Some birds by the beach in February

A beach, or water nearby, is always an attraction even in the height of summer.The breeze and shady trees even more so ... so, it is not unusual to be treated to  feathered delights as part of a day by a beach. We begin down on the rock platforms ...

A pair of crested terns

Sharing space with a handsome black cormorant

A watchful sooty oystercatcher

Then a stroll along the sand and that would not be complete without C.Gul 😏 ... and a couple of less common interlopers were also spotted ... 

A resting & relaxed silver gull

White-faced heron in the dunes

Red-backed fairy wren in dune foliage

And then back along the still water and among the trees ... quite the variety when we pause and look around. Even the "ordinary" can be extraordinary if we only see 😊

A preening galah

A watchful crested pidgeon

A young pied butcherbird singing

Another treat - a silent noisy miner!

A curious pied currawong

An agile searching noisy miner

A feeding dexterous galah

A cranky crow!

And finally, on the way home was fortunate enough to spot this fearsome looking bird of prey soaring to a finally land in a perch overlooking a swamp ... not entirely certain, but seems to be swamp harrier - certainly not something I would relish being harried by anywhere, let alone in a swamp ... nature is really grand!

A boardwalk in Byron

A short offering here about an environment you are likely to see more of in future posts. "Our" book club - read that as the book club we participate in! - often has get together's at the Byron at Byron resort to take advantage of the wonderfully natural setting and the deals available to "locals". I like to wander off and meander the excellent resort boardwalk through the paperbark swamp on the eastern side of the resort that eventually leads to top end of Tallow Creek.

So here is an initial taste ...

A juvenile blue-faced honeyeater

A little wattlebird in the paperbarks

A dusky moorhen wading

A little wattlebird being heard!

 This next one is a treat! It is entirely appropriate to me that it is a blurred image 😉. I have had so many experiences hearing the very distinctive and loud whip-crack call; I have been walking right next to foliage from which the call is emanating! I can "see" the caller smiling at my ineptitude in actually sighting the source ... so here is what I call the ELUSIVE (to sight) but never difficult to hear eastern whipbird. I think if I ever manage a good clear photo it will warrant a devoted post 😣.

Eastern whipbird

 And while not (strictly, or even) a bird, it does have wings and it does fly - and hover really well! A yellow-striped flutterer resting on a twig: you can read some more about these at this site (I'm sure there are others too).

Nothing quite like the silent sentinel in its natural setting - here among the paperbarks keeping a sharp eye out for any movement across the swampy ground. and a final nice clear glimpse of a little  wattlebird also perched in the paperbarks.

Laughing kookaburra (perched quietly).

A quiet little wattlebird (quiet being a rare treat)

And finally, what is a coastal paperbark wetland for the birds be without some lilies on the pond (well, waterway). Pinks and purples and this white one in full bloom resting among the fresh clean lily pads. A truely beautiful environment.

A summer day at Yamba

Our daughter and her family were having a short break in a holiday park at Yamba. We were invited down to visit and catch up for a Reece's birthday, have a swim, a wander and generally relax. Why not? turned out to be quite a treat for me too because I got to photograph quite a few new birds and one I had first encountered in the UK and had no idea we had around here.

Between the cabins and the mighty Clarence River was a swampy pond with my first exposure to these birds. At first glance I thought avocets which I had seen in the Uk, but a closer look revealed straight beaks ... but you have to love the long legs ... hence black-winged stilts! First a brave pair of chicks exploring beyond mum; second those two back with mum and a third chick - notice mum has much "blacker" wings and the black extends like a partial hood over the back of the head - not yet present for the chicks.

Two wandering black-winged stilt chicks

Recalled by mum with a third chick

While moving around the pond for a better vantage of the stilt family, I was fortunate to capture this young magpie experiencing a successful forage 😊

Young magpie with some tucker

Then, back to mum and the stilt chicks ... they had found a small island to rest those stilts ... fascinating how they effortlessly fold their legs forward (not at all like us when we settle down!)

And on down to the banks of the might Clarence with the tide out and bingo! A whimbrel fossicking successfully for a crustacean on the mudflat and on the march searching for more. This was another first sighting for me.

Whimbrel with crustacean

Whimbrel fossicking

 And on the way back to the cabin in quite the different setting to the earlier swampy pond was another black-winged stilt ... I vividly recall imagining it was the dad of the earlier family off foraging around the bog for his family.

