Some spring encounters

One day I was taking a slow drive along Old Bangalow Rd (along Emigrant Creek) on my way home from Ballina. It is a detour I have written about before and one I take regularly ... just in case. This day I was rewarded twofold. The first two photos show a buff-banded rail I spotted in a roadside "supermarket". It was unusually co-operative and did not take off allowing me a good opportunity to get these photos.

Getting back in the car, I noticed a splash of colour against the bare paperbarks in the swamp on the opposite side of the road to above. Sure enough, perched high on a branch scanning the swampy puddles was a sacred kingfisher. A good illustration how easy it is to look but not always see 😁.

The remaining photos in this post were taken on a day we took my wife's dad for a drive to Ballina. We had some fish and chips beside Shaws Bay for lunch and curiosity got the better of this magpie lark (pee wee) as it sought any stray or dropped chips. Nice eyes (no chips)!

Our final stop was for a walk out the wall near the Marine Rescue tower. Some female superb fairy wrens were especially co-operative, some in outstanding settings showing off their delicate finery. I also managed to photograph a  blue/black butterfly while alighted on a bush, and a very confident young water dragon surveying it's environment.

Wet Wooli IV - sunny at the end!

Rising on the final morning of this visit with a sense that the time had passed quickly and "wish it had been longer" are good signs that the break had been a good one. The sense of "back to it", whatever that holds is very different to waking up to "OK let the day begin and unfold as it turns out". Far less sense that things are there "to be done" ... but enough of that ... this is about birds.

How could we farewell our abode without another pose by a little wattlebird in the  banksia?

Also in the front garden I spied this grey shrike thrush battering some prey so it was tender enough to devour.

Last sighting at the house was while we were doing a final walk around making sure we had not forgotten anything. This buff-banded rail having a bit of a flap in the early morning dappled sunlight beside the sandy path leading over the dune to the beach - sunny and far less windy for the moment.

Like the little wattlebird, we could not head off without another visit to the river mouth to check on the tawny frogmouth ... perhaps it was the sun, but it had reversed its position on the nest but that little altered the superb camouflage!

I had to include this panorama because it has a whole different perspective in the wonderful clear mid-morning sunshine at low tide. The waterfall was still pumping out the cliff-face through its twin barrels.

A few beach birds were willing subjects as well. A lone pied oystercatcher reposing on the damp sand soaking up the sun from two different angles. In between is the ubiquitous blue-faced honeyeater perched high in a banksia enjoying the view across a clear sunny sky.

On the same stretch of sand exposed on the low tide, I was amused by the antics of this masked lapwing. The first photo just after it emerged from behind the boulder to the right of the shot ... seems to be in full prance mode of a runway model commanding "look at me, look at me" 😊. The second photo shows a more cautious side as it was working its way around me (actually quite something in nature as a human to be the creature standing still and watching!!).

Heading back to the car to leave, a few final Wooli sightings. Two below of a noisy friarbird, one distant and one mcuh more obliging close-up. There is a pied butcherbird perched on high looking resplendent cloaked in its tuxedo, among the dead branches and lush foliage of a banksia with the brilliant blue sky as background. While we were walking back in along the wall I had noticed what I thought (hoped?!) was an eastern curlew (with that wonderfully long curved bill) take flight up the beach and swing around and descend below the trees towards the river ... so it turned out; so a final Wooli treat to see this rare species grazing on the sand flats across the river.

We decided we would call in and grab a coffee at Minnie Water on the way. I had called in there on my previous visit and on such a morning I suggested the headland lookout would be a great spot to drink our coffee. We even caught sight of a few whales wallowing in quite close to shore. Nearby was a sign for a local Dune Care Group trail and we decided to head along for a bit to reach a viewing spot and look back along the beach southwards to Diggers Camp and Wooli (and getting good vision of North Solitary Islands too).

It was a beautifully maintained track and the nor'easter breeze through the trees kept the rising temperature down. The dappled sunlight was a treat as well after all the rain during our visit. Not far along the track we spied a sand goanna ... fotunately it did an about turn and headed back to the left of the photo into the bush (very quietly I might add). Then I spied a rainbow bee-eater, finally in the sunlight, doing justice to its lustrous sheen and radiant palette 😊.

We then passed a couple heading back to the car park who told us of a close encounter with some "black cockatoos" not too much further along the track. We proceeded for quite some way and almost gave up, but with our final foray forward we heard them in the trees close by. A small flock, we counted eight. They let us know of their awareness of our presence, but were patient enough for us to mange some good shots through the trees of pairs and a couple of singles. I was especailly pleased to have this opportunity because one morning I drove down in the rain to get a coffee and saw (this flock?) some in a banksia near the Bowling Club. I did not have my camera as it was raining. When we went for a walk that afternoon, they were still in the trees, and that was where I had ventured (unsuccessfully) when I took the photo in an earlier post of the plover parent and youngster. Tromping across the open park (even carefully) spooked the cockatoos and perhaps the alarm calls of the plover worked on them as well? So, to be able to get these shots of the magnificent yellow-tailed black cockatoos feeding among the banksia and casuarina was another of those unexpected but wonderful treats.

