Archives for July 2013

The heron took centre stage, like a ballerina on opening night. Grace, balance and beauty.  A delicate dance by a delicate  creature that appeared to float on air. The stage on this occasion was patch of immaculately mown lawn at a winery/restaurant near Richmond. And the backdrop, the scenery, was the sweeping vista of the Coal River estuary as it reaches the sea. Pirouetting and leaping into the air, the white-faced heron hunted worms just below the surface of the grass, … [Read more...] about Blue crane a star performer

Standing on a traffic island, it was not the safest or most convenient place to watch birds. I had no other option. At high tide in Ralphs Bay the roosting waders were crowded onto the only patch of seashell and sand they could find just a metre or so beneath the highway running through Lauderdale that borders the bay. A report of rare banded stilts in the bay had drawn me to Lauderdale but driving through the hamlet I had caught sight of a flock of smaller waders and … [Read more...] about Wader hide and seek on the highway

It’s curious, even comical, more like a cartoon character from Disneyland than a real-life bird. Worldwide there is no species of wildfowl quite like the pink-eared duck.  It’s a bird that looks like it’s been cobbled together as an afterthought, with pieces left over from the construction of myriad other species. It’s the duck-billed platypus of the bird world.  It resembles a shoveller but is smaller, and the bill is less like a shovel than an instrument used for poking … [Read more...] about Tickled pink by Disney duck