April 30, 9:30 PM Birding
While reviewing the photos from our time in Australia I have discovered 2 new lifers. On April 22 I have a photo of an Australian Pipit and on April 23 I have one of an Orange Chat. This completes the birding activities for the trip. The next few days were spent in Sydney.
I have sent a copy of a photo that I took while in Canberra to an authority in Australia for a comment. The image looks like it could be a Tasmanian Scrubwren but they are said to only be in Tasmania. I have had a quick reply indicating they will look at it in a few days, as soon as they return from a trip.
April 27,5:00 PM Birding
I added two more days to my March web pages for our time in Australia. The time sink is reviewing the bird photos. Nonetheless I was able to cull out most of the photos of blurry tree branches, and add a few photos of some shore birds.
April 26, 8:30 PM Birding
I spent much of the afternoon looking at the photos I took while we were birding in Australia on March 27 - 28. This was very time-consuming as I needed to make some adjustments to the text entries as well as to the Bento database. And then I had to select a few images for display.
April 25, 8:00 PM Birding
A good part of today was devoted to viewing, and reviewing, the photos I took while birding on March 25. I was able to make a few changes to the list of birds we identified that day, and I made the appropriate changes to my database as well. Parenthetically, I had no difficulty syncing my Bento birding database on my iPad to the "parent" database on my laptop. Sometimes technology works smoothly.
April 13, 4:10 PM Birding - Canberra, ACT, Australia
The afternoon trip in the Aranda park resulted in the addition of two more birds to our lifer list. These are hard to come by and are most welcome when they occur. I was not aware that I had the Orange Chat (female) at the time I took my photos but was able to arrive at an identification by looking at about a dozen photos of it. It was very active and difficult to focus but I am confident of the result.
- Red Wattlebird
- Variegated Fairywren
- White-browed Scrubwren
- Scarlet Robin [LIFER]
- Orange Chat [LIFER]
- White-winged Chough [first for 2012]
- Sulfur-crested Cockatoo [first for 2012]
- King Parrot [first for 2012]
We have seen 13 new lifers on this trip, bringing the total number of unique species in Australia to 208, and our global total to 629. Seeing the Emu was a special one as although we had seen them many times in 1979, this was the first time we had seen one since we began keeping a tally. It was also nice to break the 200 plateau for Australia.
April 12, 5:00 PM Birding - Canberra, ACT, Australia
After we found the cache we visited a section of the park that was fenced off to protect the wildlife inside from foxes. The path through the enclosed area was a delight and we saw our first Emus as well as some Australian White Pelicans, a Musk Duck, a few Magpie Geese, some Moorhens, and a Brolga. Unfortunately a check at the gate revealed that most of these birds had their wings clipped and could not leave the enclosed area. Therefore they are not eligible for birding.
The good news was we saw a pair of Emus while having lunch at a nearby picnic area. We really wanted to add the Emu to our bird list while in Australia and we were rewarded. Excellent!
- Red Wattlebird [first for 2012]
- Variegated Fairy-wren
- White-browed Scrubwren
- Australian (Richard's) Pipit [LIFER]
- Emu [LIFER]
- Wedgetail Eagle [first for 2012]
- Crimson Rosella [first for 2012]
- Eastern Rosella
Australian (Richard's) Pipit
Emus!
Crimson Rosella
April 10, 10:30 am Birding
A White-headed Pigeon flew to the water dish this morning.
April 9, 2:00 PM Birding - McLeans Ridges, NSW, Australia
We all went out to Rocky Creek Dam today to see the park and have a picnic. While there we saw 2 birds along the boardwalk that we were able to identify.
- Pale-yellow Robin
- Logrunner (male) [LIFER]
Picnic site
April 3, 7:00 am Birding - McLeans Ridges, NSW, Australia
While enjoying the coffee I noticed a large bird circling overhead. I took a few pictures of it but since it was so high I never gave it much thought. However looking at the photos when we returned to Lethbridge it became clear that this was a Little Eagle, a new lifer for us.
April 1, 2:00 PM Birding - McLeans Ridges, NSW, Australia
We spotted and identified 3 Pacific Baza (aka Crested Hawk). This is another Lifer. I think I should have some good photos of them as well. Plus we saw a Figbird.
Pacific Baza
Again
They are very beautiful birds. We watched three of them in the tree across from the veranda for over half an hour. Serious bird watching with a glass of wine in the hand. How good can it get? Stunning.