OUR FEATHERED PARK FRIENDS AND A RING-IN (NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2014)

In our initial weeks here at the Rose Gardens we were somewhat short on human company as you have seen in my previous, but this was more than made up for by our feathered friends. What a delight they have been.

Magpies, kookaburras, willy wagtails, murray magpies, parrots and cockatoos...not to mention the ubiquitous silver gulls. Some have come and gone, others have remained as genuine camp followers.

The kookas were the first to make their presence felt, and when we first set up they were actually nesting in a hollow in a tree on our site.  This did not last. Once the Xmas rush began, they moved to less populated sections of the park and disappeared altogether until a few days ago. But for our first month or so we would hear the male call to its mate as it left the hollow and made its way to his favourite roosting branch some metres away.  Once joined, the two would declare their territorial interests with a rousing, chortling challenge to all and sundry.

These were fine specimens indeed. They only had one major problem in their lives. The nearby nesting (we presume) willy wagtails were having nothing of them or their size and voice.  We had never seen anything like it.  No sooner had Mr and Mrs Kooka settled than they were under attack.

After many failed attempts when I would scurry forth from the annex on hearing the sounds of conflict (willys can make a huge noise for such a small bird) I finally managed to capture a few shots of 'The Battle of the Rose Gardens' for posterity. Here you can see the lead willy on the swoop whilst its mate is lining up on the runway.

They were ferocious. None of this aerial prancing about just out of reach for them. We actually saw them land on the kookaburras' heads on more than one occasion and beaver away with their short beaks until the larger birds finally dislodged them with an impatient shake.  And the outcome....on each occasion the kookaburra(s) would sit tight with a stoic resignation I could not believe until finally they would fly off and rid themselves of the pesky willys, for the time at least. The willys won every bout with the kookaburras,

as they also did with the magpies (which wander the park in almost plague proportions...including right into any open annex!), gulls and any other feathered intruder into what they considered to be their territory. These tiny masters of the aerial guerrilla attack would hover, flit, swoop and harry with an incomparable agility. It is no wonder that no airborne bug is safe when they are in a feeding mood.

The two species which seemed to be of complete disinterest to the willys were the parrots which were daily visitors to our patch of the park whilst the grasses were seeding in late November. 








The brightly coloured western rosellas 

would munch away unhindered, seemingly oblivious to my sneaking presence.













The more moderately daubed, but equally splendid, red-capped parrots were a far more difficult proposition....they would take flight at the slightest hint of my approach.

After many attempts, I finally managed to capture one of these magnificent parrots at a distance which obviously severely challenged the lens of my little digital.

Both these species would land in the park each morning just after sunrise and feed for an hour or so on the grass seeds until the pre-Xmas lawn mowing put paid to their food source.....and that, to my great disappointment, was the last we saw of them.  

But just before this sad event I did manage to frame both together, when the difference in their plumage becomes much more obvious than at first sight of an individual. These splashes of morning colour were a real highlight of our first few weeks at Rose Gardens.

But all was not peaceful in paradise!  To Liz's horror, and my constant responses to her wails of "get some rolled up newspaper....there's another one on the bedroom window", large huntsman spiders were another constant camp companion. I did my best to reduce the park population, but my efforts were not a patch on those of a local winged crusader.

We have no idea what this fearsome wasp-like bug is, but after observing its efforts in eradicating many of the park spiders, we have christened it 'amicus lizzyii'. It looks a deal less threatening on the ground than it does in flight, when its bright orange wings, legs and feelers seem to project in all directions with an overture of latent menace.  This was certainly the case for the huntsmen!

And just before we leave this ornithological ramble (with additions) I must close with a mention of a recent arrival in the sky over the park. We had first spotted a few of these striking locals whilst in Denmark, but until a fortnight ago, none here in Albany.  Their eerie, haunting cries are the first indication of their presence. And there they were, small flocks of magnificent white-tailed black cockatoos wheeling overhead on their wide wings, looking for all the world like miniature dragons (well, in my imagination at least!) as they swooped and soared in apparent complete flying disorder.  

Because we cannot see the size of their bills, we cannot be sure if they are Carnaby's or Baudin's black cockatoos (apart from this they are virtually indistinguishable to the lay observer), but we suspect they are Baudin's which are highly localised in the Albany area.

It has been totally impossible to photograph these striking birds on the wing, so again I acknowledge the value of the Internet to provide some pictorial additions to this missive.

This 'flock shot' (also from my friends in the electronic ether) is remarkably similar to what we have been seeing....a wonderful natural addition to the other joys of our recent afternoons.

The comings and goings of the birds of The Rose Gardens have certainly been a delight to watch and have been a real highlight of this stay here which is now but a day or so from drawing to a close. A few more pre-departure snippets shortly as time allows.