Beginning 2019

Back to chronologial cataloging ... and so I pick up at the beginning of 2019, where else but with walks at the beach during afternoons in January. These shots were mostly along the walkway around Shaws Bay behind the caravan park on the eastern side. "Common" birds in many areas, certainly around here, but this day I managed some unusually clear shots highlighting how even our common and at times "nuisance" birds can be just as alluring as the less ordinary 😀. 

First up is a crested pigeon perching among deadwood and the light casting a favourable glow on it's chameleon feathers ... so much richer than "grey".

Next is an elusive (for me) local. I have managed a few shots of the black-faced cuckoo shrike but none as favourable or co-operative as these next two. Again, the perspectives among the deadwood show-off a really soft grey body and white underparts that serve to accentuate the full black face mask ensuring we are in no doubt about the origin of the name. Quite the striking shrike!

Wandering along the newly laid cement walkway, there are numerous sandy tracks down to the water's edge. Glancing down one to the gentle waves of the bay this next photo offers a "peek" at a wading silver gull. The sense of the bird just popping it's head up for a quick check that all is OK looks nice and clean in the young mangrove and grass foreground. I added the second photo in the set to contrast how peaceful and graceful they look (this time a pair) drifting atop the glass top bay waters on a glorious afternoon. The way nature can provide a splash of red & black to provide a simple clarity of grey and white is a joy.

In a nod to the noisy miner, this young one was chirping away making sure mum (or dad?) - second photo of the set - knew where it was. A much duller grey this time, but the young feathers are fluffed up from its hopping around being seen and heard and it certainly looks like mum/dad have been having a good day or two foraging for it. Shades of humpty-dumpty, but without the great fall (fortunately). The second photo shows the adult much more alert and focused on the photographer ensuring the young one is not approached too closely. Just a few days ago in a car park in town, I nearly trod on young one as I approached my car. It had fallen from a branch of a tree (a sibling was squawking a little higher and the adult was flying around). I picked it up and put it back in a fork of the branch and was promptly swooped by the adult several times ... don't worry about magpies!! Protective parents!

 

And finally for this ode to ordinariness here is the much-maligned bin chicken, the white ibis. I included this one because it shows a successful forage in the end of the beak ... and a different duller combination of red, black and white that has it's own merits showing off a fluffy tail ... just goes to illustrate we can write just about anything "up" 😉