Tassie II - mostly waterbirds

This post is mostly dedicated to waterbirds sighted in and around the western tiers and north central area of Tasmania. A feature will be the young ones - cute but also highlighting the early struggle that their life can be!

This first series of photos was taken along a walk around a lake and gardens at a delightful rasberry farm cafe just out of Deloraine. The first two offer a Tasmanian native hen showing off for the camera - first with a spread of the wings while looking down the lens of the camera; second with a slight sideways glance and model's cross-legged step 😀.

Out on the lake, sadly with no willingness to drift or dive closer, was this grebe. The light is not entirely kind, but I think it might a hoary headed grebe by the dark stripes along the head. Not seen one of these before.

Next out on another part of the lake with much better lighting having moved around further, was this pair of chestnut teals showing how much more flamboyant the male plummage is. Also not keen on drifting too close!

Finally from this location, a parent and young native hen grazing. The chick is mimicing the parent closely. 

The next set of three photos are from our western tiers B&B grounds. First up another shot of the so far elusive green rosella, this time on the grass giving a sense of how it is their movement that gives them away not their camoflage.

There was a walled courtyard through which you drove to your parking bay. Wandering along the outside of this wall one day I snapped this sparrow keeping an eye on me as it was basking atop the wall among the grasses enjoying the sunshine.

Then looking across our front courtyard into the wonderful garden, this common blackbird was perched on a branch allowing the surrounding foliage to show off how they can look so wonderful (despite being pests).

The next five photos were taken while walking along various paths beside the Meander River in Deloraine. They feature newborns, with one exception. 

The first features three very young pacific black ducklings learning their craft; second and third show a protective native hen guarding and guiding her new chicks - small black fluff balls! The fifth photo shows a native hen with a larger brood of chicks in its care grazing along the river bank.

This fourth one in the set has no young ones - it is a mallard enjoying the afternoon space on the river.

The next two photos are offered for context. The first is a black currawong, endemic to Tasmania, perched high atop a pine tree just below Dove Lake at Cradle Mountain. I included the second photo, panned back, just to highlight the wonderful environment that is "lost" by zooming in. Different pictures allow different thousand word stories to be told!

The final series of photos I have labelled individually. They were taken during our return on a day trip to Launceston. We stumbled on the Tamar Valley Wetlands. Gloomy afternoon and some showers before we made it all the way round, but here is a glimpse of what we saw on the tidal flats & grassed areas at low tide.

Pacific black ducks with a lone chestnut teal

A purple swamp hen

A black swan making haste for the water

A black swan watching over cygnets

A black swan checking out a pool

A skittish european goldfinch in the grass

A superb fairy wren also in the grass

A purple swamphen chick struggling through the mud
looking for mum

Found her  ... looking with envy to be able to move
so easily through the mud!

Wrapping up 2020 - a rainbow lorikeet feast!

There were a couple of earlier posts that cover several chunks of the end of 2020. One I referred to at Rocky Creek Dam in the last post. Here is another that will take you to a series of posts capturing our visit to CasaBelle in Bellingen just after my retirement. What a treat that was!

What is left is what is included here. A few water birds, then a very clear focus on the rainbow lorikeets that are very active in our yard most of the year, but more so in the spring and summer. A gorgeous way to end another fantastic year of sharing my good fortune photographing our birds and sharing some of that journey for your enjoyment too.

First three photos are in the swamps west of Ballina. Each shows a different part of the wonderfully diverse environment catering to the variety of birds that might be encountered here.

Black-winged stilt wading in the weedy shallows

Little pied cormorant atop a trunk overlooking the swamp

Purple swamphen wading in the mirrored shallow waters.

And now for the ubiquitous rainbow lorikeet. Starting with a pair feasting on a fallen avocado. Provides a different perspective on "smashed" for sure! Clearly something they savour. Perhaps it contributes in a very healthy way to the sheen of their plummage 😀!

Next is a loner peeking from deep in the monstera foliage. I chose these two photos as they offer very different personalities of the lorikeet. First a "mean, don't mess with me!" glare that contrasts almost completely with the curious and happy to be seen profile of the second. Same bird 😊. Never a dull moment (and many more to follow) when these fellows are active!

The next two photos offer a trio making lots of noise perched among banksia seed pods. Not only do these offer a wonderful texture for the scene, they also contrast nicely with the splendid and always bright plummage the birds carry. The second photo especially shows the two birds in the foreground with their beaks open in mid-squawk Noisy as well as mischievous!

