Strut your stuff!

Spring has very much sprung here in Atlanta. Migrants are passing through. Bluebirds are building a nest in my backyard box. And all kinds of birds are emulating this red-winged blackbird; strutting their stuff to attract a mate.

I get red-winged blackbirds regularly in my backyard, but I’ve never seen once putting on a display like this. I took this photo last May at the Biggest Week in American Birding Festival outside of Toledo, Ohio. If you go—and you should, if you can—you’ll not only see more warblers than you ever thought possible. You’ll also see many other larger passerines, such as orioles and different types of blackbirds.

I didn’t hang around long enough to learn if this hard-working guy was successful that day. But no doubt he found a lady bird eventually. Who could resist?

If spring hasn’t come to your house yet—I’m looking at you, Minneapolis—don’t worry. It will be there soon. In the meantime, let’s all get out their in our spring finery and try to put as much color into the world as our fine feathered friends!

The littlest among them

There are 17 different kinds of penguins. This one is the littlest, standing about 13 inches tall. Hence, its name is the Little Penguin. In addition to being the smallest of the penguin species, it has the shortest life span—about six years.

Little penguins spend 80% of their lives at sea swimming and foraging for food, and return to their nesting burrows to breed, raise chicks, molt and to take a break after days or weeks spent at sea. It is when little penguins return to land, at sunset each day, that you can see them tumbling from the waves, waddling across the beach and into their colony along the coastline.  Little penguins only move around on land after sunset when their land predators are sleeping. Flying predators include large seabirds like petrels, swimming predators can include certain species of seals in other area's of Australia and New Zealand. 

A great place to see this penguin parade is on Phillip Island, about an hour and a half from Melbourne. A conservancy has special seating built near the penguins’ nesting area. You not only get to see them, you also get to hear the babies calling for their moms and dads as they come ashore. It’s just adorable.

But you can’t take pictures. The flash from your camera would disorient and possibly blind the penguins. If they’;re blind, they can’t find food, so they and their babies would starve. That’s why I didn’t take my camera gear from the parking area to where the penguins are. But some of the baby penguins were up and about right outside their burrows before dusk, and if I had brought my camera, I could have gotten a much better picture of this little guy than I was able to get with my phone’s camera.

Adult little penguins are the only penguins in the world with blue and white feathers instead of black and white feathers. They are 'countershaded', the dark blue back of penguins blends in with the water to camouflage against any predators flying or swimming overhead, and the light stomach blends in with the sky to camouflage against any predators swimming underneath.

Happy to meet you!

This is one of New Zealand’s iconic birds, the Weka (WEH-kuh). The weka doesn’t fly and it isn’t shy. They’ll walk right up to you, especially if they think you’ve got something they might want to eat. They are not found in all parts of New Zealand. There is a small group of them living and thriving on Mou Waho Island, in Lake Wanaka. The island is a short boat ride from the city of Wanaka, and well worth your time.

The weka is about the size of a chicken. They are 3-6 times larger than banded rails, which are considered their nearest flying relatives. Weka are currently classified as a threatened species. There are four subspecies of weka. The one pictured here is a Buff Weka. The “buff” would seem to be a description of its color rather than its physique.

Yardbirds

I love traveling to photograph birds, and I’m lucky to have been able to indulge my passion so much. But I’m also lucky to have a backyard that attracts many beautiful birds. This brown thrasher is a good example. It’s perched in the dogwood tree next to my house. For those of you who have not yet memorized the entire list of state birds, the brown thrasher is the state bird of Georgia. Living up to its name, I usually see it on the ground stirring up leaves and other ground cover looking for something to eat.

On any given day, I can see about 20 different species of birds in my backyard. I keep five feeders well stocked for seed-eating birds and water in the bird bath. There are lots of trees and bushes surrounding my yard, and easy paths in and out of the yard. The latter is especially important when hawks, dogs and cats come by.

I also keep a nesting box. Most years, wrens or chickadees get to it first. But this year, a pair of bluebirds seem to have claimed it. I’m very much looking forward to having at least one clutch of babies fledging the next later this spring.

Dorothy famously says that if she ever went looking for her heart’s desire, she wouldn’t have to go further than her own back yard. As this brown thrasher shows, there’s some truth in that.

