This morning was cold and foggy around where I live. I was initially hesitant to go for a walk thinking the fog would cut down the natural light so I would not be rewarded with any good photographs for braving the sub-zero weather. Initially my walk started out like I feared with not much bird life. However, I went further up Red Hill to see what I could find, which turned out to be the best option. I saw some Crimson Rosellas feeding, which I used to practice fill flash photography with. I was happy with the results but the small branches in the way meant the photographs were really not worthwhile. I also found another group of Satin Bowerbirds, which were too quick while being too much in the shade to properly photograph. The other birds I saw, which I was able to photograph, are below.
The Laughing Kookaburra is such an iconic Australian bird I always felt at a loss that I had not had a chance to photograph one yet. This morning, I could hear them with their 'laughing' call but they all seemed far away. Fortunately, one flew into a high tree along my route with a trajectory that caught my attention. I took some photographs of it, appreciative that I would finally have some images of a Kookaburra, albeit a distance away and almost straight up. I was then attracted to some Bowerbird calls, finding the birds but unable to obtain a good photograph. As I was walking back to the path I noticed a pair of Kookaburras in a tree. They were not phased by my presence, they just continued to go about their business. They were flying backwards and forwards between two hollows and the branch in the same eucalyptus tree they were perched on. I was not sure what they were doing in the hollows. One was small so they could only get their beaks in. The other was significantly larger so they could both comfortably fit into it. If they were eating I am not sure why they just did not stay at the hollows as they would land at the hollows, stay briefly then return to the branch they were on. Other birds flew into the tree but the Kookaburras did not try to force them away. The Kookaburra seemed to be very nonchalant about the hollows, mainly keeping their backs to them unless they were going to fly towards them.
Walking back down the hill I could here ducks but I was a little disorientated as the noise was coming from the trees not the ground. I saw a number of Australian Wood Ducks perched in eucalyptus trees. It appeared the females were making a repetitive single note, truncated quack. The pair I saw first were near a hollow in the tree and these ducks nest in hollows so may be they were starting to search for a nest location ahead of time. A Galah came along to force away the female duck I was photographing, although the Galah did not stay near the hollow. There were two or three other ducks likewise in separate trees making the same noise.
I could not help snapping some photographs of the Sulphur-crested Cockatoos lined up on the ridge of a neighbour's house waiting for him to bring some food out.