Air show with feathers.

[Splitpin]

No pictures sorry.... they were too fast, my camera and reflexes are too slow.
I live close to the coast, an estuary, and some lakes, so waterfowl and kind are regular over flyers.
Tonight I was treated to a passing bunch of adult blackback gulls, who decided, for reasons only known to them, to do a few orbits over the house.

Amazing to watch the fast passes, stall turns, and high-speed tight turns ...and it was free.
I often hear/see Canadian geese honking along in their big V formations.

Then we move down to the garden dwellers, the insane blackbirds, nervous Sparrows, bother boy starlings, fern birds, and the superbly aerobatic Fantails.
I cook rice for the last group on a daily basis, so I guess it's not really free....but nice.

[Charl]

I share the fascination of the feathered ones...
Kereru nest on the banks of the Rangitopuni not far away, and come at this time of year for the seeds on the Cyprus.
I guess it's mating season or maybe just joie de vivre, the blokes do these great swoops and hammerhead stall turns.
It's quite a sight to watch from the deck, remembering these things are only slightly this side of turkey-size.

But Marty.... you should not feed the birds!
They will come if your garden is done right.

[emfrat]

The birdbath I bought last Christmas is proving popular with a number of avian species - rosellas, lorikeeets, grass parrots, various honey-eaters who feed on the native trees I put in 20-odd years ago to attract them. I recently bought a basic security camera, because ordinary webcams don't have the focal range, and it looks very promising. I captured some video on my digicam, but that and other pics are on my Facebook page, which is for family only, and in any case I don't think either of you want anything to do with FB. Watch this space...I don't think I can put video in a PM, so I will have to load any good stuff to YT or my Google Drive and post a link. Screenies can go to PostImage, as ever.

ATB
Mike

[Charl]

...anything to do with FB.

Too right; look forward to some shots of the exotic.
'Course, over here, those lovely parrots compete with our dwindling natives and so are shot, poisoned and otherwise eschewed.
Possum splatting as you know is mandatory too.
Different strokes... but we all shoot the rabbits, what's a poor bunny to do? OK don't answer that.

[emfrat]

Charl, Marty - this link is to a PostImage Gallery of mine, called Birdypics. I PM'd both of you a link to my YT channel with some videos in it
I don't think I will bother with YT in future - over three hours to upload 6 videos, about 10 mins in total; then about 40 mins jumping through hoops to edit the upload and persuade it to move into the playlist I had started from.
Anyone know a Video equivalent of PostImage?

https://postimg.cc/gallery/nXjS7Nh


ATB
Mike

[Charl]

Vimeo?

Which are the blueheads? Lorikeets?

[emfrat]

Vimeo? Which are the blueheads? Lorikeets?

Had a lot of hassles with Vimeo a few years back, so I stay away from them now.

The blue heads are Rainbow Lorikeets. The smaller green ones are Scaley-breasted Lorikeets.
My lady friend Wendy pointed me to e-bird, which is a great website: https://ebird.org/home

[Charl]

Old but valid thread.. I moved my Google Nestcam to the birdbath on the deck.
It has a movement alert and so I thought I'd catch lots of interesting avian wildlife.
Not so... the only guys that bother are the lazy sparrows that have nested in a dry corner of the gutter above.
They just kind of lean out and drop off; this one got the brakes on moments before falling in, sort of.

[emfrat]

A Noisy Miner flaring out at the birdbath - gear down, divebrake out, flaps, droops and lift dumpers all deployed.


With his two mates a little bit later - note the Indian Mynah on the ground to the right - it couldn't get a look in

[Splitpin]

Charl and Mike ..... amazing shots, doesn't matter what they are ...Condor or Sparrow. Anything that can fly unaided gets a thumbs up from me.
I was watching two White Butterflies dogfighting this evening, tough little buggers and very maneuverable.

[Charl]

A Noisy Miner

trumps a lazy sparrow, every time

[Adamski]

Though we live on the North Shore, Auckland, we're incredibly lucky to be bang in the middle of protected bush - so we get an amazing variety of birds visiting our deck and bird bath.

Tuis, blackbirds, fantails, silvereyes, rosellas, doves, sparrows - and the inevitable mynahs. By far the most spectacular is a pair of Kereru. They're very tame/fearless and let you come to within an arms' length. It's quite noisy at night too, with Moreporks etc.



Sadly, being a suburb of a large city, you have suburban dwellers (with a suburban mentality), which means we're surrounded by neurotic/yappy dogs and (my pet hate) cats that come and cr*p in your garden and don't wear bells, so decimate our birds ... grrrrrr.

I don't feed the birds now as, when I did, they scattered it all over the place and attracted the rats. However - I do keep a small bowl of sugared water topped up, which all the birds seem to like - as well as the bees!

[emfrat]

Excellent shot, Adamski !
Mine are mainly from Birdiecam2, which is solar powered and talks to my wired network by wifi. With the HD setting, the transfer rate is pretty feeble, but that makes it very easy to get a screenshot like the Noisy Miner one from the playback video. It's a cheap outdoor security cam, nothing fancy.

[Splitpin]

I agree with Mike, Adam that is a great shot.
I remember the mynahs when I was growing up in the BOP, and later living at Whenuapai ... it's odd they don't live down here (as far as I know)

[Charl]

I'm jealous, our Kereru are extremely shy, but make up for it with amazing aerobatic displays in the spring.
We're a little North of you, Adam, and add to your list Pukeko which tend to get shot as they are a nuisance, Magpies (ditto) and - drumroll - Kookaburras which have migrated from Kawau Island.
Their collective noun I read, is Riot and well earned.
They will no doubt become a pest but I enjoy their sunset chorus.
They compete with our native Kingfisher alas.



And we have had a resident pair of Ringnecked Pheasant for many generations.
Plenty of California Quails too, and the occasional Harrier Hawk to eat them.



Perhaps related to lockdowns, birdlife has exploded in the last few seasons.

EDIT: We call our Morepork RURU which I feel fits well.
We have half a dozen within earshot, of an evening you can hear them moving around until the calls sound equidistant, and the night's hunting ground is established.

[emfrat]

I have added some more pics (with less cryptic filenames) to the gallery mentioned above. Wasn't quite as simple as it sounds, because PostImage changed their link to the gallery. Not entirely sure why.

This is the current one:

https://postimg.cc/gallery/nXjS7Nh

Mike

[Splitpin]

Those little Quails are cute, sometimes see them zipping across the road on my way to work.

[Charl]

Wow you do get a collection there, Mike!
I love the action shots, those feathers deployed just SO for the task at hand.

Those little Quails are cute.

Sure are - we have a flock of 4 adults + 9 bebbies the size of a large grape doing the morn and eve pecking rounds.

[emfrat]

This little fella is known locally as a Forest-, or Sacred, Kingfisher. Looks like he has some rellies across the ditch

[Splitpin]

Mike, have you ever spotted snakes on the cam ?