Woo, the world is still swaying

[gemfyre]

Weird ass bird of the day goes to - a single Welcome Swallow fluttering along about 50km from the coast.

Forget whaling tours to see whales. Go on Pelagic bird trips. Last time was a pod of 20 minke whales checking out the boat. This time we had about 4 humpback whales, spy hopping, fin slapping, BREACHING, OFTEN. Amazing.

Not much in the way of birds, but we did get good looks of the birds we did see. Only 3 actual pelagic species - Yellow-nosed Albatross, about 40 of them hanging around the boat, a single Sooty Shearwater that cruised in and hung around for ages and a few Wilson's Storm-petrels that whizzed around the boat on occaision, appearing and disappearing behind the waves. I didn't realise they were so tiny.

Great Skua (which is apparently soon to be split out into the Brown Skua) were common, one in particular followed the boat and sat in close, allowing for lots of great photos. The odd bunch of Australasian Gannets flying by and Crested Terns even way out to sea.

Oh yes, and we also saw two species of butterfly waaay out to sea.

Comments

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm curious to what you think about finches in particular (any kind)?

I have a pair of zebra finches I keep as pets (my female, who I named Kayla, is gorgeous, she's almost pure white but has a weird greyish pattern on her back that just looks spectacular), though that's not quite the same as seeing them in the wild, of course, and I know you're quite the birdwatcher. ;) I'm just curious 'cause noone I personally know likes finches because they're so noisy, and you're the only person I've ever met that seems to care about birds at all other than myself.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Finches are cute! Saw loads of different species up in Broome and they were always a delight. They're not really noisy at all in the wild, but I guess in a confined space the noise could get a little annoying. At least they're not as bad as say, parrots.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

I like the noises they make, that's one of the reasons I got them, other than how adorable they are!

I've always loved finches, but I was surprised when I got a pair one day, went to show them off like the proud new bird-mommy I was, and everyone was like, "Wtf is a finch?"! Everytime I go out I see wild finches running around, I just love watching them!

And even though you're not obligated to care or anything, here's some pictures of my Kayla and Ricky the finches! They're not good quality pictures because I took them with my mom's crappy digital camera, and they're not exactly photogenic (they're such fast buggers, they manage to move almost every time as soon as I hit flash so I get a nice picture of NOTHING but like the bars or a perch they had previously been sitting on), but I did my best.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1150/kayla23ao.jpg
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/2888/kaylaandricky11sd.jpg
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/7851/kayla30ic.jpg
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/9191/kaylaandricky7sg.jpg

I just love 'em to death. I spoil them and they seem to know it! But anyway, yeah, thanks for answering! I adore all kinds of birds but I really think finches are my favourite. :) You should post some of the pictures you take of birds if you can sometime!

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Bit of trivia for you. Australian "finches" are technically waxbills and not related to the finches of Europe and the Americas. Australia has many bird family named after European birds but they're not at all related, like Magpies, Wrens, Robins... and Finches.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Photos, I'd post more but I only have a little cheap camera and can't get good shots very often.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

The petstore lady actually did tell me they're from Australia, but she didn't tell me all of THAT. Huh! You learn something new every day. :)

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

those would be the wicked queue-jumping butterflies - quick, tell Senator Vanstone!