The next sequence of four shows a pair perched on a dead trunk offering a variety of poses, culminating in the striking symmetry captured in the fourth photo. The rich colours and lustre of their breast and head pallette is a real feature of these photos, and further highlighted against the deep dark green leaves that background the birds. I will be very surprised if you do not dwell on this sequence for a while 😁.

As a final treat I return to the earlier avocado theme ... what I found amazing out our kitchen window this day was the lorikeet hanging upside down eating the avocado on the tree. I had seen them devour the fallen fruit plenty of times, but never the fruit hanging on the tree before. Acrobatic AND greedy - no sharing this time!

The end of 2020 also marks the end of my time using my Panasonic Lumix FZ200. This camera, as you will have experienced by following (or even just sampling) my blog, has served me very well. It has been my tool of choice to explore and capture the world of birds that I am sharing.

Why the end?

I retired in November, 2020. As well as other treats at such a momentous time, I upgraded to the FZ300. It will be my tool moving forward to continue on this ever-evolving and fascinating journey with birds; my way of getting into nature as often as I am able. I look forward to it. I hope you will continue to check in every now and again and enjoy some of the wonders nature offers us to savour.

Stop every now and again ... take a look around, take it ALL in ... stop talking ... watch, listen ... watch with your ears, listen with your eyes and tread lightly ... be surprised by what you are missing 😉.

A little pond and a big pond (revisited).

Into the second last month of 2017 and first up some memories of a visit to the (retention) pond on the university grounds for a picnic and an explore with two of the grand children. Sometimes more variety than others on offer at this site, but seldom nothing to take your interest. Some things seem irrefutable ... if there is water you will find tortises, and you will find a variety of water birds. Only things that seem to change is the colour of the water, the type of water and the variety of water birds (I could also add the variety of other water inhabitants attracting the birds as well but they tend to be more challenging to spot). And a waterway has a way of offering you a place to feel very peaceful.

First I offer two contemplations 😊 ... a grandson closely contemplating (concentrating even) a watching egret wading at the edge of the pond. It is a peaceful setting when you can capture such an image - even the surface is calm!

The second contemplation ... well, needs no explanation at all really ... not a bird (actually, on higher branches there was a magpie lark on the mud nest that had been shared in an earlier post) ... still, quite the perch.

And just for a lovely splash of colour by the pond to show that the flora can be just as attractive ... and me experimenting with depth of field to try and leverage some of the camera's capabilities!

Yes, yes, back to the birds ... it is a bird gallery afterall.

The next three offer some photogenic Australian wood ducks. Unusually they were very content and not disturbed by our presence. This allowed a couple of very clear close-ups offering excellent views of the different and distinctive plumage of the male and female. The first one of the male with the velvety brown head and silky grey and black wings; the second of a pair of females and the third a close-up of a female with the more understated and lined head and mottled feathers. No wonder they cruise so gracefully.

Next we have a blackbird I expect to see more often by the sea ... but here it was. A little black cormorant. The striking blue eyes are not quite as prominent as they can be, but evident if you look closely. I love the way the "black" birds often have plumage that is quite chameleon. Notice in the first two photos how the head is more a dark brown before the shoulder and wing feathers turn darker; then the way the wing "scales" provide contrasting shades of the black and iridescence. Very handsome really and very steady just perching or sun-drying. Contrast these with the third photo (same cormorant, different perch) and you be forgiven for describing the plumage as dull brown! And of course, more of nature sharing ... the Eurasian coot in the top left and the very mossy tortoise clinging to the log below right of the perch.

How could I let a post about a pond pass without a close-up of the humble tortoise. Surely a model for us all to just relax, gather some vitamin D and take out time to savour our surroundings 😉.

From the university pond, and a revisit to the Lismore Lake to see what might be there as the weather warms up ... a couple of treats for me with new finds. Yes the "big pond" referred to in the post title is Lismore Lake.

First up a red-kneed dotterel ... first just one, then a pair.

Then a flock of aptly named (look closely and you will see the patch just behind their eyes) pink-eared ducks, the second in the sequence highlighting one marooned on its island and scoping the landscape.

Next a "mean" peek caught from amidst the denser foliage at the Lake edge of a purple swamphen ... I love the contrasting colours but the heavy bill merging with the "helmet" are quite imposing and speak to a tough existence in its environment?

And finally, back down near the entrance to the REALLY big pond (the Pacific Ocean) we have the darter relaxing and sunning itself dry. Quite the wingspan and paddles. You can see by the repose of the neck why it is sometimes called the snakebird!