Brown Cuckoo-Dove

Brown Cuckoo-Dove (Macropygia amboinensis)
(And I do so hope "macropygia" is pronounced macro-pig-ia.)

The book** says these birds live along most of Australia's east coast and are generally quite common, but I've never seen any before. There were three of them here, but I think these photos probably show just the same one in each shot.

I feel like I should apologise for the above-average crappiness of the photos, but no, let's not.

** Jim Flegg & N. Longmore, Birds of Australia, Surry Hills: Reader's Digest, 1994, ISBN 0864384262, p. 168.

Coincidence

I signed into Flickr to post this photo of vapour trails (contrails) in the shape of a cross...


- 13Jul08 by me, Flickr

... and on the homepage in Everybody's Uploads (a constant stream of new additions just posted to Flickr) was this photo of vapour trails (contrails) in the shape of a cross:


(detail snipped from the original photo so I can exaggerate the coincidence)

- DSC_0274 by lcwtw, Flickr

Welcome Swallow

Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena)
- photo by me

Straw-necked Ibis

Straw-necked Ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis)(probably)
- photo by me.

Scarlet Honeyeater

Scarlet Honeyeater (Myzomela sanguinolenta)
- photo by me, and showing an adult male, apparently (so says The Book); immature males and females don't have that lovely scarlet colour.

Galah

Galah (Cacatua roseicapilla)
- photo by me. Click image for a slighter larger version (35 KB).

Four galahs. They were sipping water from the trough - quite a hazardous undertaking, really, because the water level was so far below where they were sitting. (See the bird on the left? Imagine it leaning down into the trough from that position to the water about 20 cm below.)

We don't see many galahs here - a rare flock overhead, and sometimes a couple or a small group will feed on the ground. This is the first time I've had the chance to get a photo.

Grey Butcherbird

Grey Butcherbird (Cracticus torquatus)
- photo by me.

The book (Jim Flegg & N. Longmore, Reader's Digest Photographic Field Guide: Birds of Australia, 1994) says there should be a "conspicuous white crescentic patch behind ear", but I can't see one. And I've never thought about a bird's ear before. I knew they could hear, but never wondered how.

Pied Butcherbird

Pied Butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis)
- photo by me.

Thu 19th - 2

I love it when people in other parts of the world post pictures of the moon photographed on the same day I noticed it: "Oh! I saw that too!" It's one of the good things about us all living on the same planet - looking out (if you can do) and seeing the same moon.

Moon rising into the clouds by Joseph Kimojino in Kenya, Flickr**

And here's a lovely daytime view which is even better if you click on the "all sizes" link above it to see the larger version:

Elephants and the cloud

If you're not a regular there already, check Joseph's blog, Mara Triangle. In the latest update, poachers have been killing hippos.

**Just noticed these photos are all-rights-reserved, so I'd better stop pinching them.

Wed 18th - 1

This photo is from the Mara Triangle blog and a post by Joseph Kimojino about the frustrations of building road blocks which are then ignored: Will Mara drivers ever be responsible?

It sure is beautiful country, hey? Look at that sky. And all that space. Lovely.

Sat 14th - 3

I keep trying to make pastry! And this is what happens!

(UPDATE: I just realised you need to know this first: what follows is an empty pastry case, not a pie with a lid. There's no filling in the thing, it's just pastry in a baking dish which should be filled later when cold.)


IT LOOKED JUST FINE WHEN I PUT IT IN THE OVEN!

I hoped the spoon would help show the dimensions a little better, but it doesn't. I fear you'll miss the fact that on one side of the dish the pastry is 3cm thick, leaving space for a filling of just 1cm.

In retrospect, using a recipe for rough puff instead of shortcrust was not sensible, particularly in light of the fact that I couldn't be bothered baking it blind (ie. covered with baking paper weighed down to mimic the dampening effect of a filling).

And this post has taken exactly 1 hour 3 minutes to write because I can't think of a way to finish it. So let's just do it like this:

Mon 9th - 1

Today I saw these wedge-tailed eagles:



And they saw this (and presumably everything else, with their - yes - eagle eyes):

Sun 8th - 4

Haha! Look how relaxed this lion is:


- Lion enjoying the humid heat by Joseph Kimojino, Flickr

More: Lions create a roadblock

Sun 8th - 2

- Cheetah cub by Stood in the Congo, Flickr

Another view of a similar animal and vehicle: Cheetah uses Serena vehicle as a vantage point by Joseph Kimojino, head of tourism and anti-animal harassment for the Mara Conservancy in the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Joseph has a blog which is well worth a read: Mara Triangle.

Sat 7th - 1

This is the first time I've been able to get a photo showing the relative size of a wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax).




The cow in the left-hand bottom corner of the large photo is about as far away from the camera as the eagle sitting on the post (framed by the black square), so she makes a good comparison size-wise. And you can't see the base of the fence post the eagle is sitting on, but there's not much of it hiding behind the grass there. These birds are BIG.