Our large lilly pilly tree is home to a breeding pair of Australian Red Wattlebirds.
However, we believe the chick they’re feeding is an Australian Koel – a local version of the cuckoo. The chick is enormous, much bigger than its unwitting foster parents, and was happily climbing over the top branches today, feasting on the small red fruit. I took these photos especially for birdlovers Joanna and Brian. If anyone can shed some light on whether this really is a Koel, or whether Wattlebird chicks change substantially as they fledge, please let us know!
I also managed to snap some interesting bee photos today – they were particularly enamoured with our flowering broccoli spikes and happily buzzed around for several minutes while I played wildlife photographer.
I was fascinated by the packets of pollen on their legs! I’d read about these, but had never actually seen them before, yet today every bee in the yard seemed to sport a couple of yellow balls on her legs. I’d love to know what broccoli flower honey tastes like!
Edit: The bees are still feasting, so I took a couple more photos this afternoon!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I have no idea what the bird is, but he is very pretty. I love your photos of the bees. How did you get them to pose so well?
Fantastic photos Celia – maybe that’s your next career – wildlife photographer extraordinaire?
I take it you have not been adversely affected by the storms and flooding that has effected Queensland so badly?
Great pictures, Celia!
They give me such pleasure- to see summer in the midst of our “bleak midwinter” and temps this morning of 18 degrees F.
I especially love the bees with their buckets of pollen attached to their thighs!
I’ve never been a birdwatcher but I blame that on poor eyesight. lol. You managed to get a great close-up shot!
Ooh yes, more garden bird pictures please!!!! We love them. Thank you so much. They look spectacular against those bright red berries! I didn’t know that there were other birds that behave like the naughty cuckoo! I did read that they may fall victim to global warming, because our birds nest earlier in warm weather, by the time the cuckoo turns up from Africa to do its cuckoo thing, the host birds have already got their own baby chicks further along and so the cuckoos miss their ‘window’. Strange thought but I don’t recall hearing any last year at all when out and about.
Brydie sent me a link to a soundfile of Australian birds last year, I play them to tease the dogs from time to time, they go hunting under my desk for Koels hee hee1
Wow! Great photos! Really amazing!
We have a giant basil bush in our backyard that has flowered but we leave it for the bees. We have little bees, not the big bruiser type here.
Maz
Deb, I really didn’t – they were quite absorbed with the flowers, so I just pointed the autofocus at them and clicked continuously. Out of that I got a few good shots (and some of just flowers and no bees! :)).
Choc, you make me laugh! I have the patience of a boiling kettle, Pete and I have been laughing about how hopeless I am at waiting for anything. We watched a documentary last night about the birds of paradise in PNG, and the cameraman had to sit hidden for 120 hours (!!!!!) waiting for his shot. Definitely not for me. :) And thank you for checking – we’ve had wind and rain, but nothing like they’ve had in Qld, thankfully!
Heidi, aren’t the bees interesting! Maybe I’m simply not observant enough, but I’ve never noticed the pollen packets on bees before!
Helen, thank you! I have pretty rubbish eyes too, which makes autofocus cameras a huge boon! :)
Jo, so glad you liked them! The chick was right at the top of our tree – must be at least five metres high – so I just pointed the camera at it and clicked. I was surprised the photos turned out at all! I have to admit, when we figured out that it might be a Koel, I was quite indignant for the poor Wattlebirds that have been busting their butts to feed it! But it is a magnificent bird. :) Just found some more information about the Koel – I’m pretty sure now that it is a Koel, as it looks exactly like the juvenile photo on this site: http://birdsinbackyards.net/species/Eudynamys-scolopacea
Maz, they really were quite big bees this time – longer than a centimetre (half an inch). As I said, they were completely obsessed with the broccoli flowers – I’m so glad we left it to flower in the garden rather than pulling it out when it had finished making edible heads! :)
Great photo’s, Celia – a new career coming up?
I’ve not seen the Koel – I don’t think we get them here in SA.
In an earlier existence, I worked at the RSPCA for almost 10 years and I do remember that, at that time, Red Wattle Birds were not protected here in SA. They are extremely aggressive feeders and generally push other, smaller honey-feeders out of an area, where they then go on to become the dominant species – so if it is a Koel it probably serves them right!!
Do you know if they are protected in NSW?
Hi Celia, We’ve had the Koels nest snatching at our place too although here they did it to the crows. I’ve never felt sorry for a crow before but I did for these ones. They were so harrassed by the chick which was very loud and very demanding. I looked in my bird field guide but it only showed pictures of the adults not chicks. Your chick does have similar face markings to the adult female common Koel.
