April 16 and 17, 2005
On Saturday, Eclipse and I woke up early (as usual, since arriving in Australia), and no one else was up yet, so we snuck out of the house and took my camera down to the park where we’d had our barbecue. Eclipse headed straight to the playground, while I kept my eye out for birds. As we left the house, I spotted a few Black Swan flying past. I’d very much wanted to see these birds and was thrilled about the sighting, even though I only caught a short glimpse. They looked gorgeous flying through the sky – the contrast of black and white is lovely.
It was an unusual playground . . . in addition to the sandpit, there was huge, plastic furniture and a gigantic wonky television screen that Eclipse had fun with. And I was treated to a good variety of birds. On the small lake, I saw Hardhead and Eurasian Coot, along with Australasian Grebe. I was pleased to spot these birds on the pond – so small, and very, very pretty, especially in breeding plumage. The black on the heads looked almost green, in contrast with the rusty color on the face. They weren’t terribly shy, but dove frequently, making photo-taking a bit tricky. :DMy first larger wading bird was a White-faced Heron, wandering near where we’d had a barbecue two evening’s prior. About the size of a Little Blue, and nicely colored – not bright, but with pretty warm pink underneath, in contrast with the grey everywhere else. A few minutes later, I spotted a bird circling in the air that I thought was an ibis, until it shifted direction and I saw its bill . . . this Yellow-billed Spoonbill circled around me twice, and then landed nearby, allowing me to get some nice close-up photos. An impressive bird.
There were bird in the trees, as well: both Spotted and Laughing Dove, and a couple of species of honeyeaters: Singing Honeyeater, and a new, smaller species: Brown Honeyeater. I also finally got some photo of an adorable Willie Wagtail. A Great Cormorant flew overhead.
On Sunday morning, I woke up before Eclipse did, so I snuck down to the park by myself for a quick look-see. Didn’t see any new birds, but did get some nice photos of ones I’d seen before.
Species List
Black Swan (Cygnus atratus), Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra australis), Hardhead (Aythya australis), Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae), White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae novaehollandiae), Pacific Black Duck x Mallard (Anas superciliosa x platyrhynchos), Yellow-billed Spoonbill (Platalea flavipes), Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides perplexus), Rainbow Lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus moluccanus), Laughing Dove (Spilopelia senegalensis), Singing Honeyeater (Gavicalis virescens), Spotted Dove (Spilopelia chinensis), Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo novaehollandiae), Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta), Willie-wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys), possible Karri (Eucalyptus diversicolor) and Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata)
Let me know what you think!