A very cooperative double-barred finch posing for us at Terranora. We've never seen a finch stay still for so long, but we're tending to think that he was rather stunned by Dirk's better-beamer and wasn't able to move after being "blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night". Whoops! Got carried away, there...but speaking of which, have you ever actually looked at the lyrics for that song? Google it...I never knew what ol' Manfred Mann's Earth Band was really singing, and no wonder! But I digress....
Teenaged boys will be teenaged boys, no matter the species! There was much boxing and kicking going on, between these young kangaroos at Coombabah, jostling for testosterone-induced power-plays.
An Ozzie version of an LBB, but we're convinced this is a Mangrove Gerygone (that's pronounced Jer-i'-gah-nee, for you yanks) given that we were on a boardwalk surrounded by mangroves. Also known as "Peep warblers" these miniature (10 cm) birds have a delightfully sweet song, and you can see that this one is singing his little heart out.
Hmmm... Well, we're newbies at waders, but I think we're going with black-tailed Godwit on this one. Or wait, is it a bar-tailed Godwit? We finally see a wader at Coombaba, and so given the odds, it should be the most common bird said to be seen there, the bar-tailed. But as I mentioned, this is one of the few waders we've actually managed to see, so we'll take that as a cop-out. Also, being surrounded by wader experts at the Uni, I *could* ask one of the pros... I suppose we haven't been fastidiously checking the tide schedule before birding well enough to determine the best birding time, but that'll be next on the list of to-do things to learn more birds. But we have to wait til they come back from having fun breeding in the Northern hemisphere. We have the extra challenge here of getting most waders in non-breeding plumage.
A spangly Spangled Drongo with a brilliant red eye. Both the guys and the gals wear the spangley-bling in this species. The forked tail is a giveaway even in silhouette.
We found this nest on the ground at Sundown, the colourful feathers make us surmise that it is the nest of one of the lovely pale-headed or eastern rosellas. It's autumn here, now, so hopefully fledging was had by all before the nest came down.
We don't know who this nest belonged to, it also was on the ground near the rosella nest. It's only about two inches in diameter, but is a perfect little cup-shape.
The traditional Easter Bilby! (bunnies are a big no-no here, given there big feral invasion mowing down every green-thing in sight and breeding like, well, rabbits...). Is the knife for the bunnies or for the bilby? Depends on what part of the country you're from...
A final picture of the Turquoise Parrot at Sundown. Really amusing to watch them strutting along, grabbing grass stems and pushing them over to get at the seed heads.
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