Blue Tit Box

The Blue Tits in my back garden had a pretty unsuccessful spring last year (one fledgling was found in the pond and I discovered this sorry sight when I cleaned out the box today).
The good news is they're raring to go this year. The box has been down for over a week and today I put it in a new position (further away from the pond) and literally after closing the back door behind me I turned round and one of the blue tits was at the hole!

Rainbow Lorikeets Outback

Rainbow Lorikeet  Trichoglossus haematodus

For one so thoughtful of the neighbours' peace and quiet I found myself with a technicoloured quandry this morning. After many a fly over the local Rainbow Parikeets have finally found our bird seed. Truth be known they were always the goal-species but now that they're here I'm nervous about the inevitable dawn 'chorus' which sounds more like a pig eating a cat. Then, as my ten-year-old fishing buddy, Darcy, so eloquently put it, I'd 'be nervous about taking a shit!'.

Bittern

Saw my first Bittern at Wat Tyler Country Park this afternoon.
It was there from about 2:45-3:05
Here's a picture that might help anyone else looking for it. Good luck.

Sydney Olympic Park

Spotless Crake  

Red-browed Firetail  

Great Egret  

Black-winged Stilt  

Black-fronted Dotterel  



Red-necked Avocets, Dragonfly sp. (anybody?), Red-rumped Parrot (pair at Mason Park), Royal Spoonbill  

Warriewood Wetlands, Sydney

Eastern Whipbird  Psophodes olivaceus

White-cheeked Honeyeater  Phylidonyris nigra

Lewin's Honeyeater  Meliphaga lewinii

Silvereye  Zosterops lateralis

Water Dragon  Physignathus lesuerii

I finally ventured out to some real habitat today and was rewarded with five lifers: Eastern Whipbird, White-cheeked Honeyeater, Lewin's Honeyeater, Red-browed Firetail and an Australian Brush Turkey. Other notables were a White-throated Treecreeper, a single White-throated Needletail, two Pelicans over, two Little Wattlebirds an Eastern Yellow Robin and a heard-but-not-seen Australian Reed Warbler.

Peregrine, The Gap

Peregrine Falcon  Falco peregrinus

Common Koel, Vaucluse

Was blown away by my first sighting of a Common Koel this morning. An immature bird perched on the roof I'm working on a few meters away, looking for all the world like a jumbo Wryneck, let out a couple of calls and flew off.