Leap year along the wall

I have not been out and about as much as I would like for some time due to some lingering health issues around some inflammation that the medicos seem to be having difficulty tracking down. However, recently I decided I just needed to go for a walk along the Ballina north wall just to see how I went, and I took my camera along too.

As you will see below, some regulars were sighted along one of my favourite spots for birding, if not quite the variety sometimes spotted. It was good to get a decent walk in too 😉.

As a precaution to see how I fared on my first longer walk for a while I headed out to the end of the wall first up. On the way out I snaffled this crested tern in full glide, looking very sleek against the blue sky with some cotton wool cloud dusting the top of the frame.

Returning to the sea rescue tower you could hear the whistle of the osprey and looking up there was an adult and two young ones perched on the radio antennae arms. The adult was steadying itself from a gust of wind, and the young ones were just showing their steadiness and ruffled feathers in the wind. This augered well for some later action ...

It was good to have the camera out again and these early sightings provided a little extra spring in my step so I decided to head back along the wall to see how the legs held up. Along the way on the river side there were some willing participants posing for some individual and group photos, showing off a few different characteristics - the darter having a bit to say, and later enjoying a really good neck scratch; a pair of black cormorants showing off their bright crystal blue eyes and finely scalloped feathers as they variously swam and spent time on the boulders. I especially enjoying capturing the final one of this set where the black cormorants are almost symmetrical in their gaze from the same boulder.

This final sequence is a selection of three photos from many more taken of the same ospreys that spent a good deal of time on the lamp posts and diving into the bay as they were learning to hunt. The one shown here was the adult being successful and taking the prey back to the radio antennae arm and not sharing with the younger ones at all. It was quite the treat to see so many dives and attempts to fish their dinner - made the trek back to car a little easier with a few more stops!

Leap year special backyard portraits

This post is devoted to the scaly-breasted lorikeet. It has been a real treat to be obersving more of these around our garden in the last 6 months or so - long may it continue. While they bring out the most feisty behaviour of the rainbow lorikeets, this particular day, they had the spaces to themselves and that allowed for a more calm presence. This offered a great opportunity for some nice portrait moments ... I hope you enjoy ... 😁

While the scaly-breasted lorikeets have become more frequent visitors, the white-headed pigeon is not so frequent in our yard. In fact, I'm pretty sure this is the first one I have photgraphed other than on electricity lines out the front in any proximity to our place. So presenting itself on our front birdbath was a real treat. Nice to get such close portraits and capture subtle shifts in posture and sight - the contrast of various reds and pinks against the white and grey, and even the variants of grey in the soft light is a treat.

It's a leap year!

Appropriately the first posts catching up after our return from Tassie and into the new year of 2024 are presented on 29 February 😊. I shall add another two posts on this once in four year day so I can be "caught up".

In this first up post are some shots from around our garden again featuring the way a range of birds are opportunistic feeders and willing to share, provided a pecking order is observed! The first series of photos below show scaly-breasted lorikeets, rainbow lorikeets, a figbird and a Lewin's honeyeater enjoying the spoils of fallen avocados on our driveway.

Scaly-breasted lorikeet

Rainbow lorikeet

Figbird

Lewin's honeyeater

Once the Lewin's honeyeater had its fill I managed to track it to a perch in the bottlebrush near the carport. This photo offers a nice sense of the way they can easily blend in among the branches and seed pods that develop once the flowers are spent. The purple flowers of a nearby double hibiscus and green leaves of various shrubs provide a nice contrasting bokeh too.

The final series of photos in this post are of a Lewin's honeyeater and a little wattlebird sharing time in the front birdbath, then the little wattlebird having it all to itself, the final photo dripping after a good dunking.

Winton Wetlands special

So, the final post from our Tassie adventure is a "special" tribute to my brief visit to the Winton Wetlands.

While it was on our return journey, I figured there was enough from that single 2 hour visit to warrant a seperate post to celebrate the special nature of the wetland. I was impressed with the range of birds and other wildlife I saw from my very quick tour.

Here are my picks to share, and the only disappointment is my inability to identify the bird of prey I have in good clear pictures. Someone will help me at some point. Bottom line, if that is all I have to be disappointed about I am in a very privileged position 😁 - its been fun catching up; touring and now being settled back in home. Time to refresh my exploring of the local sights!

Pair of black swans upon still water.

Take-off by an eastern rosella (later I saw two flocks
of more than 50 birds each lift out of grass as I drove by)

The next two photos are sulphur crested cockatoos. Second one most intereting as it is perched at the entrance to a nesting hole.

Yellow-billed spoonbills, one having a bit to say!

Little pied cormorant

Australian wooduck and egret on waters edge.

Three sulphur-crested cockatoos on the lookout.

Australian white & straw-necked ibis sharing some space

The next 3 photos show off two different birds of prey (I believe same species, but young - that is my excuse for not being able to name them 😏).

The next 3 photos show of two sets of little corellas playing and perching (seemingly precariously the way they carry-on) out on a limb!

My final offering is a white-necked heron. I was mazed how prolific these were in this location - we rarely see one at a location around here, so to see them so often on this two hour drive was a delight and a pleasure. Majestic movers!

Tassie X - the road home

Departure day - departure ferry embarkation 4.30pm. So no rush. Good, the Hellyar Rd distillery to visit and we decided to visit the Emu Valley Rhododenron Gardens as well (not just platypus there!).

More evidence supporting spring had sprung - a theme we had seen demonstrated many times along the journey. Here is a small family of Australian wooducks including a closeup of two ducklings demonstrating their learning to be on lookout and grazing.

In the main pond, aptly named Grebe Pond, was this Australasian grebe gliding unusually close to shore with some reed cover allowing interesting framing. Very cute, and cool to be able to get relatively close. Our final Tasmanian birds for the trip.

Back on the mainland we headed north via teh Hume Highway until Benalla (see next post) and then made our way to the Newell Highway until cutting across to Glen Innes from Narrabri. Very different country to where we had been (long straight stretches nad wide open fields of wheat and other cereal crops). We enjoyed seeing emus, but some other surprises popped up along the way too.

We had a stop at the Coo-ee Heritage and Information Centre in Gilgandra. There was some sqwarking up a gum tree in the car park and these galahs were responsible - at least the young one was. You can almost see it trying to pretend it wasn't responsible in the photos 😉.

Another interesting and very pleasant section of our return drive was going across and through the Mount Kaputar National Park between Narrabri and Bingara. We stopped at the Sawn Rocks picnic area and short walk and found three new birds to me. An unexpected excitment on such a beautiful day.

A white-winged triller

The trill gave the location away.

A yellow-tufted honeyeater

Offering a nice view of the underparts

Dusky woodswallow

A caught insect visible with the right angle!

Yes, even more emus! Well, we saw two more individual emus - this one about 30km along the Grafton Rd from Glen Innes and later in the day one as we sped along the Moterway near Maclean in a young growth sugar cane field. The Glen Innes one below was very responsive to Deb's whistles from the car window, so obligingly wandered over near the fence offering us a better view. Note the light weight of the feathers fluffed up in the first photo (by a not very strong breeze).