The Story of the Tapas Bar

Back in 2011 I was friended by a Kookaburra I named Boss. That friendship has continued year after year, until his & Bashful's disappearance a few years ago.

Boss

If it wasn’t for this, I wouldn’t have the level of interest in birds as I do today.

I’ve experienced many fantastic moments of interaction amongst my family of Kookaburras and
I thought, if only I could get this on camera? And that was the catalyst for my first GoPro in 2015. I named him Headley.

The versatility of that camera meant I could do a lot more than wear it on my head when I feed my Kookas, if I had a bird feeding station, I could mount it right next to it & operate it remotely from the comfort of my Veranda 10 meters away.

With that thought in mind, the Tapas Bar was created. One of my better ideas.

While practical I always thought it was a bit sterile, so when I could get flowers from my garden I would decorate to give it a more natural look.

When enough is enough.

Not only did it add some texture to the photo, as it turned out, gave the Kookas something to play with.

A flower me Lady

I put a Monstera fruit out for the Bowerbirds, but the Kookaburras used it as a toy. This might be the only video of a Log-Rolling Kookaburra. Watch till the end for a great finish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6GpbT2ptO0

Earlier this year I had the thought of replacing the Tapas with a new top. A tree round. So I asked around and a mate had a mate that lopped trees. Problem solved, however it was a bit too big and the birds were standing just a little too far from my camera. 

Turning a Pigs Ear

So I asked Colin, my sisters partner, if he was able to cut it back a bit (he's got every tool under the sun). Job done, all it needed now was oiling. 

Hard to believe it was the same piece of wood.

Into a Silk Purse

I hoped for some good photos, but never expected the results I would get with the Tapas Bar & Headley's camera work.

Balls of Juiciness

A Glass of Water

Not only did I get to photo birds I only see at a distance, it attracted birds I had no idea where around.

Like my Satin Bowerbird family I've named after Brad & Angelina

Brad

Angelina

Knox is their oldest son.
He's about 7 years old & just starting the transition to a Black bird.
The beak is the first to change from black to cream.

Shiloh

The Green Catbird I named Kit was a real surprise. I'd never heard of them before.

Kit the Catbird

These cats have claws

The visitors that travel the furthest are a pair of Koels. These guys fly down from New Guinea every Oct/Nov and stay until April. I really like these guys. Not only are they pretty, but they're a Cuckoo (they lay their eggs in another birds nest for them to raise). I find them fascinating & I've done posts on them before. If you missed them, here's the links 

http://bradsburras.blogspot.com/2016/02/its-summer-storm-birds-are-here.html

http://bradsburras.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-storm-birds-are-back.html

Kym the dad

Kath the mum

Storm the bub

Red the Foster parent feeding Storm 

Storm's first feed by himself

The success of the Tapas Bar, led me to put in a birdbath I called the Tranquility Pool.

The birdbath was a solar panel water feature. The birds didn’t quite go for it and it was a bit of a White Elephant. They did visit it, but only occasionally, and usually not the result is was looking for.

One day I took the center piece out and all of a sudden the birds loved it. They were wanting something deeper they could dive into.

Wallace (Wally to his friends)
A Little Wattlebird

Red the Red Wattlebird & Angelina sorting out Tapas Bar protocols

A few years later my sister made a mistake by storing some pots under my house. I commandeered one to create the Wrens Splash Pool. It was deep and suited my goal to breed frogs, yet give the smaller birds somewhere to drink & swim. 

The Wrens Splash Pool

3 years on

Wallace (Wally to his friends) doing what the Splash Pool was put in to do.

Success. This is a Lewins Honeyeater.
I've only seen them hanging around the tree tops
I'd never seen one up close.

Here's Storm all grown up.

It was a smash with the birds, but not so much on the frog front. A couple of years ago I released about 200 Striped Marsh Frog tadpoles (these guys take 9 months to mature to frogs and slowly but surely they all disappeared), late last year I released 6 Dwarf Green Tree Frogs (I won't know if they survived until spring when they should start to call), and recently 50 Perons Tree Frog tadpoles (these guys mature quickly - 3 months or so). 

Here's their video

https://youtu.be/nqp8WDXPlc4

I'm down to 1/2 a dozen now. I've no idea where they're going. They may be eating each other so I've introduced blood worms to their diet.

Striped Marsh Frog tadpoles

Here's me releasing the Dwarf Eastern Green Tree frogs that the guy that mow's my lawn gave me (Thanks Stu).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtOntz1DoOI

One of the Dwarf Eastern Green Tree Frogs.

Perrons Tree Frog tadpoles

Back to the Tapas Bar. 

Not only did it introduce a stack of birds to me, I get to see their interactions.

How they respond to each other, who's who in the pecking order and how that changes depending on the season, and in all this education some terrific photos.

With no time to fly off, and not wanting to relinquish his spot,
What option did Cedrick have....

But to lie low
And hope Button misses

This photo is a tad embarrassing for Cedrick
He's supposed to be the tough guy at the Tapas Bar.

Cedrick isn't particular to who cops his wrath.

Especially Kookaburras

They're just SOO easy

Until they start to bite back

Believe it or not, Cedrick won this fight.
His tactic is to gag the opponent with his head,
and when he stops to take a breath,
kick him in the balls and fly off.

Young Buster is finding out Ibis are not only ugly,
but they bite.

I get to see a lot of different interactions between the birds that visit the Tapas Bar that continually surprise me, but nothing more than this. I was on the veranda watching what was happening at the Tapas Bar when I noticed Cedrick walk over the edge & drop a piece of grape down to a duck below.

He then went back, chewed on another grape, walked to the edge and dropped it off to the duck.

I couldn’t believe my eyes as he did over and over. And all in front of the camera.

Here’s the video

https://youtu.be/AX6YgHynfVg

Please Sir
I want some more.

You Want??

MORE!

It’s been ages since my last post, and a lot has happened, so here's some of my visitors you've missed.

Behind bars.
Life looks so much more colourful on the other side.

Brush Turkeys.
A head only a mother could love.

A rare photo indeed.
A Seagull eating a chip.

Pretty as they look they need to be deterred.

They have a dreadful habit of eating all of the food then the Tapas Bar itself.

A Wren thru the looking glass

1st and only visit of this King Parrot.
He much prefers the green bananas on my trees.

Masked Lapwing Plovers are truly fearsome birds
1st to take on the Sea Eagles
and God forbid, you approach their nest.

Bin Chicken

The ghost of times past

Tunnel Vision

The Judge, a Crested Pigeon
Common and underappreciated. 

What a year it's been. Here in Australia we've had devastating fires, followed by floods and now Covid 19. Not a lot to smile about.

Well, I hope this has bought a smile to your dial. Stay safe & healthy.

See you soon

If you enjoyed this post, here's a link to my latest post;

https://bradsburras.blogspot.com/2021/05/cedrick-nasty-lorikeet.html