Meandering through March - Land

And so we continue, this time with land sightings. Down a lane I often take on a drive home from Ballina. The long grass often seems to offer delights for the smaller birds and they in turn are willing to pose.

Female red-backed fairy wren

Male red-backed fairy wren

Hmmm ... well, I have to argue here the rail is for a jetty which is attached to the river bank (so technically I will claim "land" is OK! I did say "land or near") ... some breeding plumage is clearly visible and a touch of the maroon neck and back feathers too. In the same Robbins book I quoted in the previous post, I learned a new term for some of this type of plumage (p.75) ... for a different type of egret (snowy egret in the US) it is called "nuptial".

White-faced heron

The next three are flighty by nature, though the first one also very aggressive by virtue of a very protective nearby partner when on the nest like this. A nice repose nonetheless. The second one, while not a first sighting for me, is the first decent picture I have managed. Far more skittish than then the much more common and annoying white ibis, they can often be seen in wet fields foraging together in large flocks. Quite a deal more attractive than the white ibis. And the third photo in the sequence ... well, cattle egrets doing what cattle egrets do! At least this type of egret is clearly distinguishable to me (the smaller of the egrets, and I choose to lump all of them as "egrets" in my labels).

Masked lapwing on the nest

Straw-necked ibis

Cattle egrets

And finally, for this meander across some land (or near land), some photogenic chestnut-breasted mannikins were willing to allow me to get very close and get these wonderful shots showing off how small and light they are and how important their feet are for their agility. This was a beautiful setting to provide the clear context of the special environment they inhabit. The photos also show-off how clever modern digital camera focusing is!

Meandering through March - water

Taking a little break from merely chronological, I noticed a broad "pattern" as I was trawling pictures for March 2017 to share. It struck me how many "places" I might end up noticing birds to photograph without necessarily having a plan. This aspect of my pastime I really enjoy ... the unpredictability and variety simple meanderings offer. We are blessed here on the north coast of NSW to have such a diverse environment to meander through, often easily in a single day. The beach, the coast, the estuaries, the rivers, the floodplains, the swampy lowlands, the rainforest remnants, waterfalls and what we fondly call mountains but are really very worn down ones! All descriptors in very lay terms of course, simply through my eyes 😊.

So this post focuses on birds on or near water (the next on or near land) as I was meandering through March. No new finds, but each different sighting offers a unique glimpse and perspective of the wonderful avian world.

Willy wagtail basking in late afternoon sun

Sacred kingfisher keeping an eye on me

Back to serious fishing business!

White-faced heron patiently stalking (itself 😉?)

Black-winged stilt family wading together

It is interesting to watch the swallows at work along the Ballina north wall on a windy day. Apologies if you have read this in earlier posts, but it still fascinates me! Their acrobatic flight seeking and catching insects on the wing is excellent exercise to stretch your neck and shoulders, and even better to sharpen your peripheral vision! Then ... the sky is clear? Often they will be found recharging their batteries on the side protected from the wind soaking up energy from the sun and preening. Depending on the position of the sun, the colours vary. Here are two pairs and a single.

Keeping watch to preen

Watching ... always watching

Preening in unison 

Needs no caption, nor imagination ... just identification.

Spotted doves

And finally, a favourite for the magnificent colours, heightened I think by the late afternoon sunlight and this wonderful setting in a sheoak and dextrous actions. The eastern rosella. I read this just today (16/7/20) and these two photos i believe amply illustrate: "Their ebullient colors-the most vibrant colors in the natural world-are the ultimate eye candy, critical to both sexual attraction and effective camouflage, ..." Jim Robbins The Wonder of Birds (2017) Black Inc. Carlton. Australia. p.64

Ending February in the garden

Nature seldom fails to surprise in our own garden. Largely unmanicured and untrimmed as much as it might be, I am fond of telling my mum "the day I see a manicured forest is the day I will rake the leaves and trim the trees" ... of course Deb takes much more care of the garden than I as it is her domain and place where she finds peace and solitude and restfulness.

