The Winter Doldrums

Winter is a quiet time for the Tapas Bar & my Blog. The birds are neither breeding nor raising bubs, so there is little agro. Also the days are short and cold – not conducive to spending long hours outdoors filming.
When it’s like this I still have my Kookaburra Family. My stalwarts. They are a constant in my life. They’re here every day and seem to truly enjoy my company.

Boof cuddling in under the watchful eye of Brave Baby

Boof & I in a deep and meaningful

This winter however, was different. We’ve just exited the warmest winter since records started so I’m not sure if I’ve got so many photos due to the warmer weather & the birds obliging, or the fact I spent more time out there taking them.  So Please…………..

...…….Keep Reading

When I said there was less agro due to winter, there is always the exception to the rule & that’s Cedrick & Daphne the Lorikeets. They’re not testosterone driven. They’re not jealously guarding the Tapas Bar as a food source for their bubs. These guys just love to fight.  They don’t care who. They don’t care when. Each other. Different species. Doesn’t matter.

WHO?? Little ol me.

Aggressive? Not little ol me.

Well, maybe just a tad!

It's not the size of the dog in the fight.

It's the size of the fight in the dog.

NEVER! NEVER say bite me to a Lorikeet

Haaaaalitosis. Halitosis.

Do I really have bad breath????

Answer carefully Cedrick!

Here's my answer Daphne!!!

SURPRISE! Cedrick

NOT NOW!!!! Daphne's here

Bacon Snakes are always a good source of funny photos. The Kookaburras just LOVE them, and they put themselves in all sorts of unusual positions trying to release them.

How I LOVE my Bacon Snakes.

Unless they've been tied down

This is going to look ugly

Bugger, can't go any further this way.

I'll have to try the other direction.

OH SHIT!! If he lets go now 

that's going to fling me all the way to the other side of the bay

just like a sling-shot

He's a funny bugger is our Brad

For those that follow my blog will know I have a couple of Burmese cats that co-share the veranda with my Kookaburra Family. It’s a tenuous relationship, however, it works. 7 years and there’s been no fatalities on either side. Having said that I came home last month & Devil greeted me at the front door like he usually does, except this time he was on the outside. How had he got out. I checked my GoPro footage for the day and caught a glimpse of him limping around the backyard. Now for those that own a Burmese any of the following scenarios could have been true as they are notoriously clumsy. Lying in the sun on the edge of the veranda he rolled over – and fell off. Wrestled with Hyde, his bigger brother, and was thrown off the veranda, or 1 of my Kookaburra Family was on the railing & Devil dived up, missed the bird and sailed straight over the edge. I’ll never know.

So the other night I was watching TV with both the cats curled up asleep on my headrest, when Hyde heard something that caught his attention? He was down & scratching around under a trophy cabinet I have in the lounge room. His insistence soon had Devils attention so now both cats were trying to reach something tucked out of reach. This went for some minutes with me thinking it was probably a coachroach (they fly in from the waterfront attracted to the veranda lights). So both cats are at one end totally fixed when a little grey blur dashes out from the other end a slipped under my bedroom door. I was the only one to notice. I opened the door, moved all furniture away from the walls and moved the cats in. All they wanted to do was go back to the cabinet. So I locked them in my bedroom. After ½ an hour of meowing to come out I reluctantly opened my door. They had completely lost interest in the mouse/rat.
I sat them on my lap and read them the riot act. I told them how bitterly disappoint I was that 2 cats were best by a bloody mouse. THEY WERE A DISGRACE TO THE FELINE RACE.
With that I went to bed. When I woke in the morning all I can say is it was like a scene from the Godfather. On the foot of my bed was a dead mouse. Seems my cats had sent me a message I couldn’t refuse.
My faith in my 2 boys restored, the mouse was confiscated for a greater good. I’ve wanted a mouse for ages to present to my Kookaburra Family, and now I had one.
I couldn’t wait to set this guy up on the Tapas Bar for the clan. I set up both my GoPro camera up at different angles as I didn’t want to miss one second of what would transpire.
And what transpired was a HUGE BLOODY DISAPPOINTMENT. They ignored it for 7 minutes in preference of some chicken & chicken bones I had also served up.

