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| Me & my good mate Boss. Back at the beginning. |
6 years ago I was visited by a Kookaburra I named Boss. I
started to feed him. While I didn’t feed him daily, he would turn up every
arvo. He seemed content to just sit next to me & enjoy the last of the days
light as we looked out over the reserve. We certainly felt like "Lords over
all we surveyed”
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| The View |
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| Me & a good mate feeling like the Lords over all we survey. |
After a while he introduced me to his mate, Bashful. She was
the exact opposite of Boss. She was quite timid, and even after 6 years, is not comfortable sitting on my hand to be fed. Her name, Bashful ,really suits
her.
While she might be Bashful by nature, she's gregarious by attitude. I sit on my veranda with a spray bottle and on hot summer days squirt my birds. Some love it, some tolerate it, some hate it. Bashful absolutely LOVES it.
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Bashful with The Gandalf look.
That's after 3 squirt bottles
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After 6 months of this I got the idea of starting my blog –
Brads Burras. So I went out and purchased a GoPro, to document what I hoped
would quite an interesting & unusual story.
BEST DECISION I’VE EVER MADE.
My relationship with Boss grew stronger & stronger.
Every year (around the 1st of January) he would bring around his
newly fledged bub for an intro, and even encouraged them up to the veranda
railing to meet me.
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| Here's Bitey living up to his name |
The 1st year it was Bitey,
N
ext year was the arrival of the twins Bully & Brave Baby,
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| Bully - she really was. |
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Brave Baby enjoying a hosing at the end of a hot summers day
He's another one that absolutely loves water. |
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| Button |
A
fter this is Button,
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My only photo of Biff, just after he fledged.
He disappeared a few days later.
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Followed by Biff (I think
an Eagle may have got him a month after he fledged).
And
last year’s bub was
Boof. Boof
& I bonded straight away, and we seem to have formed that special bond, very much like that I have with his dad, Boss.
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My new bestie Boof.
Is that the look of adoration?
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Something has happened to the family this year. I haven’t
seen Boss & Bashful at all & I fear the worst (there was no bub this year either), Bitey left more
than a year ago to find his own territory as did Bully, so all that’s left
this year is Boof (she might be a girl & too young to breed), Brave Baby
& Button, both poorly named boys (they don’t start to show their sex for
the 1st year or so. I’ll bet they’re great fighters with names like
that)
Anyway, this relationship with Boss, & my new camera
gave me the idea to put in a bird feeding station I called the Tapas Bar.
In my mind, to write an interesting blog my birds needed
names & personalities. Until I started down this path, I had no idea that
in fact they did have personalities. But they certainly do & it’s what
helps tell them apart (they all look the bloody same to me). So everyone &
everything has a name.
First I’ll start with the hardware. My 1st GoPro
is called Headley. The 2nd is called Heidi (after Heidi Fleiss – the
1st time I set it up, I came home to find it flat on its back &
still recording – go on, look up Heidi Fleiss).
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| Headley GoPro |
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| And Heidi GoPro |
The birdbaths are called the Tranquillity Pool & the
Wrens Splash Pool.
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| The Tranquillity Pool, oh yeah & Headley |
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The Wrens Splash Pool
This is also doubles as a fish & frog habitat |
Now for the Cast of Characters.
We’ll start with the Lorikeets.
Cedrick & Daphne, the baddest birds in the whole damn town, meaner than a junkyard dog. These guys
certainly add colour to the Tapas Bar in more ways than one.
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Cedrick doesn't know how to take a backward step.
Even when challenged by Russel the Raven
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There is only 1 bird that gives my Kookas any grief.
Now you would think the Kookas would win every fight,
But I've got to tell you it's 50/50. Cedrick won this one.
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| Especially when Cedrick knows a bit of Kung Foo |
The next to feature daily are the beautiful ones. The Satin
Bowerbirds.
Brad & Angelina, their kids Shiloh & Knox. The
females & juveniles are called green birds and are very hard to separate by sex. That is until something miraculous happens at age 7. The boys reach sexual
maturity and change colour to black. Knox has just started that process. Shiloh
is still a few years off.
