Well, this has been a strange year, although I did manage to see some good birds. Lets hope the next one is better in terms of health, travel, politics and general wellbeing.
Here is a selection of my favourite pictures from 2021.
As a bit of a challenge, why not see if you can ID these birds: all taken this year, and all in Victoria.
Cheers and best wishes for the New Year. SM
Just a brief post this week as I continue to try to come out of covid-hibernation. These are some shots of a large flock of Whiskered Terns (Chlidonias hybrida) that I took on my recent trip to Werribee.
On close examination I found a few other species of birds in the flock as well. See if you can find them. Consider it a kind of birding "Where's Wally"!
Hope all is well, and that people have a good Christmas in these continually strange times. SM
I manged to get out birding again this week - and I am almost starting to feel a whiff of normality in the air here. I suspect it wont last!
I traveled to the sewage works at Werribee on another bright and windy day - the weather seemed to keep the birds in the air, and by mid-morning it was very bright. But it was good to be out.
I managed to get some pictures of White-fronted Chat (Epthianura albifrons) which is a common bird that I have found hard to photograph. This male perched in a bush for a short time and I was able to get of a burst of shots. The wind - and hand holding a long lens - made it all a bit difficult, but here are the pictures anyway.
As ever, to join in with WBW, click on the link below. SM
The edition of WBW is brought to you by two very long distance travelers - the Bar-Tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica) and the Eurasian Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus).
These birds were sitting in mangrove bushes outside the hide at Toora, in East Gippsland a few weeks ago. The Bar-Tailed Godwits have the long straight beak, and the Eurasian Whimbrels have a curved beak, and distinctive head stripes.
These birds breed high in the northern hemisphere, in places like Siberia. I am always amazed when I see these birds in Australia because a proportion of the individuals I see were an egg a few months ago!
The weekend after I saw these birds a very rare Whimbrel was found in the area - a Hudsonian Whimbrel was fund in the area. I have looked very hard at all of my pictures, but I seem to have missed it!
As ever, to join in with WBW click on the link below. SM
The Australia Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus) is a huge and conspicuous water bird. Its name does not actually refer to its size, but to the yellow rings around its eyes. Who would have thought.
These birds were at one of my more regular - if a little distant - bird watching locations, Swan Bay Jetty which is about two hours west of my house.
I rather liked the way that the four birds got involved in some semi-synchronized plumage maintenance.
As ever, to join in with WBW click on the link below. SM
The Pacific Gull (Larus pacificus) is a very large gull found along the south coast of Australia, it range also extends north up the coast of Western Australia. Anyone with a decent familiarity with the geography of Australia will notice that it does not really exist on Australia's Pacific Coast!
This is a gull that takes about 4 years to reach gull maturity. Over those four years the bird transitions from mainly brown to the classic grey and white paint job of many gull species.
This species has the heaviest bill - described in some books as be almost 'grotesquely' large. I would not go that far!
These pictures do not do justice to how windy and wet it was on the day I took the pictures - it was dumping it down with rain and blowing a gale - and I was pleased to stay in the car to take the pictures. All these birds were around the harbour at Port Welshpool in eastern Victoria.
As ever to join in with WBW click the blue button. Cheers SM
Well, I finally managed to get away for a walk and some birding. Its been far too long! And even if the weather was shocking at times over the weekend it was just so great to get away. I hope this may finally be the sign that I can get back to some form of normal.
I spend more than a few hours in a public bird hide near the coastal village of Toora, which is in East Gippsland, about three hours east of Melbourne. Friday was more or less a wash out, but Sunday was a much better day, and I managed to get some images of birds I have not photographed before, as well as showing these species to some birders who had never seen them.
These photographs are of Eastern Curlews (Numenius madagascariensis), the worlds largest shore bird. They are justifiably famous for their 'improbably long, strongly down-curved bill' - which you can see clearly in these pictures. Both sexes have long bills, but the male bill really is very long! These birds are also famous for being very cautious, and even though I was in a hide the birds never really came that close. Long, long lenses and cropping are the order of the day for this species.
Eastern Curlews breed in Siberia and Manchuria, but most (75%+) spend the southern summer in Australia. There are probably less than 50,000 of these birds left in the wild, so having more that 20 in front of the hide was a great thing to see. Like many other shore birds this species is threatened because of habitat loss, most especially in China's Yellow sea.
As ever, to join in with WBW just click on the Blue Button below.
Hope everyone who reads this is also coming out of the the C19 blues - and I hope to be in touch (via blogs) soon. SM
