The Picos de Europa

The heat (35+) and strong winds in Perth have made birding and videography a bit rough, but I did manage to spend the other day around the lakes and river. There were a nice pair of Chestnut Teal at Alfred Cove on the Swan River, but the conditions made video too difficult, but a nice sighting all the same. Herdsman Lake had the usual waterbirds, plus 7 Wood Sandpiper, 8 Pectoral Sandpiper, 27+ Black-fronted Dotterals and a Little Eagle visiting the area.

The computer hardrive crash last year did wipeout or corrupt some old video I had on there, but I managed to put together a short video (from remaining segments) of our visit to the Picos de Europa area in northern Spain from a few years ago. This was the first time I was using the Canon XH A1.









The local wildlife in the video are Chamois, Water Pipit, Alpine Accentor, Alpine Chough and Snow Finch.

Wandering Whistling-Ducks

It's so hot and humid here in Perth at the moment, probably due to another cyclone north of Perth. It reminds me a lot of the weather in Queensland, so I thought I'd put up a Queensland bird video.

During one of our recent birding holiday trips to north Queensland, my wife and I came across this nice little group of Wandering Whistling-Ducks at the golf course just north of Cairns. I took this short video of the little group of these beautiful ducks.

Red-faced Liocichla

One of the birds I wanted to get video of was the Red-faced Liocichla, a beautiful small babbler-like Thailand bird. It's usually shy and a skulker, as it forages unobtrusively for berries, seeds and insects in the undergrowth.

A lot of the video I took was of a little reddish bird disappearing into the undergrowth, but this guy came out to feed on some rice. It's only a very short video, due to a naughty Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrush that scared the Liocichla away and then didn't even eat any rice.







It's name sounds Mexican, but it is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Transformer Owl Video

It is amazing how an animal can react to different threats, especially in behaviour and body posture. This is video of an owl reacting to other different owls. I think it's from some Japanese (?) game show, but the reactions of the owl are incredible!

Scaly-breasted Partridge

These are videos of Scaly-breasted Partridge (Arborophila chloropus) also called Green-legged Partridge, which came out of the forest at Baan Song Nok, south of Bangkok. An often hard to see, but beautiful partridge of the Thailand forests.









When we were watching the partridges, I noticed a pair came in together and whenever they were startled, they would crouch tail to tail. I thought might be some anti-predator behaviour allowing views from both directions. Partridges and quail do often crouch to hide, but do mating pairs do it facing different directions?

I only managed to get this behaviour once on the next video at the end, just before they disappeared behind some bushes. Has anyone else seen this type of behaviour in other partridges or quail?

Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrush

These Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrushes were one of the most common forest birds near the summit of Doi Lang. Cheeky, noisy and sometimes in groups, they were always coming in for food and scaring away the other smaller birds.

Blue Whistling Thrush

This is video of the resident race of Blue Whistling Thrush in Thailand (with the yellow bill), the migrant race that arrives there have black bills.

The Blue Whistling Thrush (Myophonus caeruleus) is a species of thrush in the family Turdidae. At 178 grams (6.3 oz) and 33 cm (13 inches), it is believed to be the world's largest species of thrush. Feeds mainly on insects and is found over most of asia, usually in temperate, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

An interesting fact, the brighter blue patches found on the shoulders and sometimes the head, of whistling thrushes, uniquely for a passerine, reflect strongly in the ultraviolet.