Cockatoos in the front yard [video]

Going through some old videos lately, and I found a couple of the small flock of cockatoos that visited our yard not long after we moved in to our house. It's hard to believe we will be coming up on our two-year anniversary in this place! It's also a bit shocking to see the bare grass of the front, because it has been completely replaced now by garden. There is also a tree in this video which has since been cut down the big evergreen in the back right side of the videos) and the plum trees have been pruned and look much nicer these days.

Armidale flock of little corellas [video]

Plum tasty

I've got excess data at the end of the month so I thought I ought to post the videos I meant to post ... months ago already. Musk and rainbow lorikeets snacking on our plum trees in the height of summer.

Male Koala Courtship Call [video]

A male koala calling for courtship from all the lady koalas at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane, QLD.

Koalas at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Butcherbird [video]

A short video of the pied butcherbird, sitting atop the flowering quince in our front yard.

Swarming Bees [video]

Breathing Rock [video]

I have been going through our videos from the past year and a half and will try to post a couple of the older ones.  We encountered this breathing rock in New England National Park last year October.  I would have taken a longer video but the camera battery died!

Afternoon Tea for a King Parrot [video]

An Australian King parrot in a cherry tree, August 31st.

Flying Foxes [video]

Flying foxes roosting in Nambucca Heads.

Crimson Rosellas [video]

A pair of crimson rosellas in our front yard on a windy day.  I'm surprised they didn't fly away while I took the video, as they're usually pretty shy.  This video was taken on August 13th and the cherry tree didn't even have any open buds; it's now in full bloom.

Noisy Lorikeets

Just a quick video of the noisy birds that have been making a racket for a couple hours each morning, nearly every day for the past three months.  The squeaky sounds are the rainbow lorikeets, any ratchet-like sounds are the wattlebirds.

Wallaby Video

I've been meaning to include more videos on the blog lately, just for fun.  Here's a wallaby we saw out at Wollomombi last December.

Wood ducks

I noticed something yesterday which caught me by surprise.  First, I saw these wood ducks up in some eucalyptus trees.  (I have never seen ducks in a tree before, so this in itself was a little surprise.)  Second was the sound they were making.  We have heard this call plenty of times before but had never actually seen the bird while it was making it.  Since it sounds like a kookaburra wind-up, I'd always assumed before that that's what it was.  Now I know!

Below is also a brief video so you can listen to the sound.  (There's also a magpie lark call followed by some magpies yodeling, but the wood duck is the quiet chuckling that continues throughout the video.)

Echidna Video

Echidna spotted near Ronny Creek at Cradle Mountain National Park in Tasmania.

Currawong sounds

Pied currawong

I really love the calls of pied currawongs.  Even though they're not a flashy, colorful bird, currawongs are my favorite birds in Australia just because they're so much fun to listen to.  I took this short video in March down by the nearby playing fields to capture the call of a flock that was roosting in the trees.