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    Great Tits

    Reed John wrote:
    Originally posted by gyp
    I spent a couple of months in Sweden during spring this year and saw loads of birds (including my first green woodpeckers!), but it was also a reminder about how lucky we are in Australia with our avian wildlife - I don't know how you can live without parrots around.
    We have crows. They're like goth parrots.
    We have crows too. But you have hummingbirds and woodpeckers - they're probably the main thing lacking bird-wise in Australia.

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      Great Tits

      What a Lesser Frigate Bird actually looks like, from a good photographer:



      Only other sighting so far has been the usual Orange Footed Scrubfowl and Magpie Larks, but we get the latter in Sydney. I can hear Friarbirds around (I think it's those which wake us at about 4am daily) and the weird, spooky Bush Stone Curlews.

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        Great Tits

        The curlews sound horrifying at night, don't they?

        I'm unable to resist posting a photo of one I saw up near Cairns earlier this year - they're weird looking critters.

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          Great Tits

          gyp wrote: The curlews sound horrifying at night, don't they?
          We call these Stone Curlews.

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            Great Tits

            There are a pair of hummingbirds in the vicinity. I have seen them about 10 feet from my balcony, but I didn't reach the camera quickly enough.

            I will get the little beggars one day.

            Of course with my eyesight, they could just have been really big dragonflies.

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              Great Tits

              Lots of Wrens, Robins and Bluetits in the tree outside my window this morning. I'm a big fan of the way the Wrens dart between the leaves.

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                Great Tits

                gyp wrote: The curlews sound horrifying at night, don't they?

                I'm unable to resist posting a photo of one I saw up near Cairns earlier this year - they're weird looking critters.

                Nice pic gyp. That's not Palm Cove is it? We sat on a picnic table once, after dark for a post-dinner ice cream, and suddenly one was standing disconcertingly close. They are creepy.

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                  Great Tits

                  ShortyMedlocke wrote:
                  Originally posted by gyp
                  The curlews sound horrifying at night, don't they?
                  We call these Stone Curlews.
                  Yeah, same (or 'Thickknees'), I was just abbreviating lazily.

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                    Great Tits

                    Sits wrote:
                    Originally posted by gyp
                    The curlews sound horrifying at night, don't they?

                    I'm unable to resist posting a photo of one I saw up near Cairns earlier this year - they're weird looking critters.

                    Nice pic gyp. That's not Palm Cove is it? We sat on a picnic table once, after dark for a post-dinner ice cream, and suddenly one was standing disconcertingly close. They are creepy.
                    This was up in the tablelands at Yungaburra - it's a delightful place for wildlife, with half a dozen platypus in the creek every morning and all kinds of birds around.

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                      Great Tits

                      My son and his girlfriend are up at a wildlife lodge in the Tablelands for a couple of nights before joining us tomorrow. In their one whole day there today, they've ticked off the two biggies - a Tree Kangaroo and.a Cassowary, together with a Platypus and a selection of birds.

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                        Great Tits

                        Sits wrote: My son and his girlfriend are up at a wildlife lodge in the Tablelands for a couple of nights before joining us tomorrow. In their one whole day there today, they've ticked off the two biggies - a Tree Kangaroo and.a Cassowary, together with a Platypus and a selection of birds.
                        I approve of this message.

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                          Great Tits

                          The Ghost Birds were wailing again last night. And the mystery wake-me-up-at-4am bird.

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                            Great Tits

                            Although this is a bird thread, putting the Tree Kangaroo here is better for continuity and easier than finding the Wildlife Near You thread. It's actually a photo of the photo, from the back of Girlfriend's camera:

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                              Great Tits

                              There are Rainbow Bee-Eaters hunting each day from a dead branch of a tree above the holiday house. My son's GF has a proper camera and lens and took a great shot of one I asked her to send me.

                              In the meantime here are some out-of-focus Magpie Geese, avoiding the red-faced businessmen in tailored shorts, heaving themselves from buggy to tee on the Sheraton Mirage 9-holer.

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                                Great Tits

                                Saw a huge* bird of prey on a walk near Loughborough today, it had a light grey/white underneath and brown/dark on top.

                                Originally though it was a buzzard but a quick google search suggests it might've been a Goshawk.

                                Unfortunately it was way to quick to get a picture but was a spectacular sight as it took off.

                                *huge for a raptor in Britain

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                                  Great Tits

                                  That does sound like a Goshawk. I think that's quite a special sighting in Britain isn't it? So it wasn't reddish on top (kite)?

                                  In other raptor news there were two Ospreys hunting over the low tide at Port Douglas beach yesterday. Attempted photos but they were moving rather a bit, and I'm a halfwit with an iPhone.

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                                    Great Tits

                                    Son and GF are up at Cape Tribulation, and judging by this shot she will now go home happy:

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                                      Great Tits

                                      They are such freaky looking birds. We stayed at a place at Cape Trib that had one that came by regularly to eat fruit the owner would leave out. I was very happy to be observing from the balcony, well out of reach of those claws.

                                      On the topic of weird Australasian birds: I went out to the Dandenongs on Saturday in search of lyrebirds. The light was too difficult for me to get any photos, but I did get to sit and listen to one reel off note-perfect mimicry, covering kookaburras, butcher birds, blackbirds, currawongs, whipbirds, rosellas and black cockatoos (plus one weird sound that might have been a camera click).

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                                        Great Tits

                                        That's possibly the same Cassowary you saw then gyp.

                                        As for Lyrebirds, they supposedly inhabit our area of Sydney (or surrounding bushland more specifically). Our local primary school has one as its logo.

                                        Yet in eighteen years I've never seen or heard one. Mind you, sounds as though I could've heard one and not realised.

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                                          Great Tits

                                          Sail on Silver Gull...

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                                            Great Tits

                                            Out walking the hound on Saturday and saw a small sparrow sized bird with a brown body but from the neck upwards it was a bright lime green. Think the beak was the same colour too. Any ideas what it was I saw anybody?

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                                              Great Tits

                                              nmrfox wrote: Out walking the hound on Saturday and saw a small sparrow sized bird with a brown body but from the neck upwards it was a bright lime green. Think the beak was the same colour too. Any ideas what it was I saw anybody?
                                              In Britain? Guessing a siskin or something?

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                                                Great Tits

                                                Could it have been a Yellowhammer?

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                                                  Great Tits

                                                  A Greenfinch?

                                                  -

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                                                    Great Tits

                                                    Much excitement overhead just now at Sits Towers. Two Black Kites causing absolute pandemonium among the Cockatoos and Magpies. The latter did a better job harassing the intruders; the former just flew around shouting loudly.

                                                    This was a turn-up for us, as until looking them up just now I was unaware Black Kites even lived in Australia. The only place I've seen them before is next to the Autoroutes in France, which is a nice connection to our "old" lives. But perhaps these are the Kites which live all over the world e.g cities in India.

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