Birds

Delightfully Noisy Neighbours …

Male Superb Blue Wren sizing up the "competition" - his own reflection!
Male Superb Blue Wren sizing up the "competition" - his own reflection!

This morning early there was a lot of commotion from the wrens out in the garden. We have a pair of Superb Blue Wrens who have moved into the bushes around the house and aviary complex. The male spends half his waking hours defending “his” territory from his reflection in the glass wall of the eastern studio.

I thought perhaps the cat was giving them a hard time, so went out to check and pick a few strawberries for brekie at the same time.

The source of the commotion quickly became very obvious  – a large family of beautiful Superb Blue Wrens had invaded the front garden. They were flitting about from the lavender to the citrus, then back to the Kings Park callistemon. A petite little female landed on the verandah briefly before heading off to the garden again. And they were all twittering and whistling up a storm.

The extended family moved off after about an hour, probably much to the relief of our resident pair. Male Superbs are extremely territorial and despite their diminutive stature are quite capable of chasing off rivals (except that stubborn blue wren in the glass pane … 😉

Male Superb Blue Wren - Malurus cyaneus
Our beautiful wild male Superb Blue Wren - Malurus cyaneus - seen from the other side of the offending glass pane.

P.S. What I thought was just a handful of ripe strawberries turned out to be an overflowing bowl full, so we made strawberry sauce topping instead.

Wildlife

Just passin’ thru …

Mother kangaroo and her joey pause briefly outside my window on their way past this morning.
Mother kangaroo and her joey pause briefly outside my window on their way past this morning.

These two are “regulars”, but not usually seen this time of day – 10:00am. Often on dusk or especially early morning they come in to graze on the grass around the house, probably as it’s regularly cut so there’s lots of fresh new growth, and it’s often greener than the paddock.

These two usually keep to themselves, perhaps while the joey is still young. They’re not often seen when the bigger mob is around. Being wild kangaroos they and the mob are all very wary of humans and always beat a hasty retreat, when they notice human presence – usually before I can grab my camera.

Late evening we’ve seen mobs of ‘roos numbering 30 or more, and often see evidence of their trails, footprints and signs of them having been grazing around the front of the house.

Birds

First Day Out!

The Blue Faces Parrot Finch babies left the nest today. They have disappeared into the bushes and I’ve only seen one briefly. Hopefully in the coming days as they get used to the flight and get more confident they’ll come out of hiding.

This is one of the adults. They love to scurry about in the low branches of the bushes in their planted flight area. They are so active and have such a well established planted flight it is difficult to photograph them – they have far too much cover to escape into!