It's the lorikeet hour. The local lorikeets spend their day clowning around town, but in the evening dozens congregate in the branches of a massive Native Daphne in the backyard of the neighbour across the road.
Every so often, huge groups take off spontaneously and fly over our roof, chattering. Some of the flocks fly so low it's like standing beneath a pulsating rainbow. I've never been successful in getting a photo.
But it does bring a smile to my dial.
@winterknell That must be amazing to see! I wish we had some more colorful birds like lorikeets here in the states.
@elaterite You do have gorgeous birds such as the Cardinal. I also remember the only time I ever saw a live roadrunner; I was all, "Aww, neep neep little guy!"
But yeah, living next door to rainbow lorikeets is awesome. Living next door to rainbow lorikeets and trying to grow fruit trees, not so much. 😀 🦜
@winterknell Lol, ya, I hear you on the fruit trees. Cardinals aren't found in the west. And getting a roadrunner is high on my list of bird photos. So are pinon jays. Kind of a boring looking bird but I like their habitat, so I like them.
@elaterite Such a compact permanent core for the pinon jay! Still, 250 birds in a flock is not to be sneezed at. Good luck getting a shot you like
The birds I miss around here are the kookaburras. We used to live in Richmond (a central suburb of Melbourne) and in the evenings we could hear them laughing over in Yarra Bend. Like every primaeval jungle in old movies.
@winterknell Interesting. Ya, those pinon jays laugh as well. They seem to be constantly on the move going from tree to tree. Here's their laugh: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0yTnS9ggotM
@elaterite That shot of a treetop at 3:04, with a fine crop of blue heads and grey bodies. They seem intelligent and well socialised. I like them. (We don't have jays down here.)
Also liked the mule deer in that short. I encountered mule deer in the Grand Canyon; totally unafraid of me as long as I didn't approach them (they were happy to walk up to within a couple of metres of me, however).
@winterknell I've never been lucky enough to see them sit and preen like in that video. They are just always flying by giggling at me!
@winterknell I'd guess a little advice would help. I haven't watched this guy's channel in a long time but if you watch some of his very earliest videos, it might give you some ideas for photographing birds in your region. https://m.youtube.com/@jan_wegener/videos
