black swan

Perhaps we need to rename them "Black and White Swan"!

Black Swans

.. and beautiful eh? So, the start of my last day in Albany for tomorrow we were heading to Perth. I think this was the first picture I'd got of these from the hide. They had been far too distant to capture before. Whichever side of the harbour I was at, they were on the other side LOL.

Tried to take advantage of lighting for hopefully a unique view of the cygnets

A little distant, and a big zoom and crop thereafter too, were this group (well only a little part of it really). In there is an Australian Pelican, three Black Swans and a load of Grey Teal.

The Black Swan is an Australian endemic and the only swan native to the continent. It is also the only swan species that is not white. We had turned off the coast road and headed in to Wilson's Inlet, where we stopped at Morley Beach, an important shorebird nesting area.

This is the world's only swan that is totally black (apart from the red bill), and the only swan to inhabit Australia. There were a few of them out on the water, but a bit distant, fortunately this guy came just within lens range, still needed full zoom and quite a big crop.

I'd seen the odd one of these in England in the distant past, of course, but this was my first 'proper' one LOL. There were a few around.

I'm back. Sorry for the interruption. And not the greatest pics to start off with either, but here they are, my first lifers from the driving break at Elterwater. The pair in front of the Black Swan are Australasian Shovelers. They were quite distant, but this shot was good enough to crop them...

We're used to seeing these as exotic decorative birds in parks, but in Australia they're right at home. Oh, and while looking up their Latin name, I came across the bit of info that Black Swans are "unusual in that one-quarter of all pairings are homosexual, mostly between males. Both...

People in my age group will see the correlation between the Title and the shot . Looks like this nesting site is a good spot for these Brisbane Short-necked Turtles to enjoy the sun .

These youngsters are almost fully grown.

This youngster is growing up and starting to get some adult feathers.

The remaining five youngsters are surviving well and are growing up fast.

Last week there were seven, now they are down to five. It is possible eels took they missing ones.

This I hope a sign of spring arriving.

Sorry if this one isn't fully wild, but I couldn't resist sharing just this one more shot, which shows off the ruffles that fascinated me.