As much as I had been treated to some new finds, I headed off a little later because I had seen a deeper pond framed by a wetland forest on the southern edge of the holiday park. I thought it worth a look, especially as it seemed "out of place" among the surrounding dominant cane fields. While trying to capture some shots of a pacific black duck (not too successfully), I had wandered clockwise to the edge of the forest and had the weird sensation of "being watched" while I was photographing the duck. Just a weird sense ... and when I looked up ... well, I could not believe my eyes, but I could certainly see that there was a pair of very keen eyes on me! And what a pair! This elusive bird I had first photographed in the UK but no where near as clearly or as closely as this, and certainly not in such a natural environment. A peregrine falcon! THIS was a real treat!!

A peregrine falcon watching me closely!

Checking the wider view too

Then back to me to be sure!

I think of all our birds, the birds of prey are imperious and when they pay you close attention like this it is easy to return the respect and easier to admire them. Truly wonderful creatures.

And finally, as we were driving out of the holiday park heading home. we were treated to one final new sighting - what a day - some quail (I think painted button quail) pecking away on the verge of the road. 

Quite a memorable day at Yamba - and Reece (or is that Spiderman!!) enjoyed his birthday too!

Getting 2017 underway

So, back to my journey ... this means picking up with the beginning of 2017. The beginning for us is (1 January) is the middle of summer - invariably hot and quite often humid. It is also the a time when it is back to work after some time off for eh Christmas - New Year period.

So to begin and set the scene for the 2017 year ahead, a few from home and a few from the office window.

Remember, if you click on one of the pictures it will open a window so you can scroll through them with a larger view.

First, from our front and back yard:

White-faced heron hunting in the front garden

Blue-faced honeyeater scouring banana trees out back

Second, some of the variety I get to glimpse from my office window - not all birds!

Swamp wallaby grazing

Female fairy wren foraging

Male red-backed fairy wren

Another one competing for attention!

And this was just week 1 😊 ... I consider my environment to be very special.

Sacred kingfisher delights

A long time since a walk along the Ballina north wall, mainly due to the restrictions of the Covid 19 pandemic. While we have been very fortunate in our country, and even more so in our local region, it has been encouraging to see how seriously the vast majority have taken the threat, and suggested steps to minimise our risks.

So today was a(nother) lovely winters day and the word is the whales migrating north have been very active and plentiful. We decided to head for a long delayed walk along the wall. I was looking forward to having the camera pointing somewhere other than our yard (not so bad there, but gives our local birds a break!). Initially the birds were scarce and the tide right out and just on the turn.

There was a darter preening and drying itself (first photo below) after some successful fishing among many terns and Australasian gannets (second photo below) who were enjoying active schools of fish at the river mouth.

This egret had Shaw's Bay all to itself ...

Or so it seemed :) ... there was a familiar blue/green iridescent flash and then the sacred kingfisher landed on a rock to keep surveying the bay for more morsels. Ah, they so gorgeous!

Suddenly there were more familiar flashes of that familiar blue/green iridescence and I was struggling to know where to point my lens ... over the next 30 minutes or so, it was such a late afternoon delight to witness atleast a dozen sacred kingfishers chirping away to eachother and variously fishing morsels from the bay as they skimmed across the water and back to another rock to keep scanning. What a  joy!! The most I had seen previously was two. It seemed this may have been a couple of families out passing on their hunting (fishing!) skills to their youngsters.

Enjoy this glimpse of what I was privileged to observe.

Hopefully you even noticed the younger ones?

So, after so long in something of a hiatus, this was a really nice little impetus to another stint of LSL about to begin. I look forward to exploring again, and also to being active getting this "up to date" so I can hopefully just feel I will be able to add to when I have days like this!

Stay tuned.

Family renewal by bush stone-curlews

 A few weeks ago I was waiting in the SCU car park at the Gold Coast campus on my way back from spending some time with my mum while dad was spending another part of his long 2019 stint in hospital. I was waiting to pick my sister up from the airport. You never know what nature might find a way to do ... and finding a family of bush stone-curlews in the car park would not be high on the list! Of course, it is another excellent example of how nature finds a way to adapt as we continue to destroy their habitat ... no matter how much we "know" about the effects of doing so 😢.

So, first there was this family ...

And then we can see the protective instinct of mum on the nest when I ventured a cm too close ...

A week later, while teaching on the campus, mum was still nesting. Another week, another visit for teaching and what do you know ... mum is off the nest and now nestling ... so cute ... but so scary that their first taste of their environment totally belies their name!

So privileged to have witnessed such a family renewal ... I just hope they will be there next week!