I love the sound of the Koel. It always reminds me of my grandparents where ever I am as they always seemed to have one living around their house.
A passing koel may have laid an egg in the wattle birds nest, instant adoptive parents. Wonder if the Wattle birds are blaming the lack of similarity in their ‘little’ chick on the post man :-)
Amanda, that must have been an interesting job! I’m not sure if the Red Wattlebirds are protected – they certainly don’t seem to be in short supply! Our lilly pilly tree has so much fruit this year that there should be plenty to go around, but the parent birds are busy chasing everyone else out of the tree! :)
Jo, if you have a look at the site I linked in the comment above yours, there is a photo of a juvenile Koel, which looks exactly like ours! I have to say, I’m feeling a bit sorry for the Wattle birds too – not sure if they raised other chicks, or if the Koel did away with them early like cuckoos do. We were just outside and saw the Koel fly off – so obviously it can now fly, but that doesn’t stop it coming back and harassing the Wattle birds to feed it! ;-)
Brydie, I wonder if the Wattle birds even notice! They’re so frantic feeding this enormous juvenile. More likely they’re thinking, “oooh, look at our lovely fat baby” hahaha
Celia, did you take those fantastic action photos with your new camera?
It sure looks like that pic you linked to! And I just learnt a new phrase ‘brood parasite’ – I think cuckoo sounds much nicer somehow.
The adaptive strategies of animals are amazing; though for me nothing beats the male seahorses who carry the fertilized eggs and carry them round looking pregnant while the female slopes off and parties on… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seahorse
Tracey, I wish! No, I’m still using the same SLR we’ve had for about eight years. I’d love to buy a new one, but I can’t justify it – the old one still works brilliantly and takes most of the photos here. The one I wrote up early last year was a pocket Lumix – it goes walkabout with me, but I rarely use it at home.
Joanna, aren’t male seahorses amazing? And I wonder if the word cuckold comes from cuckoo?
Wow! I’ve never seen the pollen on the bees legs before!
Lovely pictures! That is a nice tree with the red berries. Are the berries edible?
Great photos, Celia. We commonly get Koels up here in Qld. Peter’s Uncle used to refer to them as ‘storm birds’ and of course that’s the time of year we get them. I didn’t know they behaved like Cuckoos, interesting. They seem to return to the same tree every year. We lived for many years in a house with a very large Moreton Bay fig tree just outside our bedroom window and one night, in particular, the Koel called until well into the small hours. My Dad, who visited from London at Christmas time most years waged war on the Koel with many ingenious and downright hilarious tactics to try to get it to change roost but the Koel prevailed. PS: I recognised my own thighs in Heidi’s comments about “buckets of pollen attached”! Must buzz now.
Happy New Year to you and your family, Celia! How cute are these little birdies! And what wonderful photos you managed to snap of the honey sacs on that bee. I also wonder what broccoli flower honey tastes like…… That’s what’s wonderful about bees getting nectar from the flowers around them. I never know what the honey we get from our local apiarist is going to taste like. It’s always like a beautiful surprise!
The bees are so cute! I’ve never seen them do that either. It’s nice to know they’re out enjoying your garden too.
Lovely photos Celia, though I am distracted by the lovely lillypilly fruit on the tree. Are you going to use it in something too? They have a nice crunch and astringency, kinda like that in pomegranates. We have starlings nesting in our bushes, we feed the parrots all winter but unfortunately they don’t nest here.
Great photos of the bees Celia! I was trying to capture some “pollen leg” shots of our bees the other day and I don’t think I managed to get one as good as yours!
I would be out there having stern words to that naughty bird, and perhaps doing a bit of shooing as well.
What gorgeous shots! In fact I think I bought a bird ornament for a friend that looks like that bird! :o Really beautiful feather pattern. And well done with the bee shots too!
Manuela, we don’t eat the berries straight, but Pete does turn them into a lovely jelly, which we use in place of redcurrant jelly…
Jan, you are too funny! I think you might have given the phrase “pollen packets” a whole new meaning. The Koel has quite an interesting call – I can see that it would be annoying at 2am.. :)
Honey, Happy New Year to you and Soy too! :)
Claire, thank you, I feel better now, I thought I was tragically unobservant! Somewhere they’re making great honey, because they’re collecting madly and then coming back for more!
Chef, we’ve been collecting as many lilly pilly berries as we can without breaking our necks. Of course, that leaves more than half the tree for the birds and other wildlife! We’ve never had such prolific fruiting. As I mentioned to Manuela, we usually making lilly pilly jelly with it, but this year Pete has also made a very nice lilly pilly and mango jam, and our friend and neighbour Maude turned it into lovely cordial to go with her Soda Stream.
