For the most part, it was a day of four birds. I saw three life birds and one special bird that I had seen, but not like this. I had the privilege of seeing a Victoria’s Riflebird displaying. It was in the shade of the rainforest, so the photos are not particularly incredible, but the bird was. I am grateful.
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Victoria's Riflebird |
Then next bird was a species that we had all hunted on several different occasions here. Yes, a lot of hours were spent searching amongst the grasses and undergrowth for this bird. But yesterday, we found it. I have now beheld the Blue-faced Parrotfinch. I am very grateful indeed.
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A difficult little bird to see... this is an immature Blue-faced Parrotfinch |
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Beginning to get his blue face on. What an awesome little bird. |
When I was first becoming a birder in Oz and I poured over my field guide dreaming of the birds I might one day see ( side note: the Kookaburras just went off at 5:22am, early again). I thought, and still think that the Channel-billed Cuckoo is one of the coolest birds around. Living down in Victoria, it was not a bird I was going to bump into. Yesterday I saw my first one, well... three. We found them in a tree together down by the creek. I am very grateful.
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Channel-billed Cuckoos, yet another of my favorite birds. |
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The third one was in the same area of the tree, but off to itself. |
The last bird of my day was a magical little parrot, one that can be invisible in a tree, yet still eating and dropping bits of fig. On the parrot cute scale, it don’t get much better than the Double-eyed Fig-parrot. I had been searching that tree for about three-quarters of an hour with my bins before I realized that one of the figs was looking back at me. I was, and am very grateful.
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Double-eyed Fig-parrot doubly cute! |
Once again the sky is just beginning to lighten. It is 5:30am and I have been here writing and fiddling with photos for about an hour. I reckon I will make the blog. Cheers my friends, I am so glad that I have y'all along.
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Where I sit every morning to write these blogs. It begins in the dark... |
Birds. Peace. Love. Earth. Laughter. Music.