Our great southern migration

  Why yes, I do often base my image choices on a fun (for me, at least) title. Recency is another factor. We have been taking dozens of pictures a day so I have too many choices, otherwise. The little guy/gal above is a yellow robin. Much smaller than the American red robin but also with a lovely singing voice. They are all over and not super shy. We have lots of pictures of them! There are several pretty yellow birds including the New Holland Honeyeaters (previous post) and the yellow rumped thornbills. The latter are tiny and very flitty so often out of focus.  It is rare to see them this low but you can see the yellow fuzzball, at least. These "goldilocks" birds go with the three roos that were next to the road yesterday:  Because this is a national park (literally, on both sides of us), kangaroos and wallabies are all around us. The group of dad, mom and older kid is less common.  That image looks like mostly kangaroos. Wallabies are smaller with different colori...

  The bird life is truly amazing. The black cockatoos are hard to spot! They do have bright red in their tail and we have seen that a couple of times: This one is more convincing; however, the bird looks like one of those books where you combine head, torso and legs to make new creatures.  The sulfur crested cockatoos were on the power line when I first saw them. Not hiding. They weren't too shy and moved to a more picturesque location for me. ********************************************************** Addendum - Scott found the scarlet honeyeater again! And it left again. Looking a bit like a tiny superman, I think

 September 1 is National Wattle Day in Australia, marking the start of spring.  Wattle day info The wattle is a lovely yellow. Today did feel like spring! Started with colder weather gear and ended up in sandals as we followed the whales making short excursions to the surface of the nearby waters.But we have talked whales recently so today will be the wattle bird. Generally, these just get referred to as "honey eaters" and they are officially larger and more boisterous honeyeaters. Wattlebirds do have wattles near their cheeks and often have fairly strident calls but they do vary. They are not very shy and tend to be very territorial Red wattle bird Little wattle bird New Holland Honeyeater (much more musical) Yellow faced honeyeater (much less common in our area) Scarlet honeyeater No photo.  Seen once. We go on regular hunts but no luck so far. However, the nice thing about retirement vs vacation as we can keep looking and not have to worry about packing up Generally by...

  We usually vacation in this area in August and the humpbacks generally show up a day or two before we leave. Their standard southward migration starts closer to September. This one was enjoying the early morning off Jamieson Point.  We went for an earlier walk this morning trying to capture the elusive pink breasted/red breasted birds and walked out to the point south of Potato Point. A larger pod was moving along the coast, evidenced by the spouts, tail slaps and splashes! Always amazing to see how big they are. When you can see them from the shore.... Whale info The nice thing about the point is the view! Potato Point has several areas from which you can watch a wide expanse of ocen. Two even have benched. Great place to go read  The other often has company But here is a cuter picture -two for the price of one

  The Maersk Biscayne  (Panama flag) holds our container of goods. It is due into New Zealand about Sept 5 and then should make its way to Sydney, with any luck.  We loaded the trucks for the container on July 23 and then mostly moved into Matt's new house. His stuff was moved out the Saturday beforehand. After that it was goodwill runs, care corners drop offs and a dumpster bag! Habitat for Humanity now has our house and is fixing it up. They say it is ideal for a multigenerational family and love the welcoming neighborhood.  It may be a year before it is lived in again but hoping the new family finds it as good a home as we did! For those of you out of the loop, Matt moved to a smaller house a few blocks away. He has a 50s rambler with 3 bed, 1 bath and a large basement. No real dining room but a nice airy living room. Great neighbors and even closer to Culvers.  We helped do some minor fixing up while there. Please admire my kitchen cabinet work! The individ...

  Rainbow lorikeets do not have the best song but definitely look colorful on the wing! These are not birds that Scott bothers to photograph but am still amazed at their plumage. Just amazing to see parrots flying around like robins (not rose robins but American robins). These can be found all over and are attracted to bird feeders set up with nectar. Apparently they have specialized tongues to help them gather pollen and nectar.  They do tend to be found in small flocks and can make quite a racket ["continuous screeching" according to our bird book]. This one was quiet and not willing to shift for my photo shoot!

Whistling kite flying  And a black shouldered kite in a tree (ala Charlie Brown). Note the red eyes! Must also be jet lagged. We do get to see several seabirds flying off the point. The black shouldered one flaps its wings while hovering. It resembles a sideways helicopter fighting to stay still. Pity whatever it sees, however! I don't remember identifying kites on earlier trips so these are a cool addition for me. Sea eagles are pretty common but still majestic. The white belly gives away the name on this one Instead of developing white heads with age, these white bellied sea eagles develop white bellies. See this juvenile below: We did manage a semi successful Wingspan game on steam! Laying eggs was pretty easy. Putting birds in habitats, not so much. If you haven't tried it yet, the board game has cool bird cards and facts. The steam game reads them to you.  On a more personal note, we got drivers licenses! At least we will get them in the mail in a couple of weeks. No writ...