Wild Bird Wednesday 527 - Spinifex Pigeon

Well, after 527 weeks I can saw that these are the least impressive pictures I have ever chosen to share on WBW.  So, if you are new here, please forgive these rather inept images - they are not normally like this! (I hope).

This is a Spinifex Pigeon (Geophaps plumifera) an endemic Australian species found over much of arid and semiarid northern and central Australia.  There are at least four races / subspecies of this colourful bird.

These pictures were taken under less than idea conditions with a camera I would not nominate as a suitable one for wildlife photography!  I used my little Olympus back-pack camera for these, and as the sun was shining very brightly on the LCD screen on the back I could not actually see what I was photographing!  Spray and Pray indeed!

I consider it a minor miracle that I managed to get images that are even this good!

So, in another departure, here is an image of this species from the web. As

(Andreas Trepte, www.avi-fauna.info.)

As you can see its a remarkable bird, which I was very pleased to see for the first time in ages.

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Larapinta Trail - Sections 1 to 3

This is the first of a few post about my recent walk along the Larapinta Trail.  The Trail runs (more or less) east-west starting (or ending) at Alice Springs and ending (or starting) at Mount Sonder about 230 km later!

The whole trails runs through the West MacDonnell Ranges - Tjoritja - National Park.  We took 15 days to walk from Alice to Sonder.  I think I'm still processing a lot of what I saw, felt and thought during those two weeks. 

These pictures show just how varied the walk is - valleys, ridges, and long, long views.

For reasons I do not comprehend, the images have loaded in reverse order! The final image is from day 1 and the first from day 3. 

Hope you enjoy.  SM

Wild Bird Wednesday 526 - Some birds from the Larapinta Tail

Hi - this slight delayed post comes after a 16 day, 240km+ walk in Central Australia.  Needless to say, I did not carry my 'birding camera' on this walk, so these are older pictures of some of the birds I saw along the way!

Hope everyone out there is well:  as a post lock down event I can recommend 16 days in the desert!

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Wild Bird Wednesday 525 - Straw-Necked Ibis.

The Straw-necked Ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis) is a common bird in my part of the world - often found in parks, on playing fields - ovals as we call them here - and hanging around places where they can find food scraps.  They thrive where humans waste food, and have gained the nickname 'Bin Chicken' in many parts of Australia!

In a more natural setting they will feed on invertebrates in grass lands, using their long beak to extract 'grubs' of all sorts from the soil.  In the past, because of this habit they were known as The Farmers Friend. Oh, how times have changed.

In these pictures you can see one of the birds eating a 'grub' of some sort, and you can also see the way the light picks up the metallic sheen of their feathers.  Bin Chickens?  I think not.

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Wild Bird Wednesday 524

The Sooty Oystercatcher (Haematopus fuliginosus) is a close relation of last weeks Pied Oystercatcher, and its also I bird I have a lot of time for!

Often found on rocky coasts, this bird was on a sandy beach at Wilsons Promontory.  If the truth be told the beaches at the Prom are a reliable site for these birds, even if the book say they favour rocky areas! I may be being unfair to conventional wisdom here, as there are large areas of rocks at the ends of most beaches at the Prom.

I really like the reflections in these pictures.

You can see that this bird has been banded / ringed and given another plastic ID ring.  Science in action!

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Wild Bird Wednesday 523 - Pied Oystercatchers

The Pied Oystercatcher (Haematopus longirostris) is a wonderful, robust shorebird that I always enjoy watching.  This is the Australian species (no surprise there!) and they are rather similar to the black and white Oystercatchers found in New Zealand and Europe.  

Generally this species is found on sandy beaches, although these were feeding on a rocky platform that was exposed at low tide.

I spent an enjoyable 1/2 with some of these birds when I was at Wilsons Promontory last weekend, although these pictures are from the East Coast of Tasmania.

As you can see this bird is not living up to its name, and is feeding on muscles!

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