LoriCourting

Today was ... aMAZing. We have had lorikeets visiting; you might have noticed. ;) There's been one couple in particular that have been very regular. They've tended to fly in, scoff, fly away, and return a little later for another feed ... repeat numerous times. We figured they might have young around; it being Spring and all.

Today five lorikeets arrived.

tl;dr: BUT OMG FLEDGLING LORIKEETS...

Three remained perched in the maple while two (the usual pair) came to the railing. I went out to photograph them - of course. While I was clicking, there was a whirring as of wings, and one from the tree came and flew to the railing rather closer to me than the others. I turned to focus on it, whereupon came a great squawkingness, and the nearer of the first two made some mighty hops in my direction (the new arrival took off back to the tree).

Aha. Younglings. For sure.

So I retreated. After a time, one of the fledglings came to the railing, and OMG watching it fumble through the air was one of the most KEEYYOOOOT things I have ever, ever seen. It came down to the feeder with the mother for a time, then mum went back up to the railing, followed after a time by the young'un, making a noise like a creaky door. Mother then began to feed her fat and fumbly offspring.

Click-click-click-click-click...

Found later that I had neglected to reset the exposure compensation after snapping a very-backlit fledgling in the tree, so the feeding pics are not quite as good as they could've been (they're also very cropped, as I didn't want to get close and stress the parents).

After that, the male came back for a feed beside his chillun. Just a quick one though, before hopping up onto the railing, and over towards his lady wife (they are monogamous, and pair for life, so I feel perfectly justified anthropomorphising all I want :p). Then started the most amazing courtship display: arching his neck, fluffing up, dancing about. They both went hopping over each other, and back down to the feeder, where the canoodling continued - including this great bit of eye contact and almost-symmetry.

Click to display.

Biggr. Bettr. Flickr.

Amazing morning.

I was also chuffed that not long after the initial stressed warning-off, the mother actually flew off and left the fledgling by itself for a minute or so - with me only a few metres away.

Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 1:3.5/135 on Pentax K-30. f/to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kinda lost track myself...