SG, it’s very hard to shoo a bird perched at the top of a five metre tree! :) I don’t think it would pay any attention to me on the ground trying to lecture it on the wickedness of its ways..hehehe
Lorraine, thank you! I’m pretty chuffed how well they turned out, actually. :)
Hi Celia,
I am always delighted by birds visiting my place too. I wonder if you are familiar with the fabulous website http://www.birdsinbackyards.net? I often refer to this site and particularly like that you can hear the birdcalls.
Mimi, thank you – I just found that wonderful site today when I was trying to identify our bird! I love that the birdcalls are from urban Sydney! :)
For anyone who’d like to hear what the birds sound like in our part of the world, have a listen here: http://birdsinbackyards.net/feature/top-40-bird-songs.cfm
Definitely a koel. Just wait till she (definitely female) starts to call, waking you at 5am with that extraordinarily musical (and penetrating) “ko-elle” for many years to come … !!!
Oops, of course I was wrong and should have remembered that that distinctive (and beautiful if IRRITATING!!!!) call is only done by the males … and if this one is still young, it could in fact be male as they all look like females till fully fledged.
What a huge bird! And you say it’s only a chick? Wow.
I love the 2nd last photo of the bee in flight mode :)
Amazing shots of the bees Celia, well done. I spent some time in Beechworth on our travels & did a honey tour & learnt all about a bees journey…. fascinating stuff. But…. apart from seriously admiring your birdy shots…., don’t know much about ’em :)
Your fabulous book darts arrived today Celia…. thank you so much, they’re just the thing & I love them.
Jack, it’s already calling out – albeit to the Wattle birds, so I wonder if we’ve heard its true call yet? I hope it is male, because I’d love to see if turn all black (and sing!).
Toni, it’s enormous! Thank you – I’m very chuffed with the bee photos! :)
Anna, thanks love, I’m not much of an ornithologist either, but since we’ve started spending more time in the garden, there just seems to be so much to see! So glad you liked the darts! Warning: they’re addictive…hahaha!
Celia.. I have never heard or for that matter seen packets of pollen on a bees legs. You learn something new everyday.
Lovely photos..makes me envious that you are entering summer.
One of my News Years goals if to start to bake bread. You have given me much insperation in that department. Wish I didn’t have to convert your ingredients. Can you suggest a really good book for a beginners. Happy New years friend. B:)
Beth, thank you! My favourite beginner’s bread book – and the one that got me started – is Dough, by Richard Bertinet. The Handmade Loaf by Dan Lepard is also brilliant, but for me, less of a beginner’s book – it focuses on interesting loaves, sourdough etc, whereas Bertinet’s book comes with a dvd that shows you step by step how to make your first loaf. My friend Danielle ordered Dough from Amazon in the US, and the recipes were in imperial measures, whereas the one I ordered from the UK was in metric. Have fun, and happy new year to you too! :)
Hi Celia
Yep, that’s definitely a Koel chick. Poor WattleBirds. Our little honeyeaters got in early this year and fledged two chicks before the Koels came to check out their nest. Hooray. Nevertheless they are squawking all over our neighbourhood. Though it’s one of those “sounds of summer”, I can’t wait until they bugger off back to SE Asia.
All the best,
MamaVix, from Far North Sydney.
Fabulous pictures! I can see that I definitely need to consider getting a new camera…what kind of camera are you using? Again awesome pictures…thanks so much for sharing…I do so miss spring and summer! :-)
LOVE your bee shots!!Beautiful!
The Dredgemeister’s Dad is in residence and is a bit of a bird expert. Want him to pop by and offer an opinion?
Wonderful! It must’ve been the day for bees…I was trying(!) to take photos of them today too, lol. I can see the first two photos on a Christmas card or December calender page! :)
MamaVix, you made me laugh! The birds in our backyard can be soooo noisy sometimes!
Cindy, thank you! I took these photos with a Panasonic Lumix FZ20, which I think we bought in 2004. It’s a great camera, but both the batteries are now dying, and I can only push the ISO to 400 (new ones go to 3200). When I do upgrade, it will definitely be to another camera in the Lumix FZ range – I don’t particularly want to change lenses, and I love how this is a “point and shoot” camera.
Anna, El, thank you – but we’ve pretty sure now that it is a Koel…
Chris, thank you – the bees were being very obliging over the last few days. Although I went out yesterday in a floral shirt, and they chased me around the garden! True story! :)
Lovely jelly. It must taste great if similar to red currant jelly! Currant jelly is one of my favorites.