Two Months of Lifers Down Under (1 Viewer)

delia todd · Dec 28, 2019

Hi Hans, yes I did my friend and you did a super job on it.... and it's waiting in the wings to be used on the day I took that picture (the 17th), when we went back up the Austinville Valley.

Sorry, I should have explained that to you LOL

Hans&Judy Beste · Dec 28, 2019

thanks for that Delia-we think that it is the most colourful bird we managed to show you.Had an inch of rain last week,but the dam is still dry and hardly any birds,beside our garden freeloaders.Wishing you a wonderful birding 2020.

Hans&Judy

delia todd · Dec 29, 2019

Gosh! LOL.... you showed me loads and loads of beautiful birds Hans, I'd struggle to pick the most colourful one!

delia todd · Dec 29, 2019

A few more species seen at the Lily Pond, though I'll start with an overall view of it.

An Australasian Grebe swam through some of the flowering lilies, made an attractive image I thought. The a Comb-crested Jacana trotted across them with those huge feet.

Eurasian Coot and Pacific Black Duck complete the set of my images, but also seen or heard there were an Australian Magpie, Australasian Swamphen and Noisy Miner.

Keith Dickinson · Dec 29, 2019

Just back after my Christmas break away from t'web and pages of lovely photos to go through. You have had the most amazing trip so far Delia. Your report just gets better and better

delia todd · Dec 29, 2019

Why thank you Keith.

I hope you had a wonderful time with the family and got the pressies you wanted.

delia todd · Dec 29, 2019

Golf Course Lake

We then crossed to the other side of the road and walked along a path beside another lake with a golf course on the other side.

A lot of birds around here too.

Most on the other side of course LOL, so we'll start with a Dusky Moorhen, then a Great Egret with a couple of Wandering Whistling Ducks at his feet. Australasian Darter, Swamphen and Ibis all more-or-less in the same place.

Nora · Dec 30, 2019

Love the male Darter Delia, showing off all its finery, lovely photos all, you are doing so well...........thanks for sharing!

Larry Sweetland · Dec 30, 2019

It's funny lighting, but pretty sure the ducks in the egret pic are Wandering Whistling Ducks. Great stuff Delia, looking forward to more :t:

delia todd · Dec 30, 2019

Grrr.... thanks Larry... I kept looking and looking at them to see if they were. There were Hardhead around, and I had a picture of the wanderers with the bums up in the water; thought these were wanderers, then went with Hardhead.

Just confused myself, didn't I. Thanks lad. I'll make the changes.

delia todd · Dec 30, 2019

An Australian Swamphen walked off towards the fairway, while a dozy Australian Pelican never moved.

At the entrance to the lake there was a beautiful female Australian Figbird sitting up in a tree.

Then it was a case of waiting for the main event... and eventually they started coming... Fruit Bats came from further up the Golf Course Lake than we had walked, and flew across the road.

We stood and watched them coming for about half an hour until there was too little light for photos.

Also seen on and around the lake were Eurasian Coot, Pacific Black Duck, Australian Grebe, Hardhead and Grey Teal,

On the way back to the camp site, we stopped and had a very nice dinner at a Mexican Restaurant.

A great end to the day.

delia todd · Dec 30, 2019

Whale Watching

14 October 2019

A rather busy day ahead! We set off down to the Gold Coast Harbour to get on a boat for a whale watching trip. Gosh that day will live long in my mind, even though I'd seen Humpbacks a week or so before with Ken, this experience was quite different.

We had a welcome cup of coffee while waiting for the boat to come in. Right outside the window were a pair of Pied Oystercatchers; they actually had a young one below them.

In the distance was a long sand bar that was covered in birds: Australian Pied Cormorant, Little Pied Cormorant, Little Black Cormorant, Silver Gull. Further along was an Australian Pelican, with a couple of Great Crested Terns.

I had such a job deciding which of many images to show you of this lot LOL

The last picture is, of course, the tail of a diving Humpback Whale. More of which in the following posts. It, again, is going to prove difficult to decide what to leave out!!

Nora · Dec 31, 2019

Sorry Delia didn't mean to re post my comment (still in awe of the Darter photo) but we had a black out with huge thunderstorm, 43 degrees with 52mph winds and trying to keep the water up to all the wildlife and the PC got stuck! So edited it

Love all of this keep, reading from the beginning, make a lovely travel book?
Thanks for sharing!

Farnboro John · Dec 31, 2019

delia todd said:
14 October 2019I had such a job decided which of many images to show you of this lot LOL

The last picture is, of course, the tail of a diving Humpback Whale. More of which in the following posts. It, again, is going to prove difficult to decide what to leave out!!

Put up as many as you like Delia! :t:

Cheers

John

delia todd · Dec 31, 2019

Oh my! Thank you Nora and John for your lovely comments.

delia todd · Dec 31, 2019

Here you are John.... a few more whale images

We saw at least two lots of mother and calf, one calf was thought to be only weeks old, the other a couple of months (think that's right).

There were also one or two other adults moving through.

From memory this is the first mother with the younger calf.

And all the time we had this glorious view which I think must be South Stradbroke Island.

delia todd · Dec 31, 2019

Another set of whale pictures. This time ones with the older calf.

Apparently, the mother has to teach the youngster how to use it's tail, which must become strong before they set off for Antarctica, otherwise he will not survive the journey.

However, she had a complication with, it seems, a young rogue male wanting her attention. In order to keep her calf safe, she had to position herself between her calf and the male. The male could damage the calf even by letting his barnacle covered body scratch the bairn.

So the first picture shows the three of them with the mother in the middle. The next two show the calf leaping and the huge splash it made on landing.

The last two are the male trying to impress the female.

Keith Dickinson · Dec 31, 2019

Loving the whale photos. I am probably greener than Shrek looking at them.

delia todd · Jan 1, 2020

Sadly the last of the images showing the whales.

1: I believe this to be the calf
2: The young male's tail after a dive
3: The male was really showing off to the female and did a number of dives one after the other
4: The male after another dive
5: The mother and calf had come really close to the boat

The captain thought we'd been with them long enough and wanted to leave them in peace now

3Italianbirders · Jan 1, 2020

It must have been a truly magic encounter. I can remember very well the excitement and the wide grins on our faces when we saw a single Humpback in Canada in 2016, so I can imagine how thrilling it must have been to see a group of them showing so well!

Two Months of Lifers Down Under (1 Viewer)

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If I said the wrong thing it was a Senior Moment

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If I said the wrong thing it was a Senior Moment

If I said the wrong thing it was a Senior Moment

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If I said the wrong thing it was a Senior Moment

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If I said the wrong thing it was a Senior Moment

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