Tag Archives: Little Pied Cormorant

Spring is here…

Posted on September 4, 2016 | 4 comments

I enjoyed a walk to the local lake and along the Elster Creek with some of the local birders late Saturday afternoon. Many of the resident birds are starting to nest and raise chicks. It is a noisy, busy time with much activity. Several neighbourhood locals are keeping an eye on the breeding swans and sadly the cygnet count has already gone from 6 to 3 in a few weeks. I daresay the foxes at the golf course are also raising young.

Elster Creek, Elwood, Victoria

Spring along Elster Creek, Elwood, Victoria

Elsternwick Lake Swamphens, Elsternwick, VictoriaElsternwick Lake Swamphens, Elsternwick, Victoria

Elsternwick Lake Swamphens, Elsternwick, Victoria

Elsternwick Lake Swan family, Elsternwick, Victoria

Elsternwick Lake Swan family

Elsternwick Lake cygnet, Elsternwick, Victoria,

one of the cygnets

Elsternwick Lake Swan, Elsternwick, Victoria

A watchful parent…

Elsternwick Lake Little Pied Cormorant, Elsternwick, Victoria

Elsternwick Lake Little Pied Cormorant

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I spotted a Crake, a Spotless Crake

Posted on April 8, 2015 | 2 comments

A fairly uncommon bird was seen at the local lake a few weeks ago and when I received the call from the local birder network, I quickly grabbed my gear and headed over to try my luck.

The Spotless Crake is a tiny wader that skulks in the reeds along muddy edges. I have not seen one locally and not many anywhere else. This little bird was quite adventurous and not timid at all. It occasionally bolted back into its little tunnels along the bank but soon came out again.

Spotless Crake

Spotless Crake – passing a tennis ball which gives an idea of its size.

Spotless Crake

Spotless Crake II

 Several other birds were nearby that did not seem to bother the Crake very much. The only bird that had a go and made the Crake jump a bit was an aggro Willie Wagtail and as soon as it moved on the Grebe popped back out again.

Little Pied Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant – in the dead tree above the Crake

Little Pied Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant – near the Crake.

Spotless Crake and Grebe

Spotless Crake and Grebe

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Kororoit Creek: A waterway claimed by many…

Posted on March 17, 2015 | 1 comment

I  explored a new area last week. The Kororiot Creek mouth opens out into Port Phillip Bay in Williamstown next to the Jawbone reserve.  To access the area you need to park at either the sports ground or next to one of the many fishing club shacks that line the Creek mouth on one side. As the nearby areas gentrify this part is fighting to stay the way it has always been – a working class fishing area/village. On the opposite side is a bank of salt marsh vegetation while on the village side it is Banksia trees and attempts at regeneration of creek side flora including White Mangroves. It is a remnant of the tidal wetland that ran right across this coastal area.

Further up the creek is the Mobile Oil Refinery Storage tanks. Considering the local birdlife including many migratory waders, it is surprising that such heavy can co-exist successfully with the wetland.

Great Egret,

Great Egret

Welcome Swallow

Welcome Swallow

Little Black Cormorants,

Little Black Cormorants – I watched these Cormorants hunt as a pack. There were 6 in the group working closely together.

Black Swan P81

Black Swan P81 – I reported the swan through the myswan link . See Jawbone link above for more details on tagged swan research. 

Pelican

Pelican

Pelican II

Pelican II

New Holland Honeyeater

New Holland Honeyeater

Little Pied Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant

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Multi-tasking with a Snake-Bird

Posted on March 6, 2015 | Leave a comment

I love it when I can do several things at once. I feel a sense of achievement when I accomplish the goal for the day and feel even better when I can do two things for the journey of one. Bunnings is a hardware super store (for those that are not familiar with Australian Hardware Super-stores). I often make a Bunnings run to procure equipment and supplies for my gardens, home projects and camping trips. Opposite my favourite store is Karkarook Park. I stopped in last week to look for photo opportunities before I visited Bunnings. The Park is a restored sand mine and now has a wetlands area made up of several well vegetated lagoons, a large lake used for canoeing and fishing and pockets of woodlands around the edge.  It has a very good range of water and woodlands birds and I often get up to 50 species on an extended visit. It is close enough to home to just pop in for half an hour and look for a species to photograph

Little Pied Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant

Common Bronzewing

Common Bronzewing

Male Common Bronzewing

Male Common Bronzewing

Superb Fairy Wren

Male Superb Fairy Wren – immature Fairy-Wren coming into his adult colours

Superb Fairy Wren

Superb Fairy Wren

Masked Lapwing

Masked Lapwing – previously known as a Spur Winged Plover. It can be a very aggressive bird often taking on Raptors (and people) if they get too close to feeding grounds or nests. They make their various alarm calls quite casually, spooking other nearby birds. The Lapwing can be difficult to get close to….

Australasian Darter

Australasian Darter – a young female, the males are generally all black. This one allowed me to approach slowly along the pier until I was quite close.