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This is Brad collecting more blue things for his mansion
I say mansion because that's what it should be by now
with the 100's of rings & tops I've given him
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| Blue is the new Black didn't you know |
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Maybe one of my best photos.
I don't know how Headley caught those balls of juice squirting out? |
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Only one thing could make this scene look prettier.
The arrival of Angelina
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| Don't you just love her eyes |
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Now Shiloh's not a bird to be reckoned with.
Here he is with all his war paint on.
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| He & Red just don't get on. |
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This is Knox. He's approaching 7 years of age.
He's started that transition from a green bird to that of a black bird like his dad.
How do I know? Check his beak. Young males it should be black. Adult males it's cream
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You may be thinking how do I know Shiloh’s a boy if he’s a
few years off colour change? While I said they are hard to separate the sexes, it's not impossible. If you get a good look at their eyes the girls are all blue, whereas the boys
have a little bit a mauve around the pupil.
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| See the Mauve in Shiloh's eye? |
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That Mauve is missing in Angelina's eye.
Girls are all blue
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Here comes Red. See how is chest is puffed up.
I wouldn't be surprised if Shiloh was hiding in the Maraya.
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The other reason he has to be next on the list is what’s
happened to him the last 3 years.
He has been selected as a Foster Dad by visiting Koels that
come down each Oct/Nov, stay the summer, and leave late March. Koel’s are brood
parasites, which means they lay their eggs in another birds nest for them to
feed & raise. Then Mum, Dad & Bub all fly back to New Guinea.
So you will see Red (& his mates) again later in this
post when I get to the Koels. Red selects a different mate each year and the
first year it was Little John, named so because of her little wattles (again, bloody unfortunate name. I thought he was
a boy until the following photo, and subsequent Koel Feeding).
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| Little John with her little wattles |
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A fairly defining moment.
It's about now I started thinking that maybe Little John was in fact a girl.
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Then last year it was Wilma the Red Wattlebird (you know
like Wilma & Fred from the Flintstones, except its Wilma & Red. Get it? Wilma & Red Bwahahaha. I kill me sometimes)
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Wilma. She has no wattle at all.
Seems Red likes em young. |
The other Wattlebirds that visit
are the Little Wattlebirds.
These guys are the complete opposite to
their cousins the Red Wattlebirds. Wallace (Wally to his friends) as such a
quiet, demure bird. Capable of zero aggression. I’d love to see more of this
cute little bird, but they’re one of the only birds not interested in what I serve on
the Tapas Bar. They do however love a swim. If I didn’t have the Tranquillity
Pool or the Wrens Splash Bar, I never see them.
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Wallace (Wally to his friends) is quite an accomplished swimmer
He goes for a dip daily.
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As well as being a proficient swimmer, he is also an accomplished aerobatic.
You see birds can't fly upside down.
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Wallace (Wally to his friends) and his new girl friend.
She just can't take her eyes off him.
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While we’re talking cousins, the Satin Bowerbirds have a cousin, the
Green Catbirds.
Kit the Green Catbird found my backyard 3 years ago. This
guy is an enigma to me. He lives across the road in the bush and visits for a
few months every year. And not the same few months. Yet I hear him every night
at dusk making his call, and less than 100 meters from my place. He LOVES the
food I put up (especially the grapes), taking as much as he can fit in his beak,
yet goes for months without paying a visit.
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Kit is a striking looking bird.
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| But a real guts |
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| No surprises here. Like his cousin Shiloh, Kit's not a big fan of Red either. |
Now it’s time for the Koels.
The last few years the Reserve behind my place has been the
destination for my New Guinean visitors. I won’t dwell on their story as I’ve
already done a couple of posts on them. Here are links to them. Fascinating
birds & worth the read.
https://bradsburras.blogspot.com/2016/02/its-summer-storm-birds-are-here.html
The original breeding pair I named Kath (Mum) & Kym
(Dad). I was privileged as these birds rarely come down from the treetops. But
I was lucky, as they took a shine to the fruit I served up at the Tapas Bar, so
I was able to get photos few are able to get. They picked Red & Little John
(remember my Red Wattlebirds) as Foster Parents. Kath & Kym’s offspring I
called Storm. Again as Red & Little John were Tapas Bar regulars, I was
afford some terrific photos of them feeding their giant baby Storm.
