The scenic route to Kellys Swamp

We have taken to doing a monthly walk around East Basin of Lake Burley Griffin (and some associated waterways.  This includes some birdwatching at Kellys Swamp.  But we don't want to park there due to the amount of theft from parked cars.  So we park at the canoe club and walk to Kellys via Kings Avenue Bridge.  All up the route is about 10km which is a pleasant distance.

In this image the track to Kellys is in red and back to the car is blue.
I focused on picking them up and putting them down rather than birding until we got to Kellys Swamp.  It was good to spot a late-staying Lathams Snipe, although it seemed to have a gammy leg: hopefully it will still be able to carbo-load to get back to Japan.
 A less common guest was a White-necked Heron.
 Starlings seem to be flocking early this year.  Looking at a full size version of this image I counted the birds on the top wire and multiplied by 3: 624 birds!
There were at least 5 Black-fronted Dotterels around on a mud bank visible from Ardea and Bittern hides.  Note that the 'front' refers to the forehead not the breast!
Among the several bin chooks (aka Australian White Ibis) these two posed nicely on an improved pile of rushes in front of Cygnus hide.
 Look out from that hide a fair number of Gret Teal were visible as were a few Shovelers and at least 1 Freckled Duck.  On the far side of the lagoon 4 Red-kneed Dotterel (with black breasts and red ankles) were visible.

The annual photo display for World Wetlands Day was brilliant as usual.
 As we left Tadorna hide a couple of folk were exploring under the bark of fallen trees looking for insects.  They should have been out of the bike path, heading back to the canoe club where this acridid grasshopper posed nicely.
 Here is a close up of its head showing the antennae.
All up the walk took about 2 hours 50 minutes, including at least 20 minutes in the hides at Kellys.  So we got some exercise as well.

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