Verandah visitor - the Laughing Kookaburra.

I love this photo Bernie :)
These little birds have got a serious looking beak, haven't they ? !

They sure do Louise - usually the beaks grow to be around 10 cms long.

Scary !!!
Glad it's not me he's got his beady little eye on !!!

They're fast and accurate - not sure what he had his eye on!

...I bet he got it though! Isn't he lovely!

You maybe Bernieh lol..........
another great pic

Great photo Bernieh

Brill photo

Thanks Deida, Janette and Clarice - I didn't have to do much to get this shot. Just had to grab the camera while he watched whatever it was that caught his eye.

Lovely photos what an interesting way of life they have most unusual for birds to behave that way and eating frogs whole ugh he looks so tiny like our kingfisher
Love the info you give us we'll all be aussie wild life experts at this rate Bernieh!! love it

HAPPY SPRING BY THE WAY x

They are fascinating birds Neellan - I love the fact that the family stays together for years helping each other out. Some of these birds live for 20 years or more. Happy to share information about our wonderful wildlife - I'm learning lots too. Yes it's spring at last.

Enjoy :o))

Lovely pic, Bernieh ..well done :o)

Thanks TT. These birds are doing their usual wake-up laughing call right now.

great pic so much wild life in your part of the world, i can still feel the sun on my back.

Glad you have good memories of our place over here Bill. The wildlife is something I really do appreciate - keeps me sitting out on the verandah for ages every day just watching out for birds or wallabies or whatever might come by.

a lovely photo.

Thanks very much, Yorkshire.

I can hear the laughter now. I have a very good friend now living in Cairns with his family. We got to see and hear the Kook's when we were lucky enough (in 2001) to get down to visit them in Victoria (her family home) and then we road tripped to Adelaide, Alice Springs (their home at the time) but then flew on up to Darwin and the National parks, but alas, not to Queensland (one day we hope).
A beautiful country, simply stunning in so many ways.
You've got me wanting to dig out the photos and video films
....Ahhhhhhhh...happy days.

You would have seen lots of contrasting landscapes on your road trip from Adelaide up to the Territory. Did you get to go in to see Uluru? Did you get to see Cooper Pedy? ... that has to be the ugliest town in the world!!!

I loved Coober Pedy, I don't know why, it just felt good and I still ware the T-shirt. And yes, it has to be one of the ugliest places going.
We stayed in the underground hotel there and I went out for a walk around at around midnight (and get this) in the rain! Hot and sunny all day, as was the day before that etc etc, and here it was raining, I loved it.
We did visit Uluru and the Ulgas for a couple of days staying in a cabin in Yulara. Again, we saw a little bit of Austrailia that few people ever see, Uluru in the rain! only for an hour or two then it was back to hot and dry for the rest of the night. We had left Guy & family at the road house (at the Uluru turn but I can't remember the name of it) to head on up to Alice to de-spider their house as they had been away for a few weeks themselves.
We flew from Alice after a week and a bit to Darwin where we hired a motorhome and headed straight out into Kakadu National Park for a week doing the clockwise loop, coming back out on to the Stuart Highway at Pine Creek (I think it was there) and then a shorter visit to Litchfield NP.Unfortunately we did not have the time to go to Katherine Gorge.
So many changes from South East to the Top End..from open farm land to dense forested hills to open desert and salt pans then on up the forest again.....brilliant. We saw the '12' not long before they became the '11' (the apostles that is) and I saw over Russia and on across China at sunrise from the cockpit of a jumbo jet just months before 9/11 put cockpits off-limits for ever. So many other things too but what a trip it was. It was intended as the trip of a life time for us and it was, and more.
What a country you have.

Sounds like you did get to see a lot,Garden Fool - Litchfield and Kakadu are just beautiful, glad you got to see them. Rain at Cooper Pedy and Uluru - you were blessed! That doesn't happen often. This country is certainly a country of contrasts and you got to see many of them. Wow ... you got to see the 12 Apostles ... well done! Just not possible anymore.

my knowledge about Australia comes from geography class...but we also learned the Kookaburra song!...it's great to see one up close and personal... they resemble our Kingfishers...the Kingfishers head is the same shape(a lovely crest) but it is bluish gray above and white below...they sit on branches above a stream or at the shoreline and wait...then swoop and nab their prey right out of the water! Great to watch. Would love to see a "kook" in the flesh (so to speak).

Lori the kookaburra does belong to the kingfisher family - it's the largest of the kingfishers over here. We have other little kingfishers around here too - I've got photos of the Sacred kingfisher and the Azure blue on my Garden photos under 1. Garden birds, if you want to take a look. There's also some great video clips of kookaburras singing on youtube if you want to check that out as well.

Great! Thanks Bernieh...will definitely give that a look...

Awesome photo!
My wife is an avid bird-watcher and I'm an avid photographer. Deadly combo. {chuckle}

We get to see some great bird life around my property - as I've mentioned above there's a section in my Garden photos that has many shots of these birds if you wish to have a look.

Nice shot. They look in shape like our kingfishers.

Lindak - these are members of the kingfisher family. They are the largest of the kingfishers over here.

Well, I really didn't know that Bernieh. I've learned something today.

Saw and heard one of these at the week-end. But it was at a wild life park. Too noisy for me. ;o)

Theoldgunner - you're so right ... these birds are very, very noisy!