The House(s) of Fran_mart

I try to get to the Waste Water Treatment Plant at least once per month as it is the only spot in the area to reliably see some species.  These are mainly ducks  on the ponds.  However the walk in is often interesting with birds dining on the insects dining on the horse residue in a paddock.  So it was today, with quite a few Jacky Winters on the fence.  Here is a close-up which probably justifies their alternate common name of Brown Flycatcher.  Also checking out the insects in the horse-apples was a Grey Shrikethrush.  There were a good lot of ducks on the ponds.  This lot  - mainly Grey and Chestnut Teal and Australasian Shovelers - were on the second pond. So were these: a good proportion of the 84 Pink-eared  Ducks at the site today  Here is a close up of some of the fowl, mainly Pink-eared with some others I have labelled.  A new bird for my list at this site was an Australian Pelican.  It did land ...

I went to Bastion Point today to try to relocate the Gannet's head I found yesterday .  I was unsuccessful in this.  However the sea was attractive with good swells still coming in.  At the outlet it was obvious there had been some nice water erosion!  It was quite breezy so many clumps of veg had Red-capped Plovers hiding behind them.  Others preferred to pose in the shallows.  A/the White-fronted Tern turned (terned?) up again.  I first picked it was a good bit smaller than the many Crested Terns and had a black bill.  By the time I had got the camera out the sun had gone in and getting a snap was tricky.  So I just banged away relying on post editing to pick it out.  When I did so I found the birds head had joined the sun in going away!  However note (in addition to size): Dark mark on shoulder (red arrow) Short thin legs cf Crested Tern (green arrow); and checked pattern on wings (blue arrow). There were ...

The second of our longer walks.  Frances thought this was about 6km each way but it turned out to only be 4km.  And only had a couple of pimples in it, no real hills. As we were driving to Betka I noticed an odd looking cormorant on their tree at th Betka River,  On reversing it turned out to be a White-bellied Sea-Eagle. For folk that have trouble identifying birds with white heads here is the Sea-Eagle contrasted with a Little Pied Cormorant and (in the background left) a female Darter We moseyed on the walk without taking photos etc - they came on the way back and while there.  As we arrived an Eastern Reef Egret flew off a reef to some larger rocks. This will help students of Rock Birds tell the Reef Egret from Little Pied Cormorant Here is an overall snap of the beach. A horde of Black Nerites ( Nerita altramentosa ). This shows the wee tracks they were making. Here is a real close-up showing body parts emerging from under the shell. ...