To celebrate completing my tax return, I thought I would do another bird post.  This post will feature the non-water birds around Yallakool BP Dam and Lake Boondooma (Queensland, Australia).

Chatterboxes

At Yallakool BP Dam, the Noisy Miners were the feisty top bird, out-competing other species, at least in the campground.  Closer to the dam there was a greater diversity of birds.  A family of Babblers chatted excitedly while feeding their offspring.  

Babbler Family
Babbler Chick

Lake Boondooma is almost 100 km west of Yallakool.  That relatively small distance seemed to make a big difference in the predominant species of the two regions.  The campgrounds at Boondooma were populated with Torresian Crows and Apostle Birds.  I thought the Noisy Miners were loud, but they were practically mute compared to the crows and apostle birds.  The latter weren’t exactly melodic.

Torresian Crow
Apostle Birds

Thankfully there was a family of mellifluous Pied Butcherbirds who regularly dropped by to sing a few songs.  The juvenile Butcherbird was so sweet.

Pied Butcherbird (c)
Baby Butcherbird (c)
Baby Butcherbird (c)

Parrots

At Yallakool we enjoyed the company of brightly coloured King Parrots (photos of King Parrots were provided in Part 1).  Their peeps chimed across the campground in the early morning and in the late afternoon.  At Lake Boondooma, there were parrots of a different sort.  A couple of Pale-headed Rosellas dropped in to survey the scene from the same dead trees that were favoured by the Butcherbirds.  My inexperience with the camera was revealed in this more photographically challenging environment.  The backgrounds of my photos were particularly noisy, so I’ve had to do some creative editing.  I think I might need a higher aperture?  I shall have to experiment.

Pale-headed rosellas
Pale-headed Rosellas – (c) Reflections of an Untidy Mind)

Little Sweeties

Yallakool BP dam had many areas where the grass on the lake foreshore was waist high.  There were also a number of trees nearby where little birds could seek shelter.  In the distance, we spied a Restless Flycatcher hovering and darting for insects.  A couple of Welcome Swallows were in the process of building a nest in the Bird Hide.  They kept buzzing us, insisting we move on.

Restless Flycatcher
Welcome swallows
Welcome Swallows

At Boondooma, there was little vegetation around the dam.  Consequently, there was very little protection for smaller birds.  Still, I did get lucky.  A Striated Pardalote was in a sticky tree that we had just parked next to.  Definitely my best bird shot of the whole trip.  I was over the moon.

Striated Pardalote – (c) Reflections of an Untidy Mind
(c) Reflections of an Untidy Mind
(c) Reflections of an Untidy Mind

Finally, one last photo.  You guessed it.  A Willie Wagtail.  The background colour in the original photo was enough to make me seasick.  So I had to enhance the colour slightly.  A bit posh, don’t you think? Willie Wagtail

Next stop Goondiwindi.

Kind Regards
Tracy

Holiday Bird Diary – Part 1
Holiday Bird Diary – Part 2
Holiday Bird Diary – Part 3

In response to the Ragtag Daily Prompt – Posh.

 

31 thoughts on “Holiday Bird Diary – Part 4”

  8. Lucky to see a pale headed Rosella and striated Pardalote, Tracy. I didn’t realise you went so far afield on your trip. I’d never heard of Lake Boondooma, so I’ve been educated (again).

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  11. “Tax returns” is not usually followed by “The son of Tax” thankfully. Nice set of celebratory birds. I don’t think we get a single one of them in my part of the world, but we get some of their cousins.

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  12. Aww – the Striated Pardalot is sooo cute! And catching the birds mid air is so difficult, tell me you made at least ten pictures to get one good one. 😉 I really enjoyed this series very much and you’ve given me many ideas for future projects.😉

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      1. I have a feeling this happens to me quite a lot recently since I wrote a couple of comments on other blogs as well and get no reply! Maybe should write a “Look into your Spam folder!” post! LOL! 😀
        And thanks a lot for the offer to use your lovely pics!!

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  13. Pingback: Holiday Bird Diary – Part 5 – Reflections of An Untidy Mind

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