207) Sundown

A Tawny Frogmouth stunned by Dirk's flash

We spent a fabulous weekend in Sundown National Park, one of our favourite birdy areas.  There's a nice, quiet, old-fashioned campground with a wide variety of birds, a lazy river, and lots of kangaroos lounging about.  Dirk found three frogmouths within 5 minutes of nightspotting from our campsite, we had a lace monitor sniffing about our tent while we were eating lunch, and we enjoyed the companionable zitting of the restless flycatchers in the trees between us and the river.

The gregarious Apostlebirds were out in force--we'd never seen so many.  They're called 'apostlebirds' because 12 is a common group number, but we were pleased to see sociable groups of up to 20 birds--which means they're doing well.  At one point, we were slowing meandering down the road scanning for birds when we saw a group strutting towards us, some of them playing with mud and straw along the way (gathering material for the communal nest?).  Some squabbling ensued as they passed us, and I swear I saw one playfully side-swipe another, and somebody's straw was dropped.  All in the day of the life of teenagers and a big happy family!

A Golden Whistler indulging in some hanky-panky with his lady love.  She seemed to be falling for his smart yellow, black, and white suit, or maybe he had serenaded her with the best song?

We were surprised to find two Spotted Bowerbirds this far east!  We think of them as mostly an interior, arid-habitat bird.  If you look carefully, you can see his hot lilac-pink nuchal (back-of-the-neck) crest.  When we saw him in silhouette, we knew he was a bowerbird from the size and shape of his shnozz (technical term for beak).

A harried Black-chinned Honeyeater--mom and dad were busily providing nutrition to their kids.  This species of honeyeater is not commonly seen--they are nomadic, and so are unpredictable to find. We were generously provided a tip from another birder, who had spotted their nest.  There were two or three chicks, the nest was tucked away in the leaves, so a bit difficult to see exactly what was going on.  But we think mom and dad were feeding the kids high-energy lerp snacks, one of them is stuck on top of the beak of this bird. ("A lerp is a structure of crystallized honeydew produced by larvae of psyllid insects as a protective cover." ~Wikipedia