Who killed cock robin?

[gemfyre]

Went on a picnic at Bell's Rapids yesterday. When we got there I noticed thunder rumbling and dark clouds gathering. Mum's comment was "didn't you see the lightning?"

Anyway, started to rain as soon as we were set up. We almost got out of there but it passed and the sun came out again.

I spotted a robin in the bush in front of me. Obviously an adult male because his breast feathers were really bright. Noticed a few others flitting about as well. Possibly females or more likely younger males as they were similar to the main male, just paler. I got my camera out and went off to find them again. Eventually I found our man perched in a casurina. He let me get pretty close and I snapped quite a few photos of him. This one being the best...


Pretty lil' fella. There was also another bird there I couldn't ID. Very loud pretty whistle. TINY little bird. I figured it was probably a silvereye or something but it didn't look like one of them. Looked vaguely brown honeyeater but it was too small and the wrong shape to be one of them. I don't know what it was, only photo I got of it makes it look like another leaf anyway.

I really wanna get to a doctor about this throat of mine but won't be able to even call to make an appointment before Tuesday. I'm worried it'll turn into an inner ear infenction and just want to know WHAT it is and start working towards making it better.

Comments

Holy fuck....

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

It's a robin! Woooow!! He's so beaaaaautiful!!! He's looking at you! He's very proud of himself, look at him puffing his red chest up! Gosh! Sorry, it's just that I didn't *know* you could get robins in WA. I just looked it up and we have quite a few species! We only get willy wagtails, and little honey-eaters, and these yellow-breasted things, gosh they're lovely. And then there's the ravens and the magpies, and big honey-eaters with waggly red things on either side of their cheeks. They're great, they swoop the cats and they're so funny. The cats are like, "Shit-shit-shit-shit-shit!!" and running for cover with their tails all low. HEhehe. We also get a lot of parakeets too. 28s, Black Cockatoos (heaps in the winter) and those nasty little rainbow lorakeets (they're vermin. Pretty, but vermin). Now I've exposed myself as the nature loving geek that I am. I admit it. When I was a kid I went to those nature guild walk-abouts by the river, looking at crabs and spiders and water-birds and things. I'm sooo lame *ducks head*

Re: Holy fuck....

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

haha, if that makes you lame then I must be terribly lame too.

Studying Conservation Biology and having read books on nature since I could read and being an avid fan of David Attenborough has made me pretty full bottle on animals and nature and stuff.

I'm considering getting some people together and either doing a tour of Karakamia Sanctuary (which I went to a few weeks ago). They do night tours and you WILL see loads of woylies and bandicoots and kangaroos and wallabies and possums, we even saw a bat! Also before dark you can admire the birdlife. Karakamia means "home of the black cockatoos" so there's some of them, 28's, magpies, redcap parrots!! (they are so pretty but kinda scarce), the good ol' honeyeaters and wattlebirds, wrens... The other place I want to go is Paruna Sanctuary, which is near Gidgegannup and run by the same organisation. Paruna is a lot larger and I don't think they do guided walks. But being a fenced in sancturary you're alot more likely to see animals anyway, and I make a good guide, if I do say so myself. ;)

I'm also considering hollering next time I go to the zoo and people who are willing to sit for half an hour at one exhibit and listen to me prattle on about the animal are welcome to come along.

Well you have an excuse...

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Seeing as it's going to be your profession and all. It's really great there are people like you in the world, looking out for the wildlife. It makes me really sad to see certain species slowly dwindle. I remember when I was five years old, all we had to do at Graylands to go see Australian wildlife was to cross the oval across the street and look in a strip of bush reserve between the oval and the nearby houses. There used to be bush all the way around our school. It got bulldozed for housing developments. My high-school was the same. It was surrounded by lots of bushland, an island for animals in our area (it was Swanbourne SHS) and now it's been bulldozed for housing, and all the lovely bush around it will most likely be gone too. There were a lot of bob-tails that lived there, and insects and birds. Now all they have is Bold Park, it seems.

Those trips sound lovely, but that trip to the zoo - dude! I am SO there! I love learning about things and it seems you know more about animals than I do so I'd love to go and hear you go on about them! That's one of the things that always bothers me when I go to the zoo - I see animals but I don't know that much about them!

And as far David Attenborough is concerned - long time fan here!! I have been mad about him since I was a kid, and I cannot get enough of his shows. I've read Life on Earth cover to cover heaps of times, and I always try to catch documentaries he's done when they're on. So yes - huge fan of the man and I totally love the way he's so enthusiastic about what he does, and how very much he cares for all kinds of animals.

A note of interest - every time I go to the zoo I take my art pad with me and draw all I see. I have heaps of gesture sketches and so forth of animals. I should scan a few in. I went to LA Zoo and San Diego Zoo (SO awesome - saw a gorilla!!) and drew like a mad bitch. This little brown bear was totally looking at me as well. Spooky! I went to LA Museum too, and that was great, learning about the local American wildlife. Anyway, I have sketches from my zoo visits in LA, of hippopotamii (they were awesome) and bears and chimpanzees and stuff. Do you love bonobos as much as I do? They're so awesome. Anyway, I'm rambling. *^_^*

Re: Well you have an excuse...

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

lol. Bonobos, dirty dirty seedy critters *giggles*. But hey I believe in love not war too :)

Haven't been overseas yet but I have been to Adelaide and Dubbo zoo. Dubbo!! *droolz*. They have enough space to have entire HERDS of antelope rather than just maybe 4 like Perth had.

I take loads and loads of photos at the zoo (drawing stuff would be hell nifty tho, I can't draw :( ), I also take the odd notes. Like my goal to go there every month and monitor the wetland birds, it's awesome around the end of winter because there are nests and baby birds everywhere. I have membership so I can just wander in and out as I please, so going every month just means I need to be motivated enough to drive there.

One time I was looking at the tiger (Calang, the male tiger was the only tiger they had at the time) and he was just laying near the glass and staring at me and I was staring back. It was kinda tiger-human communion, twas awesome.

I'm on a first name basis with many of the animals in the African section and the carnivores. I did work experience there in 1999.