A search for white birds

Things are getting a bit desperate in my Bird-a-Day efforts, and on Saturday we had some spare time in Canberra so went looking for a Pelican or an Egret (both whiteish birds) around Lake Burley Griffin.

We began at Kellys Swamp. This is the view from Bittern Hide.  As the regrowth has died off the water is reappearing - at least until the rushes block the view.
The same comments apply to the view from Cygnus Hide.
The Typha would not have appeared in this image 18 months ago but is now largely covering a row of perches logs provided for the ducks benefit, as well as totally occluding the view of the small island on which the spoonbill's nested.  I don't know what the solution to this is.

Out in the open water a number of Australasian Shovelers were feeding.
Some logs not hidden by the reeds were well endowed with Grey Teal and Pacific Black Ducks.
 Having failed to find white birds in the Swamp we moved round to Fulica Hide overlooking Jerrabomberra Creek.  A good level of water and few reeds.  The floating vegetation is a worry, but doesn't seem to be spreading greatly.
 Looking more closely than this image deserves some distant stumps of willows can be seen.  Hopefully something has been done to prevent regrowth.
A Darter was drying its wings.
That bird is, as an alert reader will have spotted, not white.  So it was off to Central Basin for a lap to see what was there.  This is apparently the works for a pedestrian walkway over the road.  In keeping with the placement of Memorials and Monuments around the Basin this appears to be a Monument to Over-Engineering.  I expect the final thing will look good and be easy for people in wheelchairs to negotiate but at this stage looks well above what is required for the basic job.
 
Looking out to the Carillion we found a white bird, or at least a bird in white.  
I hope the bride and groom had a happy day (and indeed have many more happy days).

The water in the Lake wasn't white.  As well as reflecting the clouds it was rather green due to the algal bloom.  Needless to say there was no swimming allowed.
 Here are the clouds.  They kept us moving, but the threat of rain didn't eventuate.
 The clouds had made it seem like dusk from about 3pm onwards.  By 5 it was well dark.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Insects from pine trees

Image
This afternoon (13/1/2015) we were looking out of our sunroom and noticed a strange bit of mist.  On getting my binoculars on the case I found it to be a cloud of tens of thousand of insects.  They appeared with naked eye to be flying away, but with binoculars I thought they were circling. Here are some images In the second one it may be possible to see there are two streams coming from the top of each tree. There was a loud buzzing noise but that could just be several thousand wings. Earlier in the day Frances had been to some nearby willows and they were infested with many little black soft bodied insects.  Perhaps they shifted to the pines and were swarming? Help!! Any information welcome. A colleague, from Wamboin, had noticed a similat phenomenon, but involvng eucalypts rather than pines!  Here are the photos he took with his phone. I have consulted some expert friends.   Their responses were: I would have gone for chironomids. I rec...
Read more

A tour of the West (part 1)

Image
A friend from my time in the UN sent me some photos of her family trip along Route 66.  They did this is a large camperwagon rather than a Chevy Corvette (apparently the kids jacked up about being offered a trip in the trunk).  It seems to have been a very good trip for them and most interesting to see their photos.  It was also educational for me, as I found out the German for rocking chair (schaukelstuhl, since you ask). They did 7200 miles in 30 days - a pretty serious bit of distance. This made me think of the trips we did in 1981 when living in Denver.  Frances initiated that idea by getting a book about the National Parks of the West  and marking interesting places.  I then worked out a route on a Rand-McNally Road Atlas (GPS was unknown then  - as were iPhones, personal computers and the internet).  From memory, taking nearly the whole Summer school holidays we covered about 10,000 miles in 70 days.  Here, approximately,  are ...
Read more

Maslins beach rules

Image
Anyone who was in Adelaide in the 1970s will be having a good nudge nudge at that title.  However the beach is really nice even though it is the haunt (in Summer ) of naked people.  (As an aside one of the 'van park staff was talking to some other guests and commented that the sights on the beach in Summer were not at all exciting.)  In April it is the haunt of seniors, many of them exercising their dogs, and thus a far more attractive place. Getting to the beach was a walk of about 1km along roads, from our van.  The second half of this went past a rather daggy looking paddock with many formed ridges in it, as though it was irrigated, although a water sources wasn't evident.  The paddock got interesting towards the end as some green parrots appeared.  Thanks to Frances eye for detail we have subsequently identified these as Elegant Parrots: my first lifer for 2014.    The locale is indicated by the red lines in this mudmap: Here are the bird...
Read more