Wild Bird Wednesday 616 - Fairy Prion

Not all of the birds that you see while on a pelagic trip are large and robust.

The Fairy Prion (Pachyptila turtur) is reasonably small, being a little smaller than a thrush and weighing about 140 grams (just under 5 ounces).

And yet it is at home on the breaking waves of the ocean, out past the continental shelf, rubbing shoulders with albatross, shearwaters, and petrels of all forms. 

Identification of Prions is a bit of an art form - and I was grateful to have expert advice on hand for these birds!

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Green Sky at Night

Like many other people, I became an aurora chaser this weekend.  For me, the target was the Aurora Australis - the Southern Lights.  The Southern Lights are the less well publicised brother of the Northern Lights!

I had never managed to really see either of the Lights before, so we all took off to Point Lonsdale (about and hour and a half from home) to see what we could see.

Now in this cases it's reasonable to say that the camera sees what eye only glimpses - but even with the naked eye you could see colours in the sky. 

After a great deal of messing around I was able to start getting images in camera.  I have also tried not to manipulate these images too much - although I have run them through de-noising software to get rid of the inevitable noise. 

I may have to go back out again tonight!  SM

Sea and Sky

Last weekend I took a trip to Tasmania to do some seabird watching and those pictures will be along soon. But we also had some wonderful weather, with the dawn start times helping to provide dramatic seas and skies.  The sea trips started and ended at the Pirates Bay Jetty, which is in the Eaglehawk Neck area of Tasmania.  They don't give places names like that anymore!

The birds were great, but so were the seascapes.  SM

Wild Bird Wednesday 615 - Greylag Goose

In the UK the Greylag Goose (Anser anser) is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of its wildness.  In Scotland, especially in the winter, Greylags are a true wild goose.  In England they are much more likely to be at least semi-feral rather then truly wild.

However, I still think they are a good looking bird (and some real wild geese will be along on WBW soon). 

These birds were loafing about at Snettisham RSPB reserve in Norfolk.  The Greylag is the largest of the geese you see in the UK and has a weight of about 2,900-3,700g and a wingspan of 147-180cm.

This species is the ancestor of most domestic geese.

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Wild Bird Wednesday 614 - Southern Boobook

While I was looking through the abandoned tack room featured in my last post,  I looked up into the roof space and noticed a Southern Boobook (Ninox boobook) sitting on a rafter watching me.

This is Australia's commonest and smallest owl.  There are a number of sub-species of this bird - and given its dark colour and location in SE Australia, this is almost certainly the ssp boobook. 

The name of this species is an onomatopoeic rendering of its double hoot.  At times this call can be heard for hours on end!  On the weekend I saw it, the call may have been masked by the sound of birthday / wedding music!

As ever, to join in with WBW click on the link below.  SM

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