Here's the video 
https://youtu.be/FV87q2HtE5g
I have posted plenty of photos on my blog of “Koobbits” A Koobbit is a Kookaburra that can morph into a Rabbit. I think they do this to scare the others away as shown in these next photos. Why a Rabbit would scare a Kookaburra defies logic, but there you go, you've got to be a Kookaburra to get it. Well it seems Pernicious the Pee Wee also has this ability to turn into a Koobbit. This has never been filmed before and seems to have gone inter-species.

GO AWAY BROTHER. Don't make me morph

I warned you!

Pernicious trying her hand at morphing

Boof morphing into a Koobbit.

Not dissimilar to the Regan head spinning scene in the Exorcist,

but much, much faster

Something of interest is happening right now, and that’s the transition of one of my Satin Bowerbird boys from juvenile to adult. At age 7 they change from a “Green Bird” to a “Black bird”. The following family photos show Brad (the adult male), then Angelina (the mother) followed by Knox (the transitional boy) and finally Shiloh (the youngest boy). Note the difference in the beaks between Knox & Shiloh. Knox’s beak has already turned cream. Soon his green feathers will change to black like his dad. I’m looking forward to bringing you those photos as I haven’t seen that yet myself.

Brad

Angelina

Knox (In transition)

Shiloh

I try to link all my photos to a story as I have above. These next few are just photos for photos sake.

Why do I have to move?

Why is that your seat?

In the winter it's close enough to the radiator so I'm warm but not so close I sweat, and in the summer, it gets a nice cross-breeze by opening up windows here & here. It also points to the TV not at a direct angle so that I can converse with others in the room but not so indirect where the picture looks fuzzy.

I Like the look of this guy.

He's one good looking Rooster!

An Apple tossing Kookaburra

Who'd of thunk it?

Red the male Wattlebird looking at food, 

while his mate Autumn flies in wishing he was looking at her.

Devil Bird that has Tongue of Fire

I see you...………………

PLEASE, PLEASE, don't bar me from this blog.

I promise to be good :)

This brings me to the end of this blog. 

I’m looking forward to bringing you more stories and photos soon, 

so stay tuned.

Frogs, Fights and Feathered Friends

Bursting with D...Liciousness

What an interesting few weeks it’s been since my last post.  As I’ve mentioned before I have pinched a pot from my loving sister to turn into a new birdbath. The Wrens Splash Pool (that’s what I’ve named it) will also double as a fish & frog habitat. I need to keep the mosquito wrigglers at bay and to that end I’ve added 8 “Blue Eye” fish, & thanks to my lawn mower guy 12 tadpoles.

I’ve been worried that all I’ve done is introduced another food source to my already spoilt birds. 2 days after I put in the tadpoles, I came home from work to find them sunbaking right on the surface of the pool. They even let me prod them in the back before they took off to the bottom. Well seems they learn fast. Both the taddies & the fish now bolt to the dark depths at the very first sign of danger. This bodes very well for their long term future.

It won't be long and Fergus (the froggie to be) will climb from the water,

give me a backward glance and go off to look for a mate.
Bwahahah. He will have a bit of a wait as he is the first of his kind in my backyard.

He'll have to wait for the other taddies to join him.

Wilma the Red Wattlebird has also taken to the Wrens Splash Pool.

This must scare the shit out of its other residents.

I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to lying in bed listening to the frogs chirping away the night.

This first video is on me making the Wrens Splash Pool. The 2nd is the end result.

https://youtu.be/2j3GNgD5p7E
https://youtu.be/pDuri571AiQ
Spring has well and truly sprung and the birds are doing what birds do in spring. And by the number of times they’re doing it, I can expect to hear the pit-a-patter of a lot of little feet.

