new visitors

[piranha]

at the feeder out back, the one right in front of my window. black-headed grosbeaks, i think. not particularly good pictures (digitally zoomed), but good enough for identification, once i find my bird book. those beaks really are something, eh.







and now i go outside and clean that window, because it obviously needs it.

Comments

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

I've got many bird-books and a dearth of birds to look up...so it is indeed a black-headed grosbeak.

One of these days I'll sit down with my bird-books and try to sort out all the sparrow-type birds that frequent my feeder.

sparrow-type birds

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

thanks! and ghod yes, sparrowy ones. we have many as well. i need to set my tripod up in a non-stupid way so i can get better images. but also, one of the cats is always lying in the window now -- cat television.

cat television

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

The pigeons seem to be persisting in nesting on our balcony. Nemrut doesn't seem to quite understand television, because he's actually jumping up the window. We've now got a row of paw marks about 1.2m up. At least there's no fear of him becoming a couch potato.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I've also had the "I really need to clean X" reaction to some of my photos. Your birds are rather different to ours. The new thing I saw last week in our garden were pale rosellas. And yesterday, there were some dark ibises at uni, quite different from the white ones who will nick your lunch.

different birds

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

of course! you have "exotic" birds. *laugh*.

Re: different birds

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

No, yours are exotic :-).

I knew I was becoming an Australian when I first saw the deer crossing sign (a few streets over from our place). I assumed it was a joke. Signs warning about animals feature kangaroos, emus, koalas, ducks, wombats and goannas, just to name ones I know I've seen. Not deer.

Turns out the sign is real enough. There was an attempt at a venison farm on the other side of the river some years ago. It didn't work, and while the place was being haggled over financially, some of the deer escaped. And apparently sometimes they swim across the river. I haven't yet seen one, but my parents found deer markings in the soil on the riverwalk.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-27.536739,152.928679&spn=0.005495,0.006972&t=k&hl=en
We live in the top right-hand corner. The riverwalk (lower half of "our" side of the river) has brush turkeys and whip-birds, in addition to the parrots and so on we get in the garden as well.