More birds of the night...
After the spotlighting session of about a week ago when we came across the Tawny Frogmouth from the last post, the kids (and Dad!) were keen to head back out and see what else we could find.
This time we headed over to a good mate Nigel's farm at Reeves Plains near Mallala, he also has a couple of ankle-biters who love to get out and look for Frogmouths. So we piled all the kids into the back of Nigel's dual cab, hooked up a couple spotlights and went out to see what was about.
Just after leaving the house yard a pair of fox eyes were reflecting back our direction, the accelerator was pushed and the fox thought it wise to reposition itself into the Mallee scrub nearby. Not long after we found a Barn owl which was willing to be photographed.
This trip we didn't come across any Froggies, but the Barn Owl seen here and another one flying low hunting Harrier like across an open paddock more than made up for it!
Later on I decided to try and catch a quail or two to show the kids. We had been flushing many as we moved through the paddock's, so next one flushed we followed till it landed then located it in the stubble (no easy task!). When in the light, Stubble Quails will generally freeze where they are, so with some careful footwork I was soon showing the tribe a Stubble Quail up close! they loved it! Later we come across a loose flock of Singing (Horsfields) Bushlarks, they also behave in the stubble very similar to the Quails and I was soon showing the kids one of these as well.
There's always something interesting to see with the help of a spotlight!!
This time we headed over to a good mate Nigel's farm at Reeves Plains near Mallala, he also has a couple of ankle-biters who love to get out and look for Frogmouths. So we piled all the kids into the back of Nigel's dual cab, hooked up a couple spotlights and went out to see what was about.
Just after leaving the house yard a pair of fox eyes were reflecting back our direction, the accelerator was pushed and the fox thought it wise to reposition itself into the Mallee scrub nearby. Not long after we found a Barn owl which was willing to be photographed.
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| Barn Owl |
This trip we didn't come across any Froggies, but the Barn Owl seen here and another one flying low hunting Harrier like across an open paddock more than made up for it!
Later on I decided to try and catch a quail or two to show the kids. We had been flushing many as we moved through the paddock's, so next one flushed we followed till it landed then located it in the stubble (no easy task!). When in the light, Stubble Quails will generally freeze where they are, so with some careful footwork I was soon showing the tribe a Stubble Quail up close! they loved it! Later we come across a loose flock of Singing (Horsfields) Bushlarks, they also behave in the stubble very similar to the Quails and I was soon showing the kids one of these as well.
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| Singing Bushlark |
Man, love those barn owl pics. The bird and the lighting is just beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for thiis
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