Birding Down Under. Australia part 1. The Farm.

While Elena was away selling her flat in Russia I flew to Australia to visit my sister Anne & family in Australia. Anne & John live near Ballina/Byron Bay in NSW in an area known as the Northern Rivers. It's beautiful country, not unlike parts of rural England with rolling hills of woodland interspersed with rich cattle pasture and mixed farmland.

My sister Anne at the farm

Here are a couple of shots of sister Anne & John on their lovely farm.

Anne & John

And here are another pair of residents. This Tawny Frogmouth pair once frequented the veranda but seem now to prefer roosting in a large tree by the chicken house. They are of course active by night but during the day are not at all perturbed by us getting really close, being used to their friendly landlords by now. 

Tawny Frogmouths - podargus strigoides

The female (I think) below has adopted a typical "I'm just a tree" pose.

Tawny Frogmouth - podargus strigoides

I sepent my first full day looking around at some of the bird life on the farm, and there was plenty to see. Laughing Kookaburra's are common in Australia and are easilly seen, often just one bird one its own perched in an exposed position waiting to sight a lizard or similar prey to pounce on. This is typical feeding behaviour of Kingfishers which is what the Kookaburra is, it just doesn't eat fish.

Laughing Kookaburra - dacelo novaeguineae

The Superb Fairy Wren is an attractive and very common little bird, overlooked perhaps because it is so tiny but any close examination of any low bushes or tall grass will usually reveal these little gems flitting about after insects, never still so not easy to photograph.

Superb Fairy-wren - malurus cyaneus

A stretch of Wilson's River runs through the farm and the first bird I saw down there was a stunning White-bellied Sea Eagle, a fairly common raptor in this part of Australia. The white-bellied sea eagle is revered by indiginous people in many parts of Australia, and is the subject of various folk tales throughout its range. They are very susceptible to human disturbance, particularly around nest sites, so numbers are declining quite considerably as a result.

White-bellied Sea Eagle haliaeetus leucogaster

Whilst down at the river I also spotted a pair of roosting White-breasted Woodswallows. These quite small and attractive birds are not related to swallows or hirundines at all, in fact their closest relatives are the crow-like Butcherbirds, Currawongs and Australian Magpies. Very strange.

Here for example is an Australian Magpie, not much similarity is there... 

Australian Magpie - gymnorhina tibicen)

...and this imposing looking, crow-like bird is a Pied Currawong. Again how different is that from a Woodswallow but the taxonomists assure us they are cousins. Named by indigenous Australians after the sound of its distinctive call the Currawong was very common on the farm. .Anne also fed a Pied Butcherbird daily from a bowl on the kitchen window inside the covered veranda. It was very tame. I could not focus the camera that close so in fact did not get a shot of it at all, but it is almost identical in appearance to the Magpie. Not at all like a Woodswallow!

Pied Currawong - trepera graculina

Another familiar sight from the kitchen veranda was a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets feeding on some tall flowering rush stems in the garden. A true parrot these lorikeets are a very colourful and spectacular sight.....

Rainbow Lorikeet - trichoglossus moluccanus

Rainbow Lorikeet - trichoglossus moluccanus

......as are the Eastern Rosellas which could also be seen from the kitchen veranda foraging on the ground in the grass and occasionally flying up onto a fence post as seen here.

Crested Pigeons were another very attractive bird that could be seen every day hanging around the chicken house, obviously after the grain that John scattered around for his choocks. When startled, the crested pigeon takes to the air with a distinctive whistling 'call', the source of the noise can be attributed to the way the air rushes over a modified primary feather found on the wings. It diverts attention of ariel predators away from birds remaining on the ground.

Crested pigeon - ocyphaps lophotes

One of the most common Australian birds is the Willie Wagtail. Not related to the true wagtail family it is named after its habit of waving its long tail up and down while foraging on the ground for insects or seeds. A very familiar sight wherever there are parks or gardens, it has adapted well to human habitation.

Willie Wagtail - rhipidura leucophrys

While walking around the extensive pasture on the farm I spotted quite a variety of water birds, not least this White-necked Heron.......

White/necked Heron - ardea pacifica

...and often numerous Australian White Ibises.

Australian White Ibis - threskiornis molucca

Purple Swamphens and Pacific Black Ducks wandered around the place like they owned it, behaving like domesticated chickens even though they are wild birds, White-headed Pigeons were seen a lot and Noisy Miners were prolific, another of those birds that have benefited from human presence.

Australians are naturally obsessive about invasive alien species, the Indian Mynah being a case in point, but this Noisy Miner is an endemic species that has exploded in numbers since humans have affected the landscape. They are aggressive and greedy territorial gangsters, driving many other species out and almost complelely taking over. Research has found culls of noisy miners can dramatically increase the number of other birds by up to 40 times and the number of species by 10 times in some areas. "There is just no question that if we could control the noisy miner we could have a huge biodiversity impact straight away," said professor Roberts, an eminent ecologist.
 I watched this pest in action and noted that where Noisy Miners exist there are very few other birds present, particularly small species. A scourge on biodiversity in Australia.

Noisy Miner - manorina melanocephala

One little bird species that has not been driven out completely by the wretched Miners is the Fairy Wrens. There are not many but their habitat is grassland and very low thickets, not the haunt of the Miner, so some have survived. The one below is a Red-backed Fairy Wren, a little charmer that I saw in the paddock on the hill above the house.

Red-backed Fairy Wren - malurus melanocephalus

The farm is 80 acres of natural beauty, with a river and two dams (ponds), and wooded areas. I remember identifying at least 30 species here as follows,-

White-bellied Sea Eagle , Tawny Frogmouth, Pacific Black Duck, Wood Duck, White-necked Heron, Straw-necked Ibis, Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Dusky Moorhen, Willie Wagtail, Jackie Winter, Welcome Swallow, Australian Raven, Torresian Crow, Pied Currawong, Pied Butcherbird, Australian Magpie, Crested Pigeon, White-necked Pigeon, White-breasted Woodswallow, Superb Fairy Wren, Red-backed fairy Wren, Noisy Miner, Masked Lapwing, Purple Swamphen, Magpie Lark, Eurasian Coot, Laughing Kookaburra, Eastern Rosella, Rainbow Lorikeet, 

There are undoubtedly many more but I am not able to identify everything I see. John assures me that he often flushes quail on his morning walks but I wasn't that lucky. It was a great place to be for anyone, let alone a birdwatcher from the other side of the World, so needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed myself.