dusky moorhen

Waterbirds Fighting At Werribee Zoo

August 25, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Last Weekend, I stayed overnight at Werribee Zoo as part of their Slumber Safari program. I’ll be writing about those adventures shortly. It was a fascinating experience and we learned so much.

On the second day, we able to spend the rest of the day at the zoo when the morning activities were finished. Seth and I were hanging out at the river area near the front entrance, waiting for my parents to return. We were distracted by the sounds of birds screaming at each other.

The eurasian coots and dusky moorhens were getting into massive fights with each other. It wasn’t just between species, the two types of birds were also fighting among themselves. Sometimes two birds would gang up on one, and another bird would join the fray to defend it. It was interesting to see just how violent they got.

Young Dusky Moorhen At Balyang

February 9, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

It’s becoming obvious that I have a soft spot for young dusky moorhens. The adults don’t seem to have much personality but the chicks are just adorable.

I was at Balyang recently when I noticed this strange black bird. At first I thought it was a purple swamphen, but the beak didn’t seem thick enough. The tail certainly looked like one. I thought maybe it was a crake but it didn’t seem to have the markings.

A friend confirmed that it was young dusky moorhen. I’m not sure of the age. Especially as I haven’t seen any young ones here, the only ones I’ve seen have been around a week old. Hopefully I’ll see a lot more of them!

Dusky Moorhen Chicks Along The Barham River

February 2, 2016 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago, I was in Apollo Bay. My nephew and I have this routine for our visits. We walk along the back streets of Apollo Bay and do a loop, walking along the Barham River until we get back to the main area. We usually some interesting birdlife and this day was no exception.

There were two dusky moorhen families along the river near the caravan park. I’ve gotten photos of moorhen chicks in the past, but never as clear as this. I am so in love with these photos. I just wish I could have spent more time photographing them!

More Moorhens at Buckley Falls

November 22, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Last week, I shared some images of dusky moorhen chicks I took at Buckley Falls. I wasn’t proud of the photos I took so went down there again 8 days later. My goal was to take photos of the chicks with the sigma 150-500 lens and hopefully get better detail.

The best laid places of mice and moorhens. I wasn’t able to find the family that I saw previously. I was able to get much better photos of a different family though. I’d say these chicks were around the same age as the other family.

Some of the photos are still a bit blurry. Still, I’m impressed with the detail on the wings and head. The parents were doing a really good job. Hopefully the kookaburra I’ve recently seen there doesn’t get to them!

Dusky Moorhen Chicks at Buckley Falls!

November 14, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Yesterday, I posted about the awesome night herons (and their lunch!) that I saw at Buckley Falls. As it was a Seth day, the schedule was based around what he wanted to do. Which, being a 7 year old, was to climb over rocks.

There was skinks near those rocks. And other families. And, as I noticed on the way back, some dusky moorhen chicks.

These guys were teeny weeny. They were well hidden so many of the photos turned out to be blurry. I’d been experimenting with black and white photography (to teach Glenn), so accidentally forgot to change settings.

It looked like a couple of families were hanging out together. The chicks would hang out in an enclosed area surrounded by rocks and move out whenever they felt safe. Too much noise/movement? They would go back to hide. They didn’t even need encouragement, which I thought was rather interesting.

Was lovely to see unexpectedly find them 🙂 I had been looking for chicks on any description (birds, I mean :P) at Balyang but had only seen the occasional group of ducklings. I’m assuming they are hiding elsewhere. I now need an Eurasion coot family to complete my mental collection.