Give us The Bird - 25th Nov

OK - we MADE it......the marathon of BIRDS. This event kindly hosted by our Blogville Chief Of Pawlice, Sarge.

As you know, mum and I have been posting bird pictures from my peeps' travels around Australia. I have been providing you with a little brain stretcher task.....of finding the FAKE bird amongst the real living and breathing ones. So for the last time, here goes:

PICTURE A: The Helmeted Guinea Fowl. These were wandering the lovely natural bush grounds of a Chocolate Factory in Margaret River, Western Australia.

PICTURE B: The Penguin. This town in Tasmania is actually called "Penguin" named after their healthy colonies of fairy penguins. The town was charming, with Penguins up and down the main street, and decorating their lampposts and litter bins. Look closely and you will see one of the bins next to the small tree.

PICTURE C: This Bush Stone Curlew with it's little baby was wandering through their caravan park in Kuranda, Queensland. Mum was thrilled to get this shot, as it involved a lot of stalking and sneaking on her behalf. This bird is famous for it's mournful calls - quite different to anything they had ever heard.

PICTURE D: This is the White Faced Heron, note it's yellowy legs. This one is found where there is fresh or salt water, this one was on the rocks at Busselton, Western Australia.

PICTURE E: Nothing beats a Peacock showing off. This is the male and he can puff out all his beautiful feathers when he is tryin' to ward off danger, showin' off or tryin' to woo a girl. This one was showin' off   in Bowen, Queensland. Or was he tryin' to "woo" my mum!?

PICTURE F: Two Little Corellas plus a random little bird in the background. These corellas were super friendly and sat on the edge of the concrete pad adjacent to my peeps' motorhome in Exmouth, Western Australia.

PICTURE G: Two awesome Australian Shelducks in captivity. Also called the Mountain Duck. Mum thought they were just so pretty. She also tried to block the image of "roast duck" out of her head!!

PICTURE H: Two happy Lovebirds, well bein' in love I guess. Another pic taken in a zoo.

That's our series of Bird Pics, hope you enjoyed seein' them as much as we enjoyed showin' them. Good luck to everyone who entered Sarge's event!

XX Rubie and her Mum.


PeeS: Just a quick look at the blog owner so you can refresh your memory at something that has FURS not feathers. Don't judge my eyebrows at the mo, I am having issues with them!

Give us The Bird - 24th Nov

Hi all, wow this is day Four of Sarge's great event of showcasin' our feathered buddies.

As usual, amongst these great pics (all taken by my mum), there is a FAKE bird hidin'. See if you can spot it. Congrats to my mate Frankie (and others), who picked the FAKE picture (B) from yesterday.

PICTURE A: Australia's only all black shorebird, The Sooty Oystercatcher. If you are an Oyster, try and run when you see this dude comin'!

PICTURE B: These are female Western Rosellas, found only in a small area of Western Australia.

PICTURE C: The iconic Jabiru. This one was pictured on the mud flats of Cairns. To follow are two better pictures of them so you can see how lovely the colourings are. There are other little birds here who wanted "in" on the picture.

PICTURE D: These were easier to photograph as they were in a zoo in Queensland. They are the largest Australian wetland bird.

PICTURE E: Look how lovely the feathers are on it's head.

PICTURE F: This is the Cassowary - also an Australian icon. Mum was desperate to picture them in the wild but they are very wary of peeps and hide real good. So this picture was taken in a zoo. It is funny that twice mum saw them in the wild, and dad dad missed them! 

PICTURE G: The Brolga. Even though you can see fences, these ones were not confined, they were walking around housing in a small inland country town of Winton. My peeps stopped for some lunch, and these two were just walkin' around!

PICTURE H: Mum was fixated by these little Apostlebirds - pic taken in Daly Waters (inland). They were friendly little characters and very chatty and sociable. Mum threw them some breadcrumbs from the motorhome. These little fellas are famous for makin' mud nests in the trees.

PICTURE I: A yellow skinned and blue feathered chicken found walkin' in our bushes!

Well - that's day four done. You will have to study the pictures really well to find the FAKE! I'm not sure if we will do a post tomorrow, as I'm getting stressed at no pictures of ME on my blog during this series!! You might forget what I look like!!  ;-)

Anywho - bye for now!

Give us The Bird - 23rd Nov

Hi all,

We are still motoring through Sarge's "Give Us The Bird" event, and are now up to Day 3.

I've been posting mum's bird pics from her hollingdays, and I slip in a FAKE bird, asking if you want to study the pics carefully and "find the FAKE"! In post two, there were some successful observations, but it's really hard, so good luck!!

PICTURE A: The Blue Faced Honeyeater. Hey who can blame them for liking HONEY!! Yummers!

PICTURE B: Various birds travelling in a flock, pictured in Queensland.