 

Finally back at the car park and two final reminders of the wonderful colours and settings we have at our fingertips when we notice our unique birdlife ... a rainbow bee-eater and white-cheeked honeyeater perched in different positons in different banksias. The bee-eater perched in a position to lookout for flying feasts, while the honeyeater is content to savour the nectar of the flowers in the gorgeous silver/green foliage.

Then we headed home ... 

 

Thanks for taking some time to share our journey to and sojourn in Wooli. I would commend a visit BUT selfishly want to refrain from any promotion in the hope of prolonging the isolation and unspoiled environment that for the moment persists - of course, that is a trite wish because merely writing it in a public blog like this provides the promotion, but I imagine you get the sentiment 😛.

We decided on our return to compose a coffee table photobook for our hosts and chose a hoto of the range of birds I have catalogued after these recent visits to Wooli - 35 in all (I only included 34 in the book because one remained unidentified until just recently). My enduring memory of this visit and these last several posts is definitately that birdlife abounds irrespective of the weather - it (the weather) simply provides a wide range of backgrounds and settings and environments facilitating an equally wide range of bird behaviours as they cope.

My privileged journey moves on ...

Wet Wooli I

We took up the offer of a few days stay in Wooli ... the first vacant days on the booking calendar. It rained for the three days we were there, BUT it cleared a few times allowing some walks, AND it cleared on the day of our departure 😁. So the next several posts share glimpses of the many birds we sighted. Just goes to show, the weather is not a deterrent to them ... life goes on!

Of course, first we had to drive to Wooli. We stopped on the way for a morning cuppa at the Point in Ballina (a favourite of my wife, and it is a wonderful setting beside the river). On the way back to the car I noticed some willy wagtails flitting in and out of a bush near the small boat harbour. Wandering closer for a look I noticed one on a nest - such a wonderfully precise architecture and engineering feat is the delicately woven cup ... and the bird was keeping a very close eye on me too - I love the white eyeliners glaring at me 😀. Seemed like a good omen for our few days!

As we settle and unpack, the banksia at the side of our house and the bird of paradise in the front yard were alive with the melodious feeding tunes of the brown honeyeater. This next set of four photos highlights, by virtue of the respective flowers, how tiny these birds are, belying the rich sound of their melodies. The second two on the bird of paradise flower also highlight just how wet it was, and a close inspection should may also reveal a strand of spiderweb.

An important point to emphasise in this initial post is it was wet! So we arrive, we unpack and we have to relax and enjoy our location - not too tough! As well as the outlook photographed above, there is vacant land and scrub on our north side and over the dune at the back is the beach ... not too shabby. So the photos below were all taken from relaxing and enjoying our surroundings in the house - the next post will show off our first walk with a small break in the weather.

First up, sitting in the sunroom looking across the front patio I noticed a buff-banded rail having a peek over the lower rail of the fence (just what you would expect of a rail 😜) and as it wandered down the side of the house, letting us know it was aware of our presence - quite a "cheep, cheep"?! Whatever, it was a treat.

Needless to let the reader know, the creatures below are not birds, but boy when they bounded in and later on, bounded away, they were "" - the length of their bounds was quite something to behold. Here, despite being drenched, they look quite relaxed and very much at ease blending into the long grasses on the "reserve" next door. How could you not stop and savour this delight?

And then another buff-banded rail, a younger one (missing the buff-band on the breast) ... perhaps it was responding to the earlier call of the adult featured above?

Not to be left out, the (well, "a") brown honeyeater perched again upon the bird of paradise and gazed north for me ... and this was just our first (very wet afternoon!) ...

This pair of plovers (masked lapwings) were a constant during our visit with one settled on the nest and the other keeping guard and providing periodic sustenance.

As vocal and insistent as the brown honeyeaters were in the banksia, there was considerable bickering and competition for the nectar from the little wattlebirds. The pair of youngsters constantly reminding the adults where they were for feeding, and practising themselves!

A very different and much more gentle "cooing" was heard out the back and there on a branch was a bar-shouldered dove. I enjoyed reviewing this photo because if offers a full frontal palette and shows a longer tail than my previous views afforded ... there the focus has been on the back, neck and wings and the much more bronze colourings and the tail has not appeared so elongated. All about perspective!

Once again from the vantage of the sunroom, a movement over by the fence indicated the arrival of a brown quail! A quick snap before it disappeared down the side ... a sneak down the hall and out a bedroom window ... how fortunate ... a pair! What wonderful small dumpy forms they have. Deb was watching too and wondered out loud "if they fly"? On cue, they took flight and scudded just above the grass right across the field shown above with the grazing kangaroos, dropping out of sight just before the tree line. Question answered 👍.

And a couple more little wattlebirds - because they were prolific and their sleek form is a joy to behold as they search and reach for nectar and exercise their lungs.

I included this next photo because I love the rainbow bee-eater and it is a treat for me if I capture a pair. This also shows of the forbidding sky on this afternoon and thus the normal lustre of these birds is still evident, though much muted. Of further interest is the moth (or butterfly) that the one on the left has caught.  Just after this was snapped, the one on the right seized the moth and took flight ... I liked to think of the moment as one of sharing 😀.

And finally as things cleared a little for a very brief period a grey shrike thrush made an appearance on the very wet ground over the road. Many worms and other creatures forced to the surface by the water to feast on.

Quite the afternoon on arrival ... looking forward to going for a wander!