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s residents however the former is a daily visitor to our verandahs in search of titbits of cheese or simply using the verandah roof as shelter from more inclement weather while the pied is with one notable exception a bird that we only hear from our property although it is often encountered on our walks along allen road it has become a regular routine our third cup of tea well perhaps a few more cups during the shorter colder mornings of winter we have on an old miner s couch on the east verandah almost invariably within minutes of settling down one or the other of the grey butcherbirds usually the male you can differentiate between the sexes when both are sitting a metre of less from you arrives to perch on the top rail it never makes a sound it simply sits there looking at us one or the other of us gets up to cut up the cheese usually tasty cheddar for those interested in the piddling minutia we toss bits of cheese into the air and enjoy the spectacle of the butcherbirds aerial acrobatics as they snatch the morsels from mid air in contrast the pied butcherbird a much larger species with the one aforementioned exception has only ever been recorded as heard only on our property bird records we simply don t expect to see it until our winter weekend or summer evening walks along the road that is until the other day the weather was abysmal it was cold ground temperatures plumbing perilously close to zero it had rained heavily overnight bringing back memories of last january when fay and i became isolated on our own property for three days the morning light was impossible all was gloom and climatic doom as we sat with that welcome cup of tea the male grey butcherbird suddenly alighted on the top rail of the east verandah we could see its mate perched in the nearby angophora the normal routine ensued i tossed the male a piece of cheese and then leaned over the rail to toss a piece towards the female in the tree she never stood a chance in a flash the cheese was snatched in mid air by a pied butcherbird a much larger close cousin which clearly had been waiting on the roof fay and i were stunned apart from the exceptional agility displayed by the bird how had the pied learnt that this was the local café avian it had never previously sought additional food supplements from us i tossed a second piece to the male grey and again tossed a piece towards the female in the tree the pied intercepted it this continued for several throws until both grey and pied departed the former to return later that afternoon we were granted a second showing of the pied butcherbird s lissom acrobatic prowess the following day when again it swooped down from the rooftop to intercept pieces of cheese intended for the grey butcherbirds my fingers worked overtime tapping in this newly discovered data into the bird journal program this week we experienced a repeat performance but with rather a sharp twist to the tale the pied butcherbird arrived earlier than the pair of grey butcherbirds and duly took the first morsel of proffered cheese it perched on the corner of the east and north verandahs and i had just turned away to resume drinking my tea when a flash of feathers skimmed by close to my left ear there was a distinct clack of wing beats i stopped amazed puzzled had i just been attacked warned off by some unseen bird i spotted a grey butcherbird in the sapling at the edge of the track leading to the house had it been the culprit the unseen attacker the question was answered a moment later when the grey took off and swooped in on the verandah corner straight at the pied only averting certain collision at the last moment again the clack of wings indicted that this was no chance encounter but a deliberate assault by the grey butcherbird on its close cousin the pied butcherbird again moments later the grey attacked the pied in a deliberate offensive on the next assault the pied butcherbird clearly decided that discretion was the better part of valour and beat a hasty retreat back towards the west of the property there has been no repeat performance by the pied butcherbird since that ignominious defeat leave a comment backyard darlings january 12 2017 birds and birding osprey2014 a ll bird species are of course most welcome at allen road we extend the invitation to anywhere along the 2km length of the road from its junction with the main nanango maidenwell road to its confluence with andrew road indeed our offer covers the entire south burnett region all we ask is that we fay and i are there when a particularly rare species does put in an appearance yet for all the above it would be less than honest of me not to admit that there are some species in more favour than others don t get me wrong the humble magpie lark grallina cyanoleuca or oft maligned torresian crow corvus orru are not spurned or driven away as if they were the lepers of avian society far from it but they are present each and every day up close and raucous to boot they have become a commonplace and complacency has set in on both sides of the biological divide the crows ignore our efforts to keep them away from the duck and chicken eggs while the magpie larks take early morning duty on the verandah rails and call until either one or both of us are awake and out of bed we have rarely resorted to alarm clocks since moving to allen road they continue to bring pleasure the crows when their young have fledged and continuously beg for food at those times we can even feel sorry for the stressed adults endeavouring to keep the ravenous young satisfied the magpie larks brought a smile this year when they successfully reared their second clutch but tinged with a little sadness when the second of their well developed youngsters simply disappeared nor do we bear any malice to the introduced spotted dove streptopelia chinensis or the much maligned common myna sturnus tristis the doves are harmless enough nay they are really quite attractive birds we initially noted a pair but nowadays see only one the mynas present a more serious threat we first saw them back in the 1980s at a north sydney railway station where they covered platform and tracks like a writhing carpet of feathers years later our good friends richard bess newman of redcliffe occasional birdwatchers rather than dedicated birders reported seeing a pair outside the clontarf state school fay and i rushed around to confirm the sighting a sad first for the redcliffe peninsula on our last visit there while not abundant the mynas had certainly become common the pale headed rosella platycercus adscitus comes high on the list of favoured species if for no other reason than that last year they showed a lot of interest in my manufactured rosella nestbox they entered it they looked it over but decided against it we relocated it from the dog compound grey gum to the wren garden angophora from facing southwest to northwest we live in hope of eventual occupancy among fay s top birds is the australian king parrot alisterus scapularis a striking mixture of vivid red and dark green they remain among the more confiding of the wild species and can even be coaxed into feeding from your hand they will land on chair backs and stare through the open french doors to investigate any human indoor activity the recent sighting of the kinky king parrot see previous posting has added an element of expectancy will it reappear given a backyard list in excess of 140 species there are many