to quote one of our guests.

I am sitting in a reclining chair on the veranda with a glass of wine and my binoculars. Not that I really need the latter much, the birds are only 5-10 metres away.

The Lilly-pillies along our creek (Syzygium smithii) are fruiting, and I can see several species of birds feeding in close proximity: about a dozen Satin Bowerbirds, a handful of Spotted Catbirds, 2 Toothbilled Bowerbirds and a Golden Bowerbird. The Catbird and Golden BB often jump up from the larger branch, on which they are sitting, and hover like a very clumsy flycatcher to pick a fruit from the end of a thin branch. After eating 10-15 they sit for a digestive rest before starting to feed again.

Almost got the Tooth-billed Bowerbird in the same frame…

Did I mention the flock of King Parrots, also tucking into the Lilly-pillies? They, of course, are after the seeds.

Also in the picture are a few Victoria’s Riflebirds, rustling around in strips of Rose Gum bark, a pair of Crimson Rosellas are tinkling away to my left, and a pair of Eastern Whipbirds are calling from the other side of the creek.

 

All this activity makes me almost ignore the the smaller birds around me: Mountain Thornbills slowly travelling through the Lophostemon trees, a pair of Yellow-throated Scrubwrens darting around on the ground and several honeyeaters visiting the birdfeeder.

If this isn’t good enough: Dad cassowary and his 2 chicks appear along the walking track next to the creek, picking up Lilly-pilly fruit dropped by the bowerbirds!

Now all that’s missing is the young male Lumholtz’s Tree-kangaroo, which we’ve spotted recently, and maybe the Koala, observed last week in the Tumoulin forest, is making its way a bit further east 🙂

It is easy to forget all the world’s problems in a place like this!