Striated pardalotes -R (still) -Us

As usual for Spring Striated Pardalotes are beginning their raucous nesting activities around houses, sheds and most anywhere else with something resembling a hollow.  I couldn't resist a few snaps of one cavorting on our deck yesterday.

I have no regrets about devoting a few Kb of Google's  storage and your download limit to this beautiful and entertaining species.

Those with expertise in rock climbing may wish to speculate on the physics involved in the last four poses.

Striated Pardalotes-R-Us

When we first moved here I put up a couple of hollow logs with entrance tunnels to entice Striated Pardalotes to nest in them.  These were treated with great disdain.

On 8 November 2012 I noticed 3 Striated Pardalotes behaving in a 'thoughts-about-breeding' manner on the South side of our house.   Today (9 November 2012) the same sort of behaviour was going on outside my study on the North side.

The little birds seemed able to cling to the bricks at strange angles while calling loudly.  Although I only got one bird in a photo, at times all three were doing this with their wings extended and fluttering.

 They were also perching on a wire which had been used for roses.

From the wire perch they were flying up out of my sight and various chittering noises were being made.  On going on to the deck it appeared that a piece if beading had fallen off leaving a gap about 1cm wide.  To my astonishment the pardalotes were entering that and obviously planning to set up a nest in the ceiling.  This didn't seem like a good idea from the peace and quiet (or structural integrity) perspectives.

The first step was to ensure as far as possible that there were no pardalotes inside and then replace the beading.  The birds still seemed to be very keen on the site so I have relocated one of the hollow logs.

Within a minute the birds were inspecting the log, and when I showed Frances my handiwork 5 minutes later a pardalote zipped out of the log, startling her more than somewhat!  They seemed to lose interest here aftera a few days and them moved to a gap into the ceiling of my shed.  After much moving next material that site has also gone quiet.