Australasian Darter

Australasian Darter – they are also called a snake bird due to their swimming habit (very low in the water and sliding backwards into the water to hunt) and their very long snake like neck. This one waved it around quite a bit keeping an eye on fish below, hunters above and me…

Australasian Darter

III

Australasian Darter

IV

Australasian Darter

V

Australasian Darter

Interesting eye and bill detail

Australasian Darter

When the Lapwing nearby gave one  of its alarm calls the Darter immediately looked up for danger. She did not fly off or panic but was very aware. It is interesting that birds know each others specific danger calls

Australasian Darter

Beautiful wing patterns

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Elster Creek’s surprise visitor: a Pallid Cuckoo

Posted on February 22, 2015 | 5 comments

Yesterday was hot and humid and after a lazy day I decided on a late afternoon walk along the creek at my back fence. I took my camera and 1.4 Extender to see what I could find up at the Elster Creek lake inside the Golf Course. At the lake, I ran into a young local birder/naturalist –  Gio F and we explored the creek up to a dense section looking for roosting Nankeen Night Herons but instead spotted a Pallid Cuckoo. It flushed a few times from high in the trees and we followed it around a few large Conifers trying to get a better angle for a picture. We ran into another local birder – David E (my birding mate from the Lake Tutchewop Twitch), who suggested that it was a young female Cuckoo probably starting the migration north and just passing through our area. They are quite rare in our part of the urban landscape.

Pallid Cuckoo, Elster Creek

Pallid Cuckoo, Elster Creek

Pallid Cuckoo, Elster Creek

Pallid Cuckoo II

Pallid Cuckoo, Elster Creek

Pallid Cuckoo III

 

Noisy Miners are native honeyeaters that have adapted extremely well to urban locations. They are a communal bird that are very aggressive and push out other species from areas. Some councils around Australia have started culling programs to reduce their numbers and it has worked – other species are making a come back.  The Miners, while being a pest are actually interesting to watch and study as they have 11 known warning calls for predators and a specific one for “raptors above”. We heard it used while standing at the lake and soon spotted a Brown Goshawk flying over.

The one below came over to have look at what we were up to – had it seen the Cuckoo, it would have put out a challenge call and brought the rest of the pack over. It seemed quite hot and was panting while it watched us.

Noisy Miner, Elster Creek

Noisy Miner, Elster Creek

Noisy Miner, Elster Creek

Noisy Miner II

Eastern Rosella

Eastern Rosella – this immature bird also came over to see what I was up to at the lake’s edge  – I was trying to entice a Little Grassbird out of the reeds by doing a bad impression.

Eastern Rosella

Eastern Rosella – I tried to mimic the Rosella’s calls ( a wide variety of piping chimes) and after a bit of a chat, the look he gave me suggested that I was a bit “special” and he took off…

Little Pied Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant in the evening light

Australian Reed Warbler

Australian Reed Warbler – I did entice this guy out with a call.

Australian Reed Warbler

Australian Reed Warbler II

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Ricketts Point – Pelican Bandits

Posted on February 20, 2015 | 1 comment

Along Beach Rd at Beaumaris is a rocky platform that becomes exposed at low tide and is a favourite roosting spot for Silver Gulls, Crested Terns, Cormorants, Swans and Pelicans. Many other birds also stop by at times but these seem to be the main ones that are often here.

I always check the platform as I drive past and yesterday I noticed that it was visible with quite a few birds around. The carpark is only several meters from the edge of the rocks and screened by low salt bush so it is easy to get your gear ready and walk slowly onto the platform without spooking the birds. They are generally used to people and just move a bit further away. The best time to go is weekdays as the weekend and good warm weather guarantees lots of people visiting the area.

Ricketts Point, Beaumaris

Ricketts Point, Beaumaris – at the end of my visit, two skin divers set up their hunting gear at the point tower and finally spooked the birds.

Little Pied Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant drying off

Little Pied Cormorant II

Little Pied Cormorant II – dry and fluffed up after preening

Pelican

Australian Pelican – the short and tall of it…a few of the pelicans seemed to favour the upright resting position – I have not seen this before.

Pelican

Pelican stretching or yawning

Pelican

Pelican – cooling down or drying off a bit

Tagged Crested Tern

Tagged Crested Tern – many of the Crested Terns on the rocks were tagged

Tagged Crested Tern

Tagged Adult Crested Tern

Pacific Gulls

Pacific Gulls – a grey/brown juvenile (1st year)  and a Gull with almost adult plumage. It can take several years to reach full adult plumage.

Fisherman in their boat off Ricketts Point

Fishermen in their boat off Ricketts Point

Pacific Gull

Pacific Gull

The Pelicans developed an intense interest off shore and all started to watch the 1st year Pacific Gull move towards the fishing boat. One of the fishermen threw some bait or a chunk of fish to the Gull which attempted to bring it back to the rocks to consume. Several of the pelicans took off with a just a few flaps and immediately hounded the Gull in the air until it dropped the prize and one of the pelicans dived down and retrieved it. I have not seen this type of behaviour before –  it is usually the other way round  – maybe they knew the Gull was young and took advantage.

Pelican

Pelicans with a sudden offshore interest.

Pelican

Pelican taking off with a just a few beats of its wings

Pelican

Pelican – off to harass the Gull.

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