Yesterday, my five year old nephew visited. He was asleep for an hour when he got here yet the first words out of his mouth after he woke up were ‘Can we go to Balyang?’
I agreed – if my dad could pick us up afterwards and take us for a quick look at Jerringot, as I know the little dude would love the bird hide.
Saw these birds fly above us as we crossed the bridge. I had seen them fly above our house earlier but couldn’t ID them. Dumb question: is this the time of year to go looking for waterbirds?
A number of birds had started sitting on nests. This was the first time I learned that swamphens had white bottoms! Very interested to see what their babies look like.
I was going over my photos afterwards and was really excited to see a bird I hadn’t seen before! Pretty certain that this is a pink eared duck. And, after a quick google, I think that I mistook his bill for his foot! Apparently, they have a “a large spatulate bill” while I’ve never seen before. I think that’s kinda awesome 🙂
I also checked out this nest, which normally houses a curious sulpher crested cockatoo. Instead, it had two lorikeets! They were poking their heads out and nibbling at each others necks. I wonder what happened to the cockatoo? They were beautiful though, which the mister loved.
Seth is just 5 but he knows all about algae. I took this photo so I could explain more to him later, should he ask.
My parents picked us up just after I took this photo. We played shopkeeper – I gave him his Ribena that we’d packed – and passed a wedding that had two kombie vans. It was a beautiful night.
Seth was enamoured with the bird hide. “You can look out here or stand and look out here and the birds can’t see you!” Dad liked the posters behind us, it helped us figure out a species of bird we saw later. The frogs weren’t as loud but they were certainly louder then Balyang.
The swamp hens were walking between the wetlands, which was awesome. Seth didn’t understand that the birds here weren’t as used to people as the ones we’d seen at balyang and was a bit too loud.
He tried to creep up to see this guy but, well,
It did give us a chance to talk about why the legs and necks are long. It was close to dusk so I wanted to look for snipes, but Seth was getting restless. We went back for a final look at the hide and then went home.
It was awesome for teaching Seth more about patience and birdwatching. His animal knowledge is getting quite advanced. He wants a copy of my field guide which he’s not getting – that’s mine! I’ve already bought us a few guides (insects, fungi, scats) to share. I love sharing my animal love with others. Hopefully I’ll get to sneak in some birdwatching at the Gold Coast later this week.
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