Well, it was by my standards, anyway! I'm off work this week, so decided to go for an amble around what's almost my 'local patch', Baldwin Swamp. It's not as smelly as it sounds, and I usually manage to see something new on every trip (which is more a reflection on my short life-list than the quality of the area!)
Today was a good day, with the usual crowd. A lot of these are probably 'whatever' birds to 'proper' birders, but they still excite me!:
Magpie
peewee (magpie lark, indeed.)
pied butcherbird
spangled drongo
Purple swamphen (stunning, looked like they'd just been washed and waxed!)
Dusky moorhen
Eurasian coot
pacific black duck
wood duck
Rainbow Lorikeets by the score
Red-backed wren
Magpie geese
white throated honeyeater
two black swan
grey wagtail
willie wagtail
cattle egret
little egret
little black cororant
pied cormorant
Australian darter
forest kingfisher
friarbird (heard)
double-barred finch
peaceful dove
Lewin's honeyeater
white ibis
After spending ages identifying my first-ever cotton pygmy goose at the swamp last visit, there were five of the suckers there today; two males three females.
My usual bete noir was on hand, flitting through the trees and generally being it's usual miserable unidentifiable little self. I think it's a brown honeyeater. Almost certain. But I'm not ticking it yet.
The tale goes there's Richard's Pipit in the swamp, which I've never seen. Today I saw something that could've been Richards, but from the dodgy 2-seconds it stood still for me, it could have been anything from a curlew to a sandpiper! No tick there, either.
But grotty brown birds paled into insignificance beside my first rainbow bee-eater. What a bird! Orange crown, breast orange fading to blue under the tail via yellow and green. It even has a fancy long 'look at me I'm ever so tropical' tail. Four of them! Marvelous stuff. A magnificent bird to be number 80 on the list.
Plus, on the way back to the carpark I took a funny little path I don't normally use to avoid a group of picnicers (not the sociable type, me). Just to prove it pays to shy away from society, I flushed another first bird, a comb-crested jacana.
It was a day that could only be improved by a spoonbill. There's at least three living in the swamp, but they're such a marvelous bird I never get tired of looking for them. They finally popped up in a reed bed not far from the jacana.
Flushed with success, I took off to Woodgate for some sea-watching. I should've just gone home - three hours for one silhouetted cormorant and a silver gull!
Today was a good day, with the usual crowd. A lot of these are probably 'whatever' birds to 'proper' birders, but they still excite me!:
Magpie
peewee (magpie lark, indeed.)
pied butcherbird
spangled drongo
Purple swamphen (stunning, looked like they'd just been washed and waxed!)
Dusky moorhen
Eurasian coot
pacific black duck
wood duck
Rainbow Lorikeets by the score
Red-backed wren
Magpie geese
white throated honeyeater
two black swan
grey wagtail
willie wagtail
cattle egret
little egret
little black cororant
pied cormorant
Australian darter
forest kingfisher
friarbird (heard)
double-barred finch
peaceful dove
Lewin's honeyeater
white ibis
After spending ages identifying my first-ever cotton pygmy goose at the swamp last visit, there were five of the suckers there today; two males three females.
My usual bete noir was on hand, flitting through the trees and generally being it's usual miserable unidentifiable little self. I think it's a brown honeyeater. Almost certain. But I'm not ticking it yet.
The tale goes there's Richard's Pipit in the swamp, which I've never seen. Today I saw something that could've been Richards, but from the dodgy 2-seconds it stood still for me, it could have been anything from a curlew to a sandpiper! No tick there, either.
But grotty brown birds paled into insignificance beside my first rainbow bee-eater. What a bird! Orange crown, breast orange fading to blue under the tail via yellow and green. It even has a fancy long 'look at me I'm ever so tropical' tail. Four of them! Marvelous stuff. A magnificent bird to be number 80 on the list.
Plus, on the way back to the carpark I took a funny little path I don't normally use to avoid a group of picnicers (not the sociable type, me). Just to prove it pays to shy away from society, I flushed another first bird, a comb-crested jacana.
It was a day that could only be improved by a spoonbill. There's at least three living in the swamp, but they're such a marvelous bird I never get tired of looking for them. They finally popped up in a reed bed not far from the jacana.
Flushed with success, I took off to Woodgate for some sea-watching. I should've just gone home - three hours for one silhouetted cormorant and a silver gull!
