The day before winter

Way back in 2015 when I was first starting to use my new FZ200 I was fortunate enough to get a couple of good photos of a sacred kingfisher on the ocean side of the Ballina north wall. You can review them here. This was before I even had an interest in photographing birds and was much more intersted in just trying out the camera.

Any reader with even a passing interest in this blog will know Shaws Bay and the Ballina north wall is one of my favourite walks and sites for checking birds. This post is another from that location. However, the reason for the recollection is since those first photos of the sacred kingfisher, I have longed to see another on the ocean side. Until yesterday my longing had been forlorn. 

So my first study in this final post for autumn 2023 is a sacred kingfisher near the end of the wall on the ocean side, perched on a rusting iron ring allowing me to exercise a limited artistic eye taking advantage of the mand-made elements among the boulders. Clearly not the first bird to perch on the iron ring, but together with the shadow and rust stains on the cement block a nice context is provided. For me, it was worth the wait 😀.

Heading back along the river side of the wall was another familiar siight - a darter drying out on a boulder in the full sun. This next study tries to capture (as is often the case) both the flexibility and elegance of these dangerously sleek pointed creatures as they stretch their necks to preen their backs ... we can only hope when we get an itch!!

A trip along the wall without a willy wagtail trying to get your attention would be a walk without hope for our environment. This one was more than content to allow me close.

Next was a white-faced heron stalking the draining channels and sand flats on the final ebb of the tide in the bay.

My decision to take this walk in the middle of a gorgeous late autumn day was rewarded again as I continued along the river. On the bay side I was privileged to photograph different sacred kingfishers and the white-faced heron downing morsels from their patient vigilance and successful hunts.

The first two photos here show the tiny size of these very efficient hunters. This was on a rock on the sandy side of the bay. The distance and the boulders show the relative size of the kingfisher; the first photo was after it swooped the hapless prawn on the sand flat and just as it alighted back on the boulder. The second photo shows the hatch open as the prawn heads down to be savoured! Despite the distance, it is a treat to have captured nature in action like this.

Next was the same white-faced heron from earlier downing a small fry it had just caught in the shallows. Different type of patient stalking, but equally efficient!

I have included this next sacred kingfisher sequence in an effort to convey the way they scan their environment from their perch, notice something, fly off & swoop and head to a nearby perch to savour their successful hunt.

First photo is the bird looking across the draining sand banks; second photo is the head swivelled to the left as it scans. Like the photos at the beginning of this post, you again might notice the power of the poo to indicate where some patience may be rewarded! As I was refocusing it flew off to the RIGHT and perched on the rock in the final two photos. When it settled for the third photo it had swooped on a crab and was in the process of devouring it. The final photo I couldn't resist including as it seems to have noticed me and turned to ask if I had noticed just how clever it was while showing off that beautiful plummage... well, that I most certainly had 😁!

On the final part of the return journey to the car two more treats awaited. 

The first of these was a pair of sacred kingfishers on the wall side fo the bay perched on some dead branches. The treat here was their proximity and the light being almost overhead affording an excellent showing of their iridescent plummage. Sometimes the day just keeps on giving!

Finally, and just when you thought the day could not get better, this superb fairy wren came out to play 😃. So wonderful when these delicate birds decide it is OK to share their space with you. You can only admire them. Here you can see the blue of the young male starting to emerge. If the posing on top of the fence post does not convince you how tiny they are, the one on the wire most certainly will! 

And so autumn ends on a high for this happy bird photographer. 

All I need now is for NSW to win a State of Origin game to close it out!

Waterbirds by the wall (May)

After my semi-regular Tuesday coffee catchup chatter, I headed to Meldrum Park for a bit of peace and quiet to do some reading. I had my camera just in case. I was very fortunate. Just glancing up for a break and casting my eye over North Creek I noticed some activity in a nearby gum ... a pair of scaly-breasted lorikeets in a nesting hole! A really nice set here showing one on lookout, then the second head just peering over the lip of the hollow and finally both perched on the edge of the hollow. Like I wrote ... a real treat before getting back to more reading 😁.

Enough reading, the day cleared a bit more, so I decided to head over for a wander along the wall. Predominantly water birds this day but a few other treats as well. Starting with a photo of some of the good sized prey you often see in the clear waters of Shaws Bay - this time some mullet, fortunate I feel that no sea eagles were about this low tide!

