This afternoon I had decided to head off for a drive west and then south before heading home on what had been a beautiful clear, still day. I had hopes of finding a few birds out on such a lovely afternoon ... gladly, those hopes were exceeded as I noticed a number of first sightings for me 😊.
These first three were above and in some paddocks to the west.
 |
| Nankeen kestrel |
Now ... here is a good example of the random nature of a retrospective blog ... as I was typing "Nankeen" in the above caption I was reminded of my own non-understanding of what that word meant. Not at the time of this photo, but several years later when I happened on a nankeen night heron in a park pond in the middle of the day in Melbourne! It was then I investigated what the word meant: the dominant colour of the feathers ... described thus in wikipedia (where else would you look!) "i
s a kind of pale yellowish cloth originally made in Nanjing, China from a yellow variety of cotton, but subsequently manufactured from ordinary cotton that is then dyed." In Birds in Backyards the colour words used for the
nankeen kestrel are
rufous and
pale buff; for
nankeen night heron are cinnamon and white buff and rufous ... make of that what you will 😉.
 |
| Bar-shouldered dove atop the fence post |
 |
| Black kite in burnt cane paddock |
Next, I headed south and east just because that's where the road headed to take me home eventually.
 |
| Black-shouldered kite |
 |
| Pied butcherbird perched on high |
 |
| Noisy miner savouring nectar |
 |
| Rainbow bee-eater |
So ... now even more birds to be on the look out for 😊. Colours & camouflage galore!
No comments:
Post a Comment