A quiet April (2019)

Must have needed some downtime 😔 ... only 60 photos for the month! No doubt there were myriad very good reasons for not being out and about so much; such is life. Not to worry ... here is a selection from those offering at least some variety, able to share eight species with you.

The first three birds (a grey goshawk, an emerald dove, a pheasant coucal) were a real treat because they are relatively elusive and secretive. So to have found them in our yard was most unexpected and delightful. 

I have featured this grey goshawk and described the experience in an earlier post shared much closer to the actual time I took the photos, as a bit of a whim as I was getting my blog updated. That ALSO makes it a real treat because I have no need to try to recollect and translate my delight as it is already recorded 😉 (see A taste of the future August 2019). So I have included several more here, different from my original post about this sighting. Note the clear remains of a ringtail possum dinner in the last photo of this wonerful creature (a white variatiant of the grey goshawk).

Initial sighting in the tree

A closer look (for both of us!)

A quick scan more forward

Time to make sure it's still there - nature at work!

The next two photos offer two very different birds each highlighting very effective camouflaging among leaves and branches. Different sizes, different shades, treats to notice in our yard. Both are very skittish. First an emerald dove; second a pheasant coucal (notice the long tail as well).

I decided to expand my original choice for the next bird because of the power of the slpash of colour provided by the striking yellow bloom of the golden penda against the vibrant green leaves. This provided an excellent canvas making the "plain" and oft-maligned noisy miner look fantastic! The one pose included without the flowers serves to accentuate this. Enjoy their agility too! 😓 Once again from our garden.

The next pair of photos show the beautiful colours, shapes and plummage of the crested pigeon in a natural setting perched on a big branch in a roadside tree down a bush track. The eye always strikes me a flase focal point drawing you away from the wings ... both have a unique wonder to me. The second photo offers a glimpse just after some preening and final ruffle prior to that plummage settling back in place! Even ruffled it looks very calm and in control!

From pigeon to dove ... this time bar-souldered. Very different colours and shades but equally striking. A lone one grazing among pine cones and needles and then with two others through the fenceline. Peaceful. 

Then one day striding out of the long reedy grass came the magnificent jabiru (black-necked stork). At first just a BIG black and white bird striding out. Right light, more patience and closer inspection shows so much more than a "big black and white bird" 😏 ... the red legs allowing the black and white to move gracefully; the irridescent neck supporting the very powerful black beak and ensuring the black and white can see where it is going and what it is after; and then there is the beaming yellow eye when it is open. This sequence shows it wading out of the long reeds, to the water edge and finally wading in the water. A pristine environment highlighting so many magnificant features of Australia's only stork.

Fittingly for April, this final photo is back in our yard offering a glimpse of an eastern rosella emerging from the dense dark foliage of one of our trees (actually a pest) and taste-testing some of the green berries.