After many promises to ourselves to visit Whian Whian Falls, the day we finally actioned the trip it was raining. On and off ... so we decided to tackle it anyway. First, however, it turned out I needed to visit my brother at Meeschuam Vale to organise some things for the following day.
As I have admitted to in several earlier posts (over several years now!) when the birds are about and I have my camera on hand I am not very social 😒. The birds are a very powerful magnet! So while Deb enjoyed the hospitality and conversation on their verandah I was treating myself (and now you!) to a lively display by small birds enjoying the insect activity between rain showers and intermitent periods of weak sunshine.
First a rainbow bee-eater perched proudly in the bare branches between sweeps across the yard after insects.
Then a small flock of chestnut-breasted mannikins swept along the fence lines, pausing just long enough for me to photgraph a few of them catching their breath.
This next set are more rainbow bee-eaters, the first three individuals offering a reasonable clarity against a very buysy verdant background that both highlights their fantastic iridesence and effective camouflage. The final photo of the set captured a pair perched close enough for fair clarity.
Eventually we did make it to the falls. Just in time for the heaviest rain we encountered for the day 😁. Nevermind, still worth it and as you can see quite a pristine environment. There have been several earlier posts based on visits to Rocky Creek Dam and the walks around there. These falls are downstream from the dam and the flow influenced by the overflow from the dam. The rainy day, of course, is entirely fitting for the surrounding rainforest. Why expect anything else? I imagine we will return to experience this on a sunny day.
The first treat was this mistletoebird. The first two photos in the set show it enjoying some berries with the distinct red breast plummage and dark satin wings being clearly contrasted in the wet green foliage of the creeper vine. Really surprising to have been so close for this interaction 😀 and allowed a wonderful clear third photo of the set.
Just before the rain really set in we were fortunate to see the lewin's honeyeater and the grey fantail perched on dead twigs among different piles of debris along the near shore that was still there post the floods of last year.
A really good couple of days featuring small birds covered in these last two posts.
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