PICTURE C: The Australian Bush Turkey. These are real funny lookin'. Note the almost bald red head and a wrinkly ring of yellow skin around the neck. As these birds age the yellow bit get bigger and kinda hangs down. I think they are ugly!!

PICTURE D: Here they were at Steve Irwin's "Australia Zoo". This is a demonstration of the trained and friendly Macaws who put on a show in the stadium. The peeps are the handlers. Mum has a HUGE soft spot for Macaws.

PICTURE E: This is a second Macaw that flew around in the people stands, just over their heads. So awesome!

 PICTURE F: A wonderful Rooster and "his" Hens walking around in another "farm friendly" caravan park.

PICTURE G: The Noisy Minor. I guess they make a lot of noise. We also say "they make a din" which means the same thing.

PICTURE H: A Pelican on a post. Mum liked that he/she had it's beak open.

We are gettin' through them huh........ did you find the FAKE??? I know it's tough.....

See you for more on the 24th!

Give Us The Bird - 22nd Nov

It's a more normal time of the day for posting.....so here is DAY TWO of Sarge's great event:

So you guys know that I've been goin' through my mum's holiday snap-shots and thought you might like to see some Aussie birds for yourselves.

Hey - in yesterdays post we asked if you could "spot the FAKE", but obviously that was real difficult, because no-one guessed it, or were so unsure, that you were too scared to guess. Now concentrate everybuddy........you CAN do it........... spot the FAKE today!!! No zoo shots today - these were all out in the open wilds!

PICTURE A: This beautiful pigeon is called a Wompoo (really, honest) and mum thinks it's the most precarious nest she has ever seen. Look at that big bird and the frail lookin' nest! Imagine bein' the egg!!!!!!

PICTURE B: Dad feedin' a hungry Peacock just out of Darwin, Northern Territory. He looks hungry huh?

PICTURE C: A well behaved Galah outside a roadhouse.

PICTURE D: This little Kingfisher is high on mum's favourites list. She loves the way it's shaped like a Kookaburra, but is smaller and has beautiful blue colourings. This one flew down and sat on a light fitting of their caravan site in the Daintree Rainforest area.

PICTURE E: Again in the tropics, these little birds were in the trees - they are Metallic Starlings, see  they have vibrant red eyes, and the black feathers have a lovely shiny, greeny, chameleon colour.

PICTURE F: The Australian Black Swan with two babies. This was taken at The Entrance, coastal N.S.W.

PICTURE G: A gorgeous vibrant Australian King Parrot.

PICTURE H: The unusual Helmeted Friar, check out the head! Again found in the Australian tropics.

OK - that's day two taken care of. Hope you enjoyed our birds! More tomorrow!    Bye for now.

Give Us The Bird - 21st Nov

Hey all,

Sarge's event is starting right now - it's just hit the 21st November here - trust me it's 7 minutes past midnight!

Here is my mum's moment of glory...... her shots of some feathered friends from her motorhoming extravaganza all round Australia. She wants you to know that most of her shots are birds in the wild....not pictured through cage wire in zoos. Well, most of them are..... you will see a couple of zoo shots too but she will disclose that. She has soooooooooooo many that she is gonna put up a few each day. But just don't think you can zone out and look at all the pretty birdies and not have a task to do. SHE wants you to spot the FAKE bird...... (*schnauzer eyes rolling*) .......see how you go!

Picture A: This one's for you Frankie (our Mayor), it's one of mum's very favourite Aussie birds of all time, the Kookaburra.

Picture B: That's a real wild Emu stalking the caravan park - my folks watched it go through boxes and bags outside tents and stuff lookin' for foodables. See my dad dad's bald head and the motorhome.

Picture C: Mum goes bonkers over this shot. They were doin' a croc tour on Yellow River in Kakadu, Northern Territory. This was an early morning flock of feathered ones on the edge of the river. Hopin' they weren't gonna be breakfast for some croc I suppose.

Picture D: A friendly Pelican with pretty eyelashes in Noosa, Queensland.

Picture E: The unusual ground nest of the Bower Bird. See the female inside and the male at the front. These dudes are famous for collecting stuff all of the same colour. See this one loves the colour white, check out all the valuables at the entrance to the tunnel nest!

Picture F: A colourful Parakeet, check out the red bit above the beak!

Picture G: It looks like a Wren, but we are not 100% sure which one. Mum was delighted to get this little fella all clear like. She wants you to know the little birds are the hardest to photograph.....they go like lightening!

Picture H: Whew last one. This funny lookin' "duck" was amongst more normal lookin' ducks at Margaret River, Western Australia.

So that's our pictures for Monday....hope you enjoyed them! Hope you could study them very hard like, and work out the FAKE!!! More tomorrow, including FIND the FAKE!!