260) Bright and Brilliant

Rainbow Lorikeet

Yes - I am looking at you.......

259) A few Odds and Ends to start 2016

Eastern Bristlebird

Summer is here and the temps have descended out of the 40s. Phew!  As the Australia Day fireworks go off (5 displays visible from our deck) we thought we would celebrate with a few odds and ends from the busy end of 2015. There will be many more as we have not yet posted from some really old trips...
The Bristlebird is always a great sighting at Barren Grounds. This is the stronghold of the larger southern population and we frequently hear or see one in the heath on that plateau. That is mostly because its a small area - there are not that many left.

White-cheeked Honeyeater

Great to see White-cheeked Honeyeater over in Royal. Not what we were looking for but it meant the beginning of summer.

Red-browed Treecreeper

An unusual place to see a treecreeper, but he is happily foraging in the litter over in the Blue Mountains

Pilotbird

We can hear these guys at the edge of a trail in the Blue Mountains, but they are reticent to appear--except to dart across the trail. The call is a LOUD whistle but then they stay well under the ferns. We did resort to playback to get this guy to pop out. Thanks buddy.

Southern Emu-wren

Small, fast and very high-pitched call - perfect storm to get a great picture. These guys are still on my list of birds to find over in the heath in Royal.

Pallid Cuckoo

A quick trip to Capertee Valley yielded these Pallid Cuckoos in a courtship feeding display.  At first we thought it was an adult feeding a juvenile, but as cuckoos are most often parasitic on other species (laying eggs in another species' nest to let them raise the young) it seemed somehow odd.  So our research shows this is a male feeding a female.

Superb Fairy-wren?

We get in trouble if we don't keep track of who we take pictures of... we think this is a female Superb Fairy-wren because of the rufous lores and eye-ring, but if so, she's holding her tail oddly and it's shorter than it should be... Still a pretty bird picture!

The Eastern Yellow Robins are always willing to pose when other birds are making themselves scarce. Hard to resist snapping away....

Plum-headed Finch

Capertee is a great place for finches and although he posed wonderfully we really hope he had some friends around!

Eastern Bearded Dragon

Basking in the early sun in Capertee....