Swamp harrier and a blur of a Glossy ibis
Lake Eda view
Australian white pelican circling over the lakes
Brolga at Lake Campion
Striated pardalote
Long toed stint
Tuesday 18 August 2009
Lakes tour Aug 09
Brown Falcon -pale phase
Swamp harrier and a blur of a Glossy ibis
Lake Eda view
Australian white pelican circling over the lakes
Brolga at Lake Campion
Striated pardalote
Long toed stint
Swamp harrier and a blur of a Glossy ibis
Lake Eda view
Australian white pelican circling over the lakes
Brolga at Lake Campion
Striated pardalote Long toed stint
Sunday 16 August 2009
We managed a small catch of Eastern curlew and Australian pied oystercatcher last weekend. Small but valuable as we don't normally catch that many so worthwhile to get more bands on curlew for distribution/movements and on oyks for Clare and her project following breeding birds about the place.
The curlew proved extremely difficult to age in the field due to the fact that so few have been caught in the past. Thay also seemed to be doing some strange moults. Some at 5 to the 10 and others at 1:1, 2:1, 4:1, O:4, V:3, possibly arrested and started agin??. We took photos of all wings and flags and recorded moults so hopefully Clive Minton and Chris Hassell can sort them out soon.
A few nice shots of Red necked avocet that have taken up residency in the bay with the Black winged stilts.
The curlew proved extremely difficult to age in the field due to the fact that so few have been caught in the past. Thay also seemed to be doing some strange moults. Some at 5 to the 10 and others at 1:1, 2:1, 4:1, O:4, V:3, possibly arrested and started agin??. We took photos of all wings and flags and recorded moults so hopefully Clive Minton and Chris Hassell can sort them out soon.
A few nice shots of Red necked avocet that have taken up residency in the bay with the Black winged stilts.
Well here we have a great piece of Austtalian planning in process. A new waste water treatment plant is going being built. Where ?? right in the middle of the bush! yes thats right in the bush so what are we going to gdo about it?? bring in a bull dozer and just trash the lot ! No wait we are going to leave the trees we find, but they will probably have to come down later to fit in with the plans.
To be fair, the site will be old style open ponds with large areas of grassland over which the dirty water will trickle to loose nutrients before it eventually soaks away into to the soil. So quite good for birds that don't like the bush!!! The grass is going to be some forgeign South African grass which will be taken as a silage ccrop so that it will never flower and set seed.......yeah right ! They also have no requirement to mitigate for the loss of habitats and don't have to do any preparation works like reptile removal, a planners dream it would seem !
Here we have the site being cleared with no pre-work having taken place, but its OK because the site has been over grazed and is poor quality. So what are you going to do to improve whats left...nothing...what are you going to do to improve the environemnt?? nothing will you allow public access to this lovely new freshwater environment you are creating....no. I am not impressed with the Australian way at all !!!
Changing teh subject totally, here are some dinosaur foot prints a three toed Cassowary type bird. You need to use your imagination a bit with the photos but they are there honest !!!
To be fair, the site will be old style open ponds with large areas of grassland over which the dirty water will trickle to loose nutrients before it eventually soaks away into to the soil. So quite good for birds that don't like the bush!!! The grass is going to be some forgeign South African grass which will be taken as a silage ccrop so that it will never flower and set seed.......yeah right ! They also have no requirement to mitigate for the loss of habitats and don't have to do any preparation works like reptile removal, a planners dream it would seem !
Here we have the site being cleared with no pre-work having taken place, but its OK because the site has been over grazed and is poor quality. So what are you going to do to improve whats left...nothing...what are you going to do to improve the environemnt?? nothing will you allow public access to this lovely new freshwater environment you are creating....no. I am not impressed with the Australian way at all !!!
Changing teh subject totally, here are some dinosaur foot prints a three toed Cassowary type bird. You need to use your imagination a bit with the photos but they are there honest !!!
Thursday 6 August 2009
Another day in paradise !!!
Well this morning saw us go up to cuckoo corner along the Malurus trail to do a bit of ringing. We hadn't been there before but as there are quite a few flowering trees up there we thought it would be worth a go. It was very quiet to start with but soon livened up at about 9 am.
We were treated to a superb pair of Red backed fairy wren, the male in stuning breeding plumage whilst the female was in dull brown....so much so we didn't even take a photo !
Singing honeyeaters although common around the obs are not caught often so it was nice to net a few to get to grips with the condition of the plumage and ageing this species
Again, whilst relativley common, we have yet to ring many Rufous whistler, but today saw us catch pair so we could compare the plumage wear and difference in greater covert colour to attempt to age them.
We were treated to a superb pair of Red backed fairy wren, the male in stuning breeding plumage whilst the female was in dull brown....so much so we didn't even take a photo !
Singing honeyeaters although common around the obs are not caught often so it was nice to net a few to get to grips with the condition of the plumage and ageing this species
Again, whilst relativley common, we have yet to ring many Rufous whistler, but today saw us catch pair so we could compare the plumage wear and difference in greater covert colour to attempt to age them.
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