Agapanthus

20 years ago

These aren't from my garden, I saw them whilst out walking and couldn't resist taking a photo. The light coloured wall behind them made such a good background.

Not the best of photos, but I was standing on my verandah handrail, trying

to balance and take a photo at the same time. LOL I guess someone taking a

photo of me, would have been a hoot.

I got a little excited when I saw this female bird. Koels (also known as rain or storm birds) are not uncommon,

but they are extremely shy, it's not very often they are seen as they tend

to stay in the canopy of trees and rarely break cover. They are only

in our area for the summer months, they migrate north for the winter.

There were a pair of them, the male is jet black, in my backyard for most of

today, unfortunately the male did not come out of hiding once. They are an

extremely vocal bird and actually their call can get on your nerves after a

while, I should image soon some poor unsuspecting pair of smaller birds will

soon be raising the off spring of the pair that were in my yard. Being

cuckoos they lay their eggs in other bird's nests and leave the chick

raising to them.

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Comments (12)

sheila_perth
20 years ago
I think those are the best Agapanthus shots I've ever seen :-)
The Koel is very interesting.
Kiwi_oz
20 years ago
The agapanthus are so pretty closeup when you see the detail of the flowers.

Pity they are on he top of the new list for banning plants.
The reason, the seeds get washed into the waterdrains and end up wherever to become a weed.
Beautiful bird pics, thanks for the effort of getting them
Heather
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User
20 years ago
Well Barbara I was out watering my neighbours garden Sunday morning and I hear this strange noise then birds went everywhere guess the guy two doors down just got sick of that very annoying rain bird, its a terrible noise its still there, it has not stopped for three days, and many a night I have got out of bed to throw things up the trees to send them on there merry way, only trouble was I cannot throw very high.

Great Pics those aggies are beautiful I have a few myself both colours and sizes, yes shame they will be on that weed list too. Beautiful pics of the bird. Thanks for sharing .....Cheers....MM.
goldhills
20 years ago
The aggies look great against the white.

I was actually standing about 3m away from a male koel last week but didn't have a camera. I was at school standing on the veranda of a 2 storey building and the koel was eating berries in a tree. The tree was right next to the veranda and the bird was at my eye level. Never have a camera when you need it.
ginnybee
20 years ago
Lovely pics. of the Agies. Barbara to me they also look like beautiful water colours, as for the Koels I have never seen the female before it is very pretty the male I know well when we lived in the Blue Mountains they nearly drove us mad, they don't seem to come out here thankfully but he is a beautiful bird also
Jan.
barbarah_70
Original Author
20 years ago
Thanks All.
I must admit, I'm not a great lover of Agapanthus but looking close at the flowers I can see why so many people like them.
Goldhills, what a great opportunity you lost. :-)
It may come as a surprise to most, but I never leave the house without a camera in my hand, even if it is only my little P&S Canon :-)
As for their incessant cooeeing, it does tend to be extremely annoying after a while. I woke up at 3 am this morning and the male bird was making his racket right outside my bedroom window!
paradisi
20 years ago
absolutely brilliant photos barbara 70

were they all taken with your "little P&S Canon"??

if the "little P&S" is the culprit - I'll have to add that to my santa list

well done
paradisi
20 years ago
goldhills - if you want photos of male (or female) stormbirds - we have a dozen or so pairs ( or that's what it sounds like).

They have an aweful screeching call - that is even worse at 2.30 in the morning.

The forest behind our suburban block (it's on a 800 square metre block) is full of very large trees - which the storm birds live in. (aling with possums, some tawny frog mouths, another type of owl which I'm not sure of, untold numbers of honeyeaters and butcher birds) and thankfully a feeding place for corellas, kookaburras and yellow tailed black cockatoos.
goldhills
20 years ago
That's ok Paradisi, we have plenty here along with the noisy channel bill cuckoo flying over and pheasant cuckoo plus heaps of other birds. At least we like having the birds around, I don't think they are as bad as the frogs doing their mating calls all night near the bedroom window. Also when a guava in the paddock (which was here when we moved here) fruits, the flying foxes fight over them all night.
Sparaxis
20 years ago
The aggies are lovely, but I mainly look at your threads to see the lovely bird photos. Well done again!
ashmeri
20 years ago
Thank you Barbara, Henry and I saw this strange bird in the garden the other day and have been wondering what it was, now, thanks to you we know.
Your bird pictures are always wonderful, along with the flowers of course.
Marion
barbarah_70
Original Author
20 years ago
No, these photos were taken with one of my good cameras. I only carry the P& S with me, when I can't take one of the bigger ones.

As for the birds and the ID of them, I'm just so glad my photos have some purpose.