Thunder & Storm in a moment of tenderness.

All this mating means an increase in testosterone. This increase in testosterone means an increase in aggression. This increase in aggression means some great photos. God I look forward to spring. Maybe even more than my birds.

Cedrick the Lorrie going beak to beak with Russell the Raven

They say it's not the size of the dog in the fight,

but......

Cedrick the Lorrie is a bully. He has the temperament of a pit bull on Ice.  He prefers to think of himself as colourful.

One of the birds he seems to love picking on the most is Shiloh, a juvenile male Satin Bowerbird. Shiloh is way up on Cedrick’s shit list.

Every now & then Shiloh stands up for himself. It never ends well for him. But you’ve got to give him credit for trying. 

You'll get further with a kind word & a stick,

than you will with a kind word alone.

Cedrick’s not the only one to pick on Shiloh. Red the Wattlebird also likes adding to Shiloh’s stress levels. But Red isn’t as aggressive as Cedrick,  so more likely to find Shiloh giving back as good as he gets.

It's not as it looks.

Cedrick hasn't impaled Red with a jimmy bar

Cedrick is an anomaly.  He won’t back down from the biggest of birds, yet the Judge (a Crested Pigeon & the most gentle of birds) intimidates him.  

Mal the Noisy Miner, well Cedrick would rather bite off his head than share a banana, but on occasion that’s just what they do.

You just know Mal the Noisy Miner is shitty himself.

A bird I do look forward to seeing every year are my Koels. Every October for the last three years, they’ve returned to my backyard from their long & arduous trip from New Guinea. They have given me some great photos & a pretty interesting  Bio;

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

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

While I might like their return, there is one bird that doesn’t.

Yes. You guessed it. Cedrick. His attitude towards these Northern Visitors is appalling. BUT, it does afford me some great photos & videos.

Not a photo you'll see everyday.

Cedrick the Lorrie using his head as a bettering ram.

The Hakka has nothing on this greeting.

Coinciding with my Koels return is my latest purchase. A GoPro Hero 6. I got this as it’s got a much higher frame rate than my GoPro Hero 3. What this means is, sharper images when there is action and also terrific slo-mo videos.

You should check these out;

https://youtu.be/xG8Fl_C99VQ

https://youtu.be/qHbrRJPOV9Q

We have had a few scorcher days already this spring, so I thought my Kookas might enjoy a quick hosing. I reckon they enjoyed it but they say a picture tells a thousand words, well here are 3.

I can't say why, but this photo reminds me of Bob Marley

A reason to laugh

Kit the Green Catbird is a strange one. He lives across the road in a vacant block. I hear his calls every sunset. He loves grapes, which are always on tap at the Tapas Bar, yet I only see him around this time every year.

This guy is part of the Bowerbird family, but differs from his cousins in 2 main ways. Firstly, he is the only Bowerbird not to build a Bower. He attracts a mate by what he can present in his beak. His other nuance is he’s a monogamist. You see Bowerbirds are real players. They will mate with as many females during the season as they can, then have absolutely nothing to do with the rearing of his offspring. The Catbird however is the complete opposite. He selects a mate for life. During the year he enforces his bond with his mate by bringing her food. He also takes an active part in raising his bubs.

As well as Kits return I have a little Willy Wagtail that lives in the mangroves behind my place. He’s not interested in what I serve up, but on occasion calls in for a drink.

We did get a new visitor to the Tapas Bar that I’m glad only visited the once. A Brush Turkey that calls my street home. He hoovered up all the food within a few seconds. This guys was going to send me broke. They are one really ugly bird.

Check out my video on his visit. I had a bit of fun with this one;

https://youtu.be/2B-Cwy6Z1O4

Thanks for getting this far. Stay tuned as I have one more post before Xmas. My highlights of 2017.

Until then, live life to its fullest, stay safe & see you soon.