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15 Australian Birds (Episode 1)

10,000 Birds

It has been more than 5 years since I last went to Australia, and I was even less of a qualified bird photographer then than I am now. All photos were taken in Australia in December 2016 – locations included Brisbane and surroundings, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, Melbourne, and the coast near Melbourne.

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15 Australian Birds (Episode 3)

10,000 Birds

According to a bird guide published in 1911, “Competent authorities have proposed to divide the world, biologically, into two parts – Australia and the rest of the world, and they have considered Australia the more interesting part.” ” (quoted from Tim Low’s book “The Origin of Song”).

Birds 147
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Broome’s Pied Oystercatchers are breeding again

10,000 Birds

Since I found the first Pied Oystercatcher nest on Cable Beach in July 2000 I have learnt that the eggs rarely hatch due to predation and if they do hatch then a fully fledged chick is a rare and wonderful outcome. This year has been like other years with the first eggs being laid late June and the first chicks hatching recently.

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15 Australian Birds (Episode 6)

10,000 Birds

The Sacred Ibis was seen as the incarnation of the god Thoth, who (with gods apparently better at multitasking than humans) was (or maybe still is, who knows?) They can create significant crop damage … Permits are regularly issued in Western Australia and sometimes issued in Victoria for the culling of this species.”

Birds 147
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Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History from Cave Art to Conservation–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

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Birding Chongming Island in summer

10,000 Birds

I do not get too many comments on my blog posts, but it seems that whenever I write about jacanas – whether in Africa, Australia, or Asia – there is an unusually high number of reactions (well, maybe one or two rather than the usual zero) from female readers. This is ok as birds do not have teeth anyway). How efficient.

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The predictability of Pied Oystercatchers

10,000 Birds

We have had a pair move due to human traffic increasing through the dune system and others have had to adapt to the changing landscape. Feral cats are a huge problem in Australia and they do take a lot of the eggs. This pair laid a white egg last year on their second attempt in the exact same nest.

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