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| Kath |
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| Kym |
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| And Storm their bub |
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| I wouldn't do this. No Way. What if the kid sneezed? |
The next year Storm came back to my backyard with his Mate I
called Thunder, and again Red & Wilma were selected as the Foster Parents.
If you haven’t already checked out my post re- The Storm Birds are Back (linked
above) you should, I think you will be fascinated with my observations &
photos.
Anyway, their bub I called Hoover. He was a real eating
machine. He was so named as when he started to self-feed he was like a plague
of locusts. He would literally “Hoover” up all the food at the Tapas Bar within
minutes.
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| Storm mid transition stage to his adult colours. |
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Cedrick's met his match with Thunder.
She's from New Guinea & hasn't heard of his rep as the nasty one.
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I'd rather feed this guy for a day than a week.
He was going thru a full mango a day.
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| It's either true love or blind faith. |
Grey Butcherbirds also visit every year.
Stan the Grey Butcher bird is another regular. Named after
my local Butcher when I was a kid. Back in the day when he first started coming
around I didn’t know much about birds, so when he bought his young bub around I
named him Pied. Another unfortunate name, as I was soon informed by members on
Birds of Oz, he was in fact a Grey Butcherbird, not a Pied Butcherbird – BUGGER.
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Stan's a true predator.
Here's the look that should give you the fear of God, if you were small critter
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| Stan's poorly named child - Pied |
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Bet you didn't know birds had whiskers.
And they perform exactly the same function that they do with cats.
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These guys are real songsters, here is Pied singing his heart
out.
Next up are the Crested Pigeons & Spotted Doves.
I have a breeding pair of Crested Pigeons I’ve named after
the lead characters in a TV show. So here is Judge John Deed & his mate Jo
Mills. I have been lucky that a lot of the names I choose actually match the
bird. The crest on the pigeons reminded
of a judges wig and thus their names, however what I didn’t know at the time
was how close they matched the characters from the TV show. The real Judge is a
soft spoken bloke, that’s a ladies man and can’t stand bullies & will not
take a backward step.
Now to Judge John Deed the bird. Also a ladies man (not at
all monogamous), and the only bird that stands up to Cedrick & Red (both
Bullies). He’s great.
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| The Judge. He even wears his shadow on his chest like a badge. |
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Cedrick, you might know Kung Foo, But I know how to dance the "Bump"
And with that Cedrick was sent flying off the Tapas Bar
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Red thought a sneak attack to take a bite out of the Judges bum was a good idea
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| WRONG move Red. The Judge opens his wing and.............. |
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Then like a Venus Fly Trap, the jail doors close around him.
Look close & you can see Red tucked in there.
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The Spotted Doves I’ve named Rhonda & Ketut after a
series of TV commercials shown here in Australia involving an Australian girl
(Rhonda) & a Balinese guy (Ketut). Spotted Doves are an introduced species from Indonesia, thus my need for an Indonesian name.
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| Rhonda & Ketut. |
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I make special flower for you today Rhonda.
You look so hot today. Like a sunrise
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My Pee Wee’s are next on my list.
Pedro & Pernicious Pee Wee have been with me from the
get go. They too are colourful characters, but more so Pernicious. At different
times of the year she will spar with her own reflection, so is often seen
attacking doors & car mirrors. Unfortunately for Headley my camera, she
must also see her reflection in his lens and gives him tons of grief as she
attacks him relentlessly. He’ll be asking for danger money soon.
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| Pedro coming in at a rate of knots with a word or 2 for Headley. |
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| But it's Pernicious that gives Headley the hardest time. |
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| She scares the shit out of him. |
Noisy Miners must be one of Australia’s most despised birds & I
love them.
They have a dreadful rep for attacking and annoying all
other bird species. Driving them out of nests & taking them over, even attacking and killing other birds. I HAVE
SEEN NONE OF THIS. The exact opposite as a matter of fact. Mal (yeah that’s
his name btw) seems to be on everyone’s shit list. Most times, if there is a
fight, it’s Mal getting the shit kicked out of him.
