Happy New Year part 2

Button

 Happy New Year part 2

Boy, there is plenty to come.

You have met Button & Boof (still no sight of Boof since the 28^th). I suspect I know Boofs fate, but more on that later.

Boof

Well it turns out Button has a favourite spot on the fence to perch on, which is terrific, as it allows me to set up my GoPro close up so I can film all the interactions. And what a bonus that has turned out to be.

A couple of these interactions;

Bully Baby doesn’t play well with others. When it's her turn to feed the bub, check out her indecision to feed or not to feed. It’s a hoot.

http://youtu.be/e1JAzK_WZCg

When a Kooka selects a piece of meat they are going to feed to the baby, they make a particular call (a repeated chirp)

http://youtu.be/Chj1fr8av-0

Well it turns out that when Mum picks up a piece of meat to feed the bub, Bully Baby makes the same begging call as the baby Button hoping the subterfuge works.

This vid of Mum with a whinging kid on each side, is doing her head in (how many parents can relate to this).
http://youtu.be/fBcCBgHNzvs

This vantage point provided so much more than just close up’s of Button.

Such as Synchronised Flying;

And the Agapanthus series;

Shooo
What can I tell you, Clowns & Agapanthus freak me right out

What sort of hell is this?
Knowing what I’m like with Agapanthus & Clowns,
WHAT YOU DIDN’T THINK I’D NOTICE!!!!
What other torments do you have planned for me?
Why not dress it up in Oh I don’t know…….A BLOODY CLOWN SUIT

PW “Kook you’re such a wimp,
It’s not like Agapanthus can eat you or anything".
Kook “PW, I can’t look – I know this will end badly”

 

The weather has been hot this week, so let’s see how the spray bottle goes this week.

Bitey having a bit of fun

Well they have all grown to love it. And I mean love it.

Boss enjoying a spray

But Bitey more than most.

You can’t spray him enough. He copped 2 full spray bottles the other day (I stopped due to cramping arms). Its great fun for us both as I can sit at the table having a cold beer while spraying him sitting on the veranda rail. It's like shooting those moving ducks in an amusement park.

The Gandalf look

What it did do was expose a wound just in front of his eye. The Vet & Wires advised if they got involved to treat, they would need to capture the bird & take it for treatment. This wasn’t an option as if a Kookaburra is removed from the group (and only for a short time), it will be rejected by the Family, and likely killed.

the wound

So I decided I would treat this myself by flushing the wound twice daily with saline solution.

After only 5 days the wound is looking pretty good. More on his recovery in my next post.

day1

day3



day5

Another bonus of the new camera position was the other birds that also liked that same spot.
There are a few birds that visit my backyard that are masters of avoiding the lens.
Turns out they like the same spot as Button.

Mr Pee Wee

 

Mrs Pee Wee



Wattle bird

& again

you'ld swear that fence was hot

 

Noisy Miner coming

Noisy Miner leaving

So now onto Boof’s possible fate.
I think he may have been taken by an Eagle.
I’ve heard the Kookas make an Eagle Alert call plenty of times, but haven’t been able to video it.

If one of the family spot an Eagle, they sound the alert, the others look up & when they spot it, they also start the warning. By looking at them, they leave you no doubt exactly were the Eagle is.

When I’ve seen them do this, they stay where they are, but keep sounding the alert until the threat flys out of the area. The Eagles are usually up high (100 – 150m).

Well of late I’ve noticed an increase of Eagle activity. With the camera mounted close to the fence to get close ups of Button, I got a couple of the family doing the Eagle alert.

http://youtu.be/K9KJULZx1mA

Well, the other day, I had my camera set up getting shots of the family, when Boss spotted an Eagle, out went the alert, picked up by all. What happened next was a surprise. In a flash, they all flew off to the tree next door (I’ve never seen this before).
However, they left something important behind……Button. She just sat there keeping her eye on the Eagle (like she’d seen the others do in the past).

I looked up to see a Sea Eagle circling just above the trees.

Sea Eagle

getting too close for comfort

At this point I thought Human intervention may be required. So armed with my trusty Ricoh point & shoot, I went downstairs to shoo her off (I did leave the GoPro running in case is was too late). I took a photo and shoo’d her off.

Button keeping her eye on the Eagle, not knowing the danger she was in

The Sea Eagle keep circling for a few more minutes then dropped down behind the Mangrove Trees to grab something (not sure what he got). Earlier that morning I had seen a Wedge Tail Eagle fly close to the tree tops. With so many chicks around (birds must really look forward to spring), I can understand the increase in Eagles.

So Button knew the Eagle alert call, yet didn’t know the threat was imminent.

I suspect what could have been Buttons fate, was in fact Boofs fate.

Well that’s it for my 1^st blog for 2015. I hope the next 12 months will be so interesting.

So, with that, I wish you all a terrific year.

Here's the Family singing in New Years Eve.
http://youtu.be/uMlGalZtDrs