among the more favoured echelon the regular summer migrant continue to please typically the spectacular courtship displays of the dollarbird eurystomus orientalis the male female duet of the eastern koel eudynamys orientalis the deafening call of the channel billed cuckoo scythrops novaehollandiae some have been favoured since or near the inception the raptors a wedge tailed eagle aquila audax at the original visit a nankeen kestrel falco cenchroides at the subsequent visit the brown falcon falco berigora of september 2001 others were considered a little special but then disappeared some the white browed scrubwren sericornus frontalis and the eastern whipbird psophodes olivaceus making recent comebacks to once again feature in the more favoured list many more could trip off the tongue australasian pipit anthus novaeseelandiae australian owlet nightjar aegotheles cristatus dusky woodswallow artamus cyanopterus leaden flycatcher myiagra rubecula rainbow bee eater merops ornatus and of course the humble yellow rumped thornbill acanthiza chrysorrhoa however yesterday s sighting of the glossy black cockatoo calyptorhynchus lathami and fay s earlier sighting of eight red tailed black cockatoos perched near the laboratory where she works served as a timely reminder that we have long since felt a special affinity with this beautiful bird we first recorded it for allen road back on 8 july 2001 the 60 th backyard list species on only our 20 th visit to the property all three of the black cockatoos present in the south burnett region have been recorded at allen road the red tailed calyptorhynchus banksii first sighting 27 january 2002 the yellow tailed calyptorhynchus funereus first sighting 10 june 2001 and the glossy the yellow tailed the most comm on of the three is classified as secure in all states in which it is actually present with the exception of south australia where it has been defined as vulknerable it is the most common of the allen road black cockatoos of the five races of red tailed black cockatoo concern is at its most poignant for the south eastern form c b graptogyne the allen road specimens are those from the nominate form c b macrorhynchus and so we come to the real darling of the backyard list the glossy black cockatoo one of the more threatened of the black cockatoos and listed as vulnerable both in new south wales and queensland it was the reason i agreed to take on the role of conservation committee chair with basq only to discover that the glossy black conservancy meets during the working week i am lead to believe this is to facilitate the attendance of people paid to help with the bird those of us prepared to give up our own free time and without pay are relegated to the nether ranks nevertheless fay and i continue our work on behalf of this the smallest of australia s six black cockatoos we record every sighting here along allen road and in the wider south burnett community one of our major replanting programs on the property is the propagation of allocasuarinas particularly the black she oak allocasuarina littoralis the favoured food of the glossies in this area plans are afoot to design and construct nestboxes suitable for this bird leave a comment rootling along january 11 2017 birds and birding osprey2014 matters rootle along at a steady pace down allen road there is always the odd excitement such as a pacific baza aviceda subcristata suddenly sweeping into view from over the tin shed its presence had of course long since been advertised by the raucous din of the noisy miners manorina melanocephala however in general avian life follows a fairly set routine one day can be very much like another not that fay and i are complaining it s the bread and butter birds of your local patch that set the overall ambience we may object to the torresian crows corvus orru which continually steals our chicken and duck eggs but where would the local ecology be without their presence as scavengers they are second to none among the birds the apostlebirds struthidea cinerea may be the bullies of the verandah feeder often harassing the attractive australian king parrots alisterus scapularis from off the terracotta plant saucer itself but their communal co operation remains a spectacle par excellence the vocal gymnastics of the australian magpies cracticus tibicen continues to bring auditory pleasure to our ears just as does the amazing sight of two male magpies sharing a feeding spot together other regulars present themselves each and every day a pair of grey butcherbirds cracticus torquatus has successfully trained fay and i to provide them with slivers of cheese when they alight on the verandah rail the grey crowned babblers pomatostomus temporalis have learnt how to extract discarded sunflower seeds from between the cracks in the verandah decking the more aggressive of the rainbow lorikeets trichoglossus haematodus appears to have either taken anger management consultation moved out of the immediate area or perhaps has even passed on to wherever it is deceased birds go no oddities and rarities are all very well but the non appearance of our everyday species would be of real concern we still vividly recall the shock of learning that the humble tree sparrow passer montanus population in the united kingdom has plummeted we ve heard rumours that a similar fate is befalling the even humbler house sparrow passer domesticus worse yet consider the passenger pigeon ectopistes migratorius in its millions one day extinct the next yet in spite of all the above the unexpected appearance of the red winged parrot aprosmictus erythropterus quietly perched in a small wren garden sapling next to our angophora tree was more than mildly exciting it was only the 17 th sighting of this bird on our property since its first appearance back at the end of august 2008 its timing was awkward fay and i were sitting on the east verandah sipping coffee when we suddenly spotted the obvious flash of red wing partly hidden behind foliage it didn t need past experience to warn us that red wings tend to be skittish will fly at the least provocation fortunately both binoculars and cameras were to hand i carefully picked up one of the latter switched on and slowly dropped to my knees on the verandah decking the southside balustrades would act as partial cover on reaching the southeast corner of the verandah i eased myself up for all the world trying to look a mere extension of the corner post i fired in the first shot the red wing twitched the photograph was rubbish i tried a second shot no mean feat when you re trying to be a wooden post keeping movement to a minimum the red wing shifted uneasily the photograph was only marginally better the second shot a d i got in a third shot the bird was distinctly jittery by now the third shot for which i award myself a c more for the effort than the photographic niceties i backed off it didn t need a phd to reason that my next shot could be my last shot and for a long moment i hesitated did i need another shot that would surely drive the bird away would it be more ethical to abandon photography to allow the bird space i needed another shot but a pied currawong strepera graculina suddenly alighting atop the same sapling settled the issue the red wing flew off to the east and i was left with three rather poor shots ranging from a barely passable c to a disappointing d minus the pair of magpie larks grallina cyanoleuca reminded me of what really matters along allen road leave a comm...