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Mal & the rest of his clan.
That's Mal on the edge of the Tranquillity holding council.
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| Unfortunately Shiloh & Mal don't get on so well. |
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These boots are made for walking
And that's just what they'll do
One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you |
Ducks, Bloody Ducks are the next on my list.
J Edgar the Mallard. Didn’t he nearly have an appointment
with the baking-dish? He nearly shut down the Tapas Bar. “Hoover” the name, was
already taken, so that’s how he got to be called J Edgar, but that’s what he
did to the Tapas Bar. Hoover up all its contents. It would take him less than 2
minutes to clean up all the food on offer. He had to be stopped. Luckily for
him he eluded me a number of times that I had tried to trap him, and then, just
as luckily for him, he stopped visiting the Tapas Bar.
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| J Edgar, did you know you have a drooling food problem? |
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| He's not one to share. Even with his own kind. |
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| J Edgar hoovering up all he can see..... |
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| Then taking a relaxing swim in the Tranquillity Pool. |
My next visitor rarely visits, but often enough to deserve a name and
that’s my resident Willy Wagtail.
Billy, the Willy Willy Wagtail. He eats very small insects,
so nothing I serve up interests him, and he usually gets all his moisture from
the prey he eats, so doesn’t drink a lot of water. But on occasion he does
visit the Tranquillity Pool. He is such a small bird, but his heart is as big as
a lions. When Bruiser the Sea Eagle is around, he’s the first one to take the
attack to him. Billy’s wing span is 6 inches. Bruiser’s is 6 feet.
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| Russel copping an earful from Billy |
The newest member to the Tapas Bar crowd is the Raven.
I hope Russel will now be a regular. He’s raising a family just
down the reserve a few 100 meters, and discovered the Tapas Bar a few months
ago, when he was raising his 2 kids. His introduction to the Tapas Bar has been
a bit of a baptism by fire. Every one seems to hate him except for Me & Headley.
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| Russel giving Headley his best "Steely-eyed" look, |
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| Cedrick giving Russel his best "Steely-eyed" look. |
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| Storm giving Russel his best "Steely-eyed" look. |
To finish off, we have Magpies, Sea Eagles, Rats & what I believe
is the world’s ugliest bird, the Brush Turkey.
Bonaparte & Josephine the Magpies have turned up a couple of times
recently. These guys are real smart & such characters. I can’t tell how much I
want these guys to become regulars.
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Can't you see Bonaparte walking along, hands behind his back, inspecting his fleet
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Now for the exact opposite of the Magpies, I DON’T WANT TO
SEE THESE TWO AGAIN.
Remy the Rat made a daring visit to the Tapas Bar. I can’t
say I’m surprised with all the food that’s always on offer, but I was surprised he
did it in broad daylight, when this is a Kookaburras Backyard.
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| I think I smell food. Any Kookaburras around????????? |
I can’t tell you how I prayed for one to turn up right now
& claim this little sucker right in front of Headley. NOT A BLOODY
KOOKABURRA IN SIGHT!!!!!
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| Nup. No Kookaburras. I might just grab me a feed. |
Another unwanted guest was this guy Dyson (named after the vacuum
cleaner). He closed the Tapas Bar for 5 days while he was around. I didn’t want
to encourage him, as like J Edgar the Mallard, it took him seconds to eat
everything.
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| Only a Mother could love that face. |
He soon moved on thank God. Here’s a funny video of Dyson.
Now the last bird I will never get a good photo of, but he keeps
everyone on their toes as he circles above. Meet Bruiser the Sea Eagle.
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| Bruiser the Bouncer. He keeps everyone in order. |
And with that, my Who’s Who of the Tapas Bar is finished.
However, this is a work in progress, and I’m sure as word gets out, my list of
regulars will grow.
So, if you’ve stayed till the end, thanks and a small gift
from Boss & Myself
See you all next time
If you enjoyed this post, here's a link to my latest post;
https://bradsburras.blogspot.com/2021/05/cedrick-nasty-lorikeet.html
