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Two Months of Lifers Down Under (1 Viewer)

Thanks Nora, yes... I was right chuffed to see a picture with both those poses from these lovely fantails.

And isn't that catbird a beautiful colour!
 
Keeping an eye on his wife and child was also a male White-browed Scrubwren, looking quite fierce too LOL.

Yet another newbie and Lifer for me was a White-throated Treecreeper.

A short wander around the forest and I picked up this dead snail shell which we later got identified from a book as a Xanthomelon pachystylum species (not sure if it has a common name.

Waiting to greet us back home were Noisy Friarbird and a female Magpie-Lark.
 

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Indeed I have KC, hope you like him. I'm going to try and use as many as possible I think, some species won't show up too well in a small picture like that though.
 
After lunch, garden watch continued with, first, a visit from a Rainbow Lorikeet sitting on a fence post overlooking the action going on below.

And that consisted of a female Superb Fairywren with a beakful of insects, so presumably she had a nest with youngsters. Hans did show me an old nest of theirs in one of his nearby shrubs.

Then there was a pretty little Peaceful Dove pecking about with the Double-barred Finches.

A couple of honeyeaters were also looking down namely Brown Honeyeater and Blue-faced Honeyeater.
 

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Another great set of pictures. Love the subtle colors on the female Superb Fairywren, and the blue face of that honey-eater.
 
Just catching up with this thread after my own month-long trip to Australia (mainly nr Cairns, Queensland) via Singapore. I had thought about writing it up here but fear your great photos and more adventurous approach will upstage my rather more sedentary and relaxed (for which read lazy!) trip something chronic! Did you get up to Queensland?
 
Thanks so much Nora and Lisa.

Hi John... I'm sure you had a great time in Cairns. I thought about adding that to my trip, but decided it would be far too hot for me up there!! And I had a pretty relaxed time of it really, though we were out birding just about every day. And, LOL, I was in various parts of Queensland for the first month. Initially 12 days in Brisbane, then 3 weeks in the outback before I moved south.

Go on.... please let's have your own report!!! I'd love to find out what I might have seen up top.
 
Keeping an eye on his wife and child was also a male White-browed Scrubwren, looking quite fierce too LOL.

Yet another newbie and Lifer for me was a White-throated Treecreeper.

A short wander around the forest and I picked up this dead snail shell which we later got identified from a book as a Xanthomelon pachystylum species (not sure if it has a common name.

Waiting to greet us back home were Noisy Friarbird and a female Magpie-Lark.

Hi Delia,

Surely Xanthomelon pachystylum is a species name? It's expressed in the correct binomial form, anyway...

John
 
Ummm.... thanks John, but I'm not quite understanding you?

We found a picture in a book which looked like that snail, but it only gave the scientific name. We didn't find a 'common name' for it.
 
A couple of Red-browed Finches now joined the Double-barred Finches for the feast Hans had put out for them.

Suddenly a Rainbow Bee-eater flew into a distant tree on the neighbouring property, but as it was just about raining at this point and the light very poor, the picture isn't good enough to publish, neither was a much closer escaping skink!

By the time a Galah arrived, it really was raining (quite refreshing really). A Lewin's Honeyeater and a Double-barred Finch both took shelter in the shrubs.

We now spent a bit more time looking up the other shell I had found in the forest that morning, and Hans finally decided on Pedinogyra rotabilis
 

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After the rain I had a wander round the grounds finding the resident Red-necked Wallaby and a Torresian Crow on his castle, a termite mound.

The rain started up again (well it was spring;)) so I headed back to the garden and found a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets sitting on a shrub - thought they looked good together.

Now at last the stunning male Superb Fairywren decided to show his face. Nice bird, isn't he! And a bit further along (just for fun) a Peaceful Dove looking at me from behind the wire!!!
 

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Forest Waterhole

20 October 2019

The next morning saw us off out early again to visit the waterhole in the forest.

As soon as Hans had filled up with water a Lewin's Honeyeater came down. And I'm not sure, but I've a feeling this was the only Torresian Crow to visit whilst I was there. Though, certainly the Rufous Fantail was the more common of the two fantails.

Next came a real beauty and I was desperately trying to attract Hans' attention to this new visitor.... Mistletoebird, but he was studying something else and missed this very brief visit, I think he said it was the first time one had been recorded there too!!!

Then a Bar-shouldered Dove wandered past just feet from me, quickly trying to zoom out to fit him in while having to point the camera down through the slot in the canvas... but I managed pretty well LOL
 

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