Next, as noted above, predominantly water birds as identified on each photo below.

Little pied cormorant basking and drying in the sun.

Same for a young darter.

Sacred kingfisher luminous in the sunshine.

Australian white ibis stalking it's shadow?

Pied oystercatchers wandering the sandy shore.

White-faced heron hunting in the shallows.

Moving on to some birds near the water but not "waterbirds" per se.

Next is two photos of a small bird flitting around the branches of the mangroves. Although  good clear shots, I took a while to identify this one. I'm pretty sure after my research it is a brown gerygone, so a new one for my archives.

 Always keen to be seen AND heard, I managed to catch this willy wagtail just as it was alighting on the boulder and then in all its glory being still upon that boulder!

And back near the carpark a browsing brush turkey popped up in a nice environment for a photo ... 

Finally for this post, a couple more of the australian white ibis offering a more majestic and commanding view than we are perhaps accustomed. These are roosting in the same tree on different days ... you marvel how they balance so easily on such precarious perches but the positions also highlight just how delicate and light these magnificent creatures we collectives label "birds" really are (especially the second photo with the single bird) ... these photos at Summerland House Farm.

Tosha Falls (Apr)

A visit to Tosha Falls just outside Alstonville sounds like an attractive outing ... and it is a very pleasant walk back up Maguires Creek to get the following view of the Falls ...

But of course, this is not a travel blog 😀, rather it is about what you might see along the way during the travels, far less than any destination. And it is a LOT better to have a heading for the post that sounds more attractive. In order to reach the Falls as you trek along Maguires Creek, you essentially follow the fence line of the Alstonville Sewage Treatment Works ... and THAT attracts the birds along with the protective vegetation along the creek banks. You just hope the wind is not from the east or north!

So here are some bird finds from this walk on this fine April day ...

First up is a willy wagtail being relatively still on a fallen branch. The characteristic white eyebrow and white breast are featured. Black and white features in so many intersting ways among our birds! The contexts here, and for the pair of red-browed finches in the second photo, offer a sense of scale for the small size of these characters!

Next is a pair of photos showing the variety and volume of waterbirds taking advantage of two barrages that float in the main sewage ponds - one straight, one curved. Pacific black ducks, Australian wood ducks, coots and dusky moorhens all soaking up the sun and sharing the space peacefully.

Among the young wattles beside the creek I heard, and eventually saw due to the movement, this silvereye. Their effective camouflage is on show as is the very distinctive silver eye ring for which it is named. Again, the context demonstrates how their size complements their camouflage very effectively, let alone their speed of activity 😕.

Roadside stop (Feb)

We were heading back to Mount Barney Vineyard Cottages for a visit after a hiatus and were a little early for check-in after getting away early and enjoying an uneventful trip over the range circling the magnificent cake tin that is Mount Lindsay. We drove through to Rathdowney and headed back to a roadside picnic ground nearer our turn-off for a break before moving on to a cafe on near-by olive grove.

Returning from the toilet my wife was engaged in conversation with another couple about a koala they had spotted up a nearby gum. I took a cople of pictures but the sun was not helpful to get a decent shot worth sharing. A treat nonetheless for viewing.

Thenm flitting along the fenceline keeping travellers from wandering down to the nearby creek was this little fella - it caught my attention with the black and white flashes as it moved and sure enough it was a restless flycatcher. Only seen these around Murwillumbah before, so good to see it a lot further inland this time. Quite co-operative too, sharing a left profile, having a word to the listener and a more frontal right profile making identification a bit easier!

Extending our stay even further were more little birds grazing the grass and moving across fallen branches - more rare sightings for me (only once seen these fellows in the Casino wetlands), some double-barred finches. I always enjoy sharing photos of finches I have come across because they are masterful in showing off their small size among the grass, leaves and other detritus you find them. In the 3rd photo of this set you can see two more not quite in focus in the grass at the top of the photo.

Chasing the finches was interupted by another flash of balck and white. I thought the flycatcher was back, but it was a near relative - the ubiquitous willy wagtail just had to be noticed ...

Finally, before we headed off to our coffee in the olive grove a few more of the double-barred finches. These perhaps offering the best glimpses of these ratehr special owl-like little birds ... another excellent example of the colour variation offered by simple black & white on nature's irrepresible palette. Quite the roadside stop ... unexpected delights when we stop and watch and listen ...