Sunday, January 11, 2009

NOW THIS IS A NAME........WILLIE WAGTAIL



The baby birds on a first outing...


This is Mum or Dad giving me a piece of her/his mind for looking at her babies....scolding and scolding


I have never given this little bird's name much thought but.... Willie Wagtail...a great moniker for a feisty little bird which was giving me a hard time this morning at daybreak when feeding the animals. I then realized what all the chittering was about," my babies are on their first flight so keep back..." and the swear words....@#%###

These little birds follow the larger grass eating animals and station themselves at the heribivores nose and catch the tiny insects that scatter as the grass eater moves its nose amongst the grass, all the wile wagging their tail feathers furiously, gives one an eye ache watching all the energy expended in the tail wagging, hence the wagtail moniker.

The nest is high in a bunya nut tree whose spikes are daunting, no self respecting lizard, python snake would make it up these limbs to devour the eggs or the babies.

7 Comments:

Blogger diane b said...

They are lovely birds, one of my favourites. Beautiful photography again Lizzy.

January 11, 2009 at 9:33 PM  
Blogger Artoholic said...

I do love the Willys, although they are noisy! Great shots you have there.

They always let me know when the kookies of butcher birds are about. I ave a couple of wagtail nests, both built almost at groud level, and the young ones sadly raided soon after birth. I was documenting their life form the egg up, but it was a short one. On Sunday I spied a nest at shoulder height at the Bunnings nursery section - on a post at the end of an aisle.

January 12, 2009 at 8:23 PM  
Blogger Lizzie's Insomnia said...

Thanks Diane, Did not have wagtails here for many years...seem to have returned in the last four or five....The pair here are very wary of humans but the babies will nearly fly to ones shoulder..

As an aside I put a photo up on Flickr after a request for the coloring and captioned the image Willie Wagtail - Adult and in a matter of 30 seconds had half a dozen hits....changed the title to Willie Wagtail - Adult Australian Bird and not a sign of a visitor...he he go figure how the many minds work....

Cindy, Should I enquire on the shortness of the life of the birds you were documenting?

January 14, 2009 at 11:30 AM  
Blogger Artoholic said...

Remember Grotty when she called her video posts - "Nude girls" or something, and got a gazillion hits?

Baby willies were very young, eyes still closed - will put a post up on various chicks (the bird type!) soon.

January 14, 2009 at 11:41 PM  
Blogger petersteel said...

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January 12, 2010 at 11:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

great article. I would love to follow you on twitter. By the way, did you hear that some chinese hacker had busted twitter yesterday again.

February 9, 2010 at 12:18 AM  
Blogger ethan1066 said...

i am really excited by the photographs you have taken....i have not seen those little birds before..they are awesome..

May 11, 2010 at 8:17 PM  

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