October in feathers....

Spring is always an exciting time for birding around my area! Most birds are breeding so they are usually in full voice and the summer migrants are turning up too! So all in all September.. October... and November are pretty fantastic months to be out and about searching for our feathered friends!

As I haven't posted for a while I thought I would today and now that October has just finished put together a snapshot of some of the better bird images I have taken during it!

So below is a bunch of images all taken in October 2014!

Enjoy!

 

Rainbow Bee-eater: The Bee-eaters started arriving in early Oct... this is one of my first shots of the season of one! Not the best image but a colourful start!

Australian Owlet-nightjar: Always a favourite of mine! There's a couple of little Mallee scrubs in my area where I can pretty much be assured of a sighting! This one flushed from a hollow on a mates property and sat nicely for his pic to taken!

Nankeen Kestrel: Sitting in the entrance of her nesting hollow this beautiful little female Kestrel was quite content to just sit and watch as I approached with my camera!

Blue-winged Parrot: Another of the spring time visitors to this area! My mate Michael and I flushed a couple one morning whilst searching through a new little patch of scrub near Salter Springs!

Dusky Woodswallow: This image was also from the scrub where we found the Blue-wings! Sitting on two eggs this attentive mother to be was quite confiding and stayed on the nest till I was about two metres away! When she flushed I moved back and she was back on the nest within 30 seconds!



Hooded Plover: A sad story this one... this pair had decided to make their nest on the foreshore of Victor Harbor SA right near a playground and skatepark! The area was fenced off to try and keep the dogs out... although it wasn't super effective! I didn't give them much hope of successfully raising chicks! In the end it wasn't people or the dogs which wrecked the nest but a super high tide! Disappointing.... 
In this shot she is sitting on the doomed nest!

Peregrine Falcon: Next three images are of the female Peregrine defending her eyrie at a secret spot I know of near Victor Harbor! I have known these birds for about 20yrs now (maybe different birds) and try to visit it once a season to see how the are going! Always a thrill!

Whiskered Tern: Decked out in breeding plumage... this delicate little guy was fishing around the Goolwa Barrage with about 30 of his kin!

Nankeen Kestrel: Found this little male one day whilst driving a dirt road out Reeves Plains way! He was quite tame and didn't fly even when another car passed as I photographed him!

Whistling Kite: Photographed near Pt Wakefield... they are a fairly plain looking raptor.. but I still like to grab images of them! Still haven't got one I am totally happy with yet!

Black Falcon: Also taken when I took the Whistling Kite shot! Always a good day when one of these turns up!

Eastern Barn Owl: The Barn Owls have been pretty far and few in this area at the moment! As the weather warms hopefully more will start to show up! Found two on this night and managed to capture a few flight shots! Also unfinished business for me... haven't quite nailed the shot I'm after yet!

Scarlet-chested Parrot: Highlight of the month was seeing a pair of these beauties nesting up in the Mallee at a place called Gluepot Reserve here in SA! Been three years since my last sighting of this species! Such beautiful little gems these! The first image is of the male.. second is the female then the male again!

    

Little Eagle: This great bird flew over low when I was photographing Striated Grasswrens also at Gluepot! I clipped the bottom of the wing a touch as it was so close... so I thought I would try a different comp for this one!

Striated Grasswren: SO good to see a pair of these after a period of nearly two years without a sighting! Still no easier to photograph though! LOL

Brown Treecreeper: This I photographed from a hide near a water-point in Gluepot also! Often hanging upside down on tree trunks... somehow I managed to get a shot of this one upright!

Tawny Frogmouth: Starting to get out a little more chasing our night birds now the weather is warming up! The TF's are always a year round staple here and always a joy to find! Funny looking things they are! They can be very individual in the way they react... with some freezing and trying to look like branches whilst others just go about their business and don't seem to perturbed by my presence!

Eastern Barn Owl:  This shot and the next are of a pair which nest in my mate Michael's house yard on his farm! The first shot is of one of the pair near the nest hidden in the tree on the right (out of sight) The one below is the other of the pair which was hunting low of this perch about 200m away!