail-fanning skills.
Common name: Grey Fantail
Scientific name: Rhipidura fuliginosa
Approximate length: 14-17 cm
Date spotted: 4 September 2020 (spring)
Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’23.8″S 151°15’05.8″E
Two varieties of the Eastern Whipbird call
The call of the Eastern Whipbird is a fairly common sound, for those of us lucky enough to live near a patch of Australian bush. The birds make a weird whistling noise that ends in an abrupt burst of noise, a little like the crack of a whip. Hence the name whipbird.
In the first of these two videos, the bird ends its call with an upward tone, while in the second video it chooses a descending tone. First, the upward tone:
Next, the more squeaky downward ending:
The call seems to take a lot of effort, including a little hop and a flap of the wings. I was surprised at how short the bird’s wings are. They seem quite stubby, compared with the elegance of the rest of the body.
Whipbirds are shy, sticking to the undergrowth and making it difficult to get a good picture. Here’s a photo that shows the olive green colouring of the bird’s feathers:
Common name: Eastern Whipbird
Scientific name: Psophodes olivaceus
Approximate length: 30 cm
Date spotted: 3 September 2020 (early spring)
Location: Manly Dam National Reserve, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’36.2″S 151°14’47.9″E
Blue Laughing Kookaburra at The Bluff above Bantry Bay
Today I hiked from Seaforth Oval to Natural Bridge. Phew! Almost 12,000 steps, 7.7 km, and three climbs down into the valley and back up again! It’s a good walk with lovely views of Bantry Bay, which is one of the inlets of Sydney Harbour.
Close to a lookout point called The Bluff was this fine-looking Laughing Kookaburra. It has a lot more blue in its feathers than most kookaburras that I’ve seen. Perhaps it’s clothed in its spring finery.
This is the view of Bantry Bay from The Bluff Lookout:
Common name: Laughing Kookaburra
Scientific name: Dacelo novaeguineae
Approximate length: 47 cm
Date spotted: 31 August 2020 (Late winter)
Location: Bluff Trail, Killarney Heights, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’00.3″S 151°13’42.3″E
Sydney Birder 