Crimson Rosella

I know it might sound to you like the name of a skin disease, but that’s not what crimson rosella is. THIS is what a crimson rosella is:

It’s a parrot native to eastern and south eastern Australia, commonly found in gardens and mountain forests. They primarily live in forests and woodlands, preferring older and wetter forests. They will also live in human-affected areas such as farmlands, pastures, fire-breaks, parks, reserves, gardens, and golf-courses. I got this picture while staying in a cabin in Halls Gap, in Grampians National Park. They are rarely found in treeless areas. At night, they roost on high tree branches.

These beauties are about 14 inches long. Crimson rosellas forage in trees, bushes, and on the ground for the fruit, seeds, nectar, berries, and nuts of a wide variety of plants. Despite feeding on fruits and seeds, rosellas are not useful to the plants as seed-spreaders, because they crush and destroy the seeds in the process of eating them. Their diet often puts them at odds with farmers whose fruit and grain harvests can be damaged by the birds, which has resulted in large numbers of rosellas being shot in the past.  

On the other hand, rosellas will also eat many insects and their larvae, including termites, aphids, beetles, weevils, caterpillars, moths, and water boatmen. As termites are a major menace in South Australia, people should LOVE any bird that eats them.

April Fools!

This bird looks like it could be part an April Fools of Day prank, but it’s no joke. When I spotted this bird the first time, I thought to myself, “What in the world could THAT be?!” The answer is: a European goldfinch.

Like all the white people who live in Australia, this colorful bird isn’t a true native. The European goldfinch was introduced into Australia in the 1850s and 1860s with releases in Melbourne first in 1863, in Adelaide in 1879, Sydney before 1886 and around Hobart in the early 1880s or earlier. Goldfinches had established themselves over their present range in south-eastern Australia by the 1900s. 

Unlike many of the non-native animals brought to Australia by colonists, the European goldfinch hasn’t caused any harm to any native species. They seem to get quite well with all their indigenous neighbors. There’s a lesson there for us.

Play Ball!

Today is, for me, the REAL first day of spring: Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season. I plan to be watching when Mariano Rivera throws out the ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium this afternoon.

Because it’s spring here in North America, and the beginning of the new season for what some of us still like to think of as the national pastime, I’m taking a break from the Australian and New Zealand birds. Today, here is another sure sign of spring in much of the continent, the chestnut-sided warbler.

This little guy spends the winter months in a range from Central America to northern South America—something I’m trying to persuade my wife we should do, too. But by now, he’s on his way north to the breeding territory in the northern U.S. and Canada.

I took this picture last May at the Magee Marsh in northwest Ohio, a spot where thousands of warblers stop on their way north. That’s why it’s home to an event called The Biggest Week in American Birding. If you’re a bird watcher, this is a festival you should attend at least once. Warblers like this are typically hard to spot, because they spend most of their time high up in trees, flitting about almost constantly. But at the BWAB, they’re right at eye level. It’s amazing! The festival has a great website that will have all the information you need.

Happy spring and happy birding to all. And if you’re a baseball fan, have a great season, even if you’re a Red Sox fan.

A Welcome Sight in a Wondrous Place

This pretty little bird is an Australian native called a Welcome Swallow. Like other members of their family the world over, they are acrobatic fliers, catching insects as the dart across ponds. I would liked to have gotten a nice shot of a welcome swallow in flight, displaying its familiar forked tail. But they’re just too fast for me. So I had to wait for one of them to take a short break on a reed along the banks of a pond on Fraser Island.

Fraser Island is a marvel unto itself, one I’d urge you to include on your Australian itinerary. It lies off the coast of Queensland near the city of Hervey Bay (which Australians pronounce as “Harvey Bay”). About 75 miles long and 15 miles wide at its widest point, it’s the world’s largest sand island, and the only place in the world where a rain forest grows on top of sand dunes.

Fraser Island and its sister islands were formed over hundreds of thousands of years as winds, waves and ocean currents have carried sands from the far south-east of Australia, and from as far away as Antarctica (but before Australian and Antarctica split from each other), out to the continental shelf, and in towards the land again in a zigzag pattern, to form a string of sand islands along the Queensland coast.

While most of the sand that makes up Fraser Island has come from the far south-east of Australia, some of it has traveled for thousands of miles and millions of years from Antarctica, starting its journey before Australia and Antarctica split from each other.

About 700 million years ago Antarctica had mountain ranges that rival the modern-day Himalayas. These mountain ranges were eroded with the resulting sands being accumulated on the continental shelf where Fraser Island now lies.

Periodic changes in the earth's temperature have created changes in sea levels which have helped to form the island.

There are two lodges on Fraser Island, and camping is permitted. If you’re not taking a guider tour of the island, you’ll need a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get around.