Listening to the Voices in My Head

Today, I laughingly reminded Wing that someone accused me of setting up a nectar feeder just for photo op.

Really? 5 years on, and several more feeders put up is a helluva long time for a single photo op, yes?

I first set one up, with bird molting vitamins, to help an injured Red Wattlebird. It has long since recovered, even raising a few broods, although it took about a year of it pretty much staying in our front yard garden.

I was going to just take it down, and that's that. But then we had a neighbor chop down all the native nectar bearing shrubs and trees. The reason: the birds made too much noise. 7 feeders in the front yard, 2 in the back, and the birds are welcome to make as much noise in my yard as they want.

I was cleaning and refilling the hummingbird feeders. I turned not quite right, right knee didn’t like it and I stumbled. When I reached out to get my balance, I dropped the feeder and it shattered. *sigh*

Have cleaned up all the glass, cleaned and refilled the remaining ones. The bright side is it was one of the smaller feeders, not the one of the large ones. Have ordered a new one from Amazon.

Yesterday and the day before, we were hit by a severe storm front. Our gorgeous Gum Tree was badly damaged. This tree is (or should I say was) the stage for many of my large bird photographs (Cockatoos, Kookaburras, Galahs)

This makes me want to cry:



I am hoping that we will be able to have the outer sections removed, leaving the center spire to 're-bush' (gum trees are notorious for how difficult they are to 'kill off').

Squabbles: the tree above was a major, and I mean major, food source and nesting area for local honey eaters and other birds. Our bottlebrush trees, which were trimmed way back last year because of solar panel installation, were another. I 'fixed' the bottlebrush tree problem by getting 5 hummingbird feeders and finding a proper nectar recipe, supplementing it with 'molting vitamins' every once in a while, and spreading them out in the bottlebrushes. Now that the gum tree was badly damaged by the storm, the competition for that food source has resulted in squabbles, with the oldest, biggest Red Wattlebird being the bully of the block.

There is a good chance that I will have to spread them out a bit further, in different trees, and will be refilling them more often.

And not have a hissy-fit, or resort to snide insults and insinuations.

It's not news that we had to cut back out bottlebrush trees because of having solar panels installed (even though they don't cast shade on the roof). Because of this, a major food source for the local nectavores was removed during flowering season. We also had birds nesting nearby, brooding young birds.

I contacted the Melville Council about it, and D gave me the number to the Rangers, who then gave me a phone number to an Veterinary Ornithologist. After telling her the above, I got suggestions and some good advise, which I followed. I got some hummingbird feeders, got a recipe to make 'nectar', and some liquid vitamins to add to it. Once the birds figured out what these strange stiff red flowers were for, the 'locals' visited the truncated bottlebrush trees during their daily rounds.

In a bird group on Facebook, someone had a conniption fit about feeding wild birds, accusing me (and others) of only setting up feeders to create photo ops. And when I related the above about the bottlebrush trees, one woman demanded to have 'a published peer reviewed paper from this anonymous scientist of yours'. Then she implied, without flat out saying the word, I was a liar, and demanded the names.

I told her No, she could call the Melville council, and get her own referral.


I am not taming these birds. I have checked the number of photos of birds on the feeders vs birds flying, in trees, on the ground, noshing on native flora. Do I have them on feeders too? Sure do, not denying it, but more to show they are using them, not for the photo op.

And it's a good thing I have the feeders up. An adult red wattlebird came out second best in a tussle with either a raven, or kookaburra. It was badly injured, and I wasn't even sure it would survive the night. I made sure there was a feeder near it, and fresh water. Not only did it survive, it had a safe place to recover. But I guess according to the woman above, I should have let it get weak, fall to the ground, and get savaged to death by a dog, cat or rat. Uhh, no.

The day it was injured:



2 Months later in the 'hospital tree' with feeder and water nearby.



I would deem this fully recovered.



And one more thing before I finish this up: I have some neighbors that cut down two perfectly healthy large nectar bearing trees. A bottlebrush tree, and a grevillea, again reducing the native flora/food supply. And this was AFTER a developer took down about a dozen tall pine trees just a few weeks prior. So, the feeders have had more visitors than usual.

So, when I see the remaining nectar bearing trees in flower, I will keep the humming bird feeders out there to make up for what I and the neighbors have removed.

Two Red Wattlebird chicks, offspring of the senior resident adult pair. (Canon 7D2, 100-400 L IS mkII, 1.4x MkIII extender)