I now benefit from what all that flora attracts in terms of fauna, especially the feathered kinds. So to round out February here are some snaps that can be attributed to the delights offered by the flowers in the often maligned umbrella trees at this time of year, the nectar offered up against the background of our avocados trees. Featuring this time a couple of the more noisy and crazy behaved bird types!

But I begin with one at the other end of the spectrum - a first sighting (very well camouflaged) at home of an emerald dove ... so well disguised & quiet, at times you seem not to notice it until almost on top of it pecking away on the ground and then it has taken flight - look forward to some clearer shots when I am more alert ... a very good example of needing to look with your ears and listen with your eyes 😅. These photos are also worth a reminder to click on them to see a larger version if you wish.

A camouflaged emerald dove

So to the first featured loud and crazy end of the spectrum ... the ever delightful and oh so colourful rainbow lorikeets. Because these trees have had free rein for so long the flowers are now very high up and until you get a good photo, just appear to be red or pink clusters of berries. Even once they have dried and fallen, they merely appear to be "berries". So it was fascinating to notice with a good camera the berries are actually flowers (perhaps flowerettes?) and so the attraction of the nectar quickly becomes "obvious". Of course, their agility it getting around the branches and offering you the odd glare provide much joy in capturing 😊. Feel very free to imagine your own descriptors for the behaviors and characteristics captured ...

Greedy

Needy

Cranky

Curious

Acrobatic

And then we have the "intruder" responding to the ruckus and shenanigans of the rainbow lorikeets dropping to see what all the fuss is about. After some ferocious glares, perhaps being very clear about marking territory, it's down to business for a juvenile blue-faced honeyeater (juvenile because the face is not yet blue). The first two photos especially show off the glistening droplets of nectar that are the real attraction. Feast while you can and the bounty is available ... just think, once upon a time, not so long ago we humans were much better at, and content with, seasonal feasts - damn the supermarkets (or is that super marketers???).

Sizing up the space

Aggressive protection

Supping on the nectar (honeyeater indeed!)

Now, to finish and not quite in our garden, I turn to my "other garden" outside my work window. I share two shots to end February of swamp wallaby joeys one morning, being playful like kids are - what a world I am privileged to observe 😜

Cuddling, or waltzing?

Oh what a feeling ... the agility of youth!

Bloody good year so far in 2017!

A wetland by the highway

Some more from the warmth of February.

Heading from Wollongbar to Ballina where the Bruxner Highway ends up running parallel to the Pacific Highway as it crosses Emigrant Creek, there is an extensive wetland off to the left. It extends pretty much right along the parallel stretch of highways, way back to Teven Road as it runs north towards the twin bridges crossing Emigrant Creek and Maguires Creek. This was the "end" where I snapped (what I suspect is) the swamp harrier at the end of my previous post.

Slightly tidal, it fills with rain and empties during prolonged dry spells. This next series of photos were taken one still morning in the lay-by at the southern end near the first Emigrant Creek crossing. I wanted to share these because they highlight how nature shares much more readily than we tend to! Also because often the pictures herein focus on a single bird, or when fortunate, a pair or three of the same type. The water birds especially seem to be much more comfortable sharing their habitat ... and it offers some quite beautiful settings to.

Water birds I am not so good at identifying. I think these first couple are some kind of knot, but they could also be a type of sandpiper. One day, I will improve my identification ability for the ever so slight variations in water birds. For the point of this post, however, the first one seemed very lonely but it had merely wandered away from the much larger flock that was quite nearby!

And not much further away was an equally lonely young black-necked stilt findings its legs and overseeing the flock.

And not long after, needing to rest those young stilts while the flock had waded off for richer fossicking grounds.

However, lonely it was not (no pun intended!) as its own flock was not too far off and it turn it was being overseen by a white-faced heron who seemed to be standing sentinel. All sharing their wonderful space.

Not to be outdone but way over the back preening in very still water and not at all disturbing the  concentration of some pacific black ducks was a pair of egrets, seen in the second picture proudly displaying breeding plumage.

And finally, with the pacific black ducks searching underwater, there are a couple of royal spoonbills (you can tell from this distance by the black spoon) scanning for their next vacuuming spot and the egret stalking the mangrove for its next delicacy. Ah, the things to be noticed when we don't just drive on by 😀 

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!