Last weekend I spent three days at Gluepot Reserve chasing Bats! I was there doing a course on the Bats of Gluepot. This involved a lot of night work and a bit of a fragmented schedule during the day! As someone who enjoys Bats but loves birds I spent nearly every second I wasn't at the course out searching for birds! Needless to say by the end of the three days I was wrecked! Didn't matter though! as I really enjoyed the course and found and photographed some great birds! as you can see below!!
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| Major Mitchell Cockatoo... they really are a beautiful bird! |
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| Serenity.... |
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| Not long out of the nest! |
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| Striated Grasswren... easily my best photo of the species! |
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| In all I found 12 Grasswrens for the trip all in pairs, some of the territories were quite close though! |
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| I had just told a really funny joke... and this little Grasswren just couldn't stop laughing!!! |
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| White-browed Treecreeper - an extremely quiet and confiding species (they just about land on your shoulders sometimes!), compared to their cousins the Brown Treecreepers which are noisy and wary! |
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| Red-lored Whistler - juvenile |
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| Shy Heathwren - these guys proved harder to photograph than the Grasswrens! I guess they are called 'Shy' after all!! |
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| Mulga Parrots were in the best numbers I have ever seen |
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| Brown Falcon - this bird didn't care that I was standing only 4m away, it only flushed when a flock of Miners mobbed it! |
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| Chestnut Quail-thrush |
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| Redthroat - this one was doing a perfect mimicry of a male Red-capped Robin in the middle of it's song! |
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| Varigated Fairy-wrens |
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| Australian (Mallee) Ringneck |
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| Same Brown Falcon as earlier but with a Australian Ringneck thrown in! |
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| Australian (Nankeen) Kestrel - just checking me out! Thankfully I'm not edible! |
I also have to mention the great job my beautiful wife did in looking after our three kids while I was away! With three kids under six years old our house can be a little crazy at the best of times!! so to look after them for three days without a break......well if it was me I would probably end up in the nut-house!! So thank you baby! much appreciated!!
A fantastic set of the less frequently observed birds Chris, suppose all the bats are in Hobart this week. There must be more, keep posting, love reading and looking.
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard, indeed they are in Tassie... but at the moment the New Zealanders aren't handling them for too long!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat pics of the Striated Grasswren and those Major Mitches really are a major find!
ReplyDeleteThanks Russell, I have been trying to get some photos of the Striated Grasswren for a while! they are quick little buggers!! very satisfied to get these ones!!
ReplyDeleteChris
Amazing photos Chris. You've photographed some birds I would dearly love to see in the bush one day. I've always been fond of Major Mitchell Cockatoos and I've never seen the varigated fairy wrens in the Melbourne area.
ReplyDeleteI'm into birdscaping and native gardening in a big way. I created a Facebook page called Australian Native Plant Enthusiasts. I would be honoured if you check it out and post on the wall. I will undoubtedly come back to this blog on a regular basis!
Cheers,
Serge
Thanks Serge, I have a love/hate relationship with Varigated Fairy-wrens! Beautiful little birds and I enjoy watching them! as for photographing them.....they are very canny and like to always keep some cover in-between me and them! Good challenge! Always love seeing Majors! they are obviously a very beautiful bird as well and great to try to photograph!
ReplyDeleteCertainly I will check out your FB page, imagine how good it would be if everybody birdscaped there gardens with local native plants!It would partly make up for our original clearing of the land! the birds would love it! (not quite that simple I know.. but a step in the right direction!)
Keep up the good work!
Chris