At last my Blog is working properly again and I am able to post as before! Thank you Typepad. So whats been happening. Well, just amazing, amazing photo opportunities at every turn.  Take this morning for example, after my usual dawn birding, Jenny and I went for a walk along the Strand…..  the beach promenade by any other name.  I didn't take the camera because I wanted to do something with Jenny and let her know that it was her little trip………. ~Big mistake,  there were Red Tailed Black Cockatoos feeding on the ornamental trees along the strand walk. Also seen was Spice Finches and they were so used to people that I was 3 feet from them, no camera though. Then as we ate lunch,  a Great Bowerbird hopped around my  feet in the outdoor restaurant, just like a pigeon, image that a Bower Bird!!!!!!!!

A bit about the bird above.  I had seen this bird on Sunday morning from the hide on the Town Common,  that day the weather was awful and insects were not flying and he was obviously hungry because he was even trying leaves in the vain hope that they were butterflies or something similar. So when I went back yesterday morning, just after dawn, I was so thrilled to see him in exactly the same place but now with a grasshopper.  He posed for me and I took this great shot…… a wow moment for the trip!  In the afternoon we went up to Hervey's Range, the mountains that border west of the City.  It was just so beautiful and,  what an unexpected thrill. We saw Sulphur Crested Cockatoos and we had our first real encounters with Wallabies.  We watched a Black Kite feeding on a road kill wallaby which was good fun, for me, but not sure Jenny enjoyed it quite so much. The highlight though was just so unexpected.  In the gift shop of the Heritage Tee Rooms I had bought a musical card, basically a picture of a Kookabura that plays a call when you open it up.  We were sat by the road side looking at the scenery and I was looking at my new purchase and listening to the call.  I wasn't the only one, a Kookabura heard it, answered and then came in to have a look at the intruder……… so amazing and unexpected, and wow, what a magnificent bird.

I cant leave this post without showing you this Sunbird. They are listed as common here, and I have seen
fleetingly, lots of times. So, at the hide again this early morning as I I entered I saw, immediately a young newly fledged baby being attended by it's parents.  It was a truly "National Geographic" moment and one I will treasure for years to come…… just look at the male, is that a bird or what?

Here is the youngster, as far as I know there is just one.

……… and being fed by the female.

This bird below, also took exception to the Kookabura card and came in to have a look and see what was making the noise. It's a Willy Wagtail I believe.