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).

Tassie IX - garden birds near Rocky Cape

So, nearing the end of our adventure.

Our final few nights were near Rocky Cape National Park in the NW. Wonderful garden around the B&B, including a woodland and extensive vegetable plot. Here are some bird highlights from my wanderings on this property.

And I must point out the omissions from this post - the green rosella was featured in the Tassie III post, so I have resisted the temptation to duplicate some of that here!

Loads of supoerb fairy wrens around this property. Playful and very used to human interaction so have managed a few good clear shots as you will see.

Another regular, quick to hassle other intruders from its preferred territory (bushes) was the little wattlebird. Again features well in this post as you will see.

 

Here is evidence of the comfort of teh fairy wrens to visit the human environment - often alighting on the verandah and rails, not just the lawn and shrubbery. The male below caught "using the stairs"; the female being complemented by the lawn flowers.

Little wattlebird peeking atop the banksia.

New holland honeyeater on the poop deck of a pine.

A young female superb fairy wren practising its calls.

The next two photos are "rescued" birds 😀. A significant portion of the vegetable patch is netted for protection against possums mainly. The little birds manage to find ways in! They panic a bit and often end up in folds of the netting in the corners (and panic even more!). It was nice to be able to "release" these two, a silvereye (still looking very startled!) and a young new holland honeyeater (looking rather nonplussed). 

I included the next four as a set because it was a special moment for me as I was wandering around the circular "scented garden bed". It turned special because this new holland honeyeater deigned to allow me right into its space for these portraits. I was able to literally wander around (read walk slowly and cautiously) the path to get in front and closer without the bird feeling at all threatened. It seemed to be as curious about me as I was about it. So a privilege to be able to share these with you 😁. Enjoy.

The superb fairy wren is even more magnificent set among the flowers and different types & coloured leaves.

Here are two photos showing a little wattlebird in full voice. Clearly a LOT of effort goes into to some communciation with full body movement exerted 😄.

I tracked this noew holland honeyeater for some time as it was active at work drawing nectar from the banksia flowers (first photo) in the hope it might move up the bush to the top flowers for a more clear photo - pleased to show my persistence paid off (second photo)!

Being given a tour of the bush block by our host we heard some yellow-tailed black cockatoos. After a while we located them high up ripping into the bark looking for grubs. The one I had the clearest shot of, also managed to be caught taking off from its perch offering a great glimpse of the "yellow tail" (third photo). The middle photo of the set is the single photo of a laughing kookaburra I took on this trip in a naturally wild setting - all others (and sightings) were on telegraph wires! This one was guarding a nearby nest hole.

Out near the Rocky Cape lighthouse I (finally) managed a clear shot of a pacific gull - as I was trying to move closer along the jetty it took off, and I managed to snap it in flight (not that clear, but still nice with the wings at the top of their flap.

And after many attempts to capture this noew holland honeyeater when it flitted from the bansia over the lawn to the protea flowers next to the verandah, I finally managed to get it. Just, because it is not so clear, but you can see the bee was frightened off by the arrival of the bigger creature 😊.