eurasian coot

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.

Eurasian Coot building a nest at Jerringot

November 29, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Recently, I saw a Eurasian coot chick when at Jerringot. I was pretty stoked. I was even more stoked to see an eurasian coot dragging a reed across the water.

At one point, a second coot joined in and tried to drag it. It went away and the solo bird dragged it up to the nest and arranged it just so.

I didn’t see it do it again. Nor did I see any other coots engage is nesting behaviour. Still, it was pretty awesome to see.

Juvenile Eurasian coot at Jerringot

November 26, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

You’ve probably worked out by now that I love getting photos of chicks, especially of waterbirds. So far I’ve managed to get buff banded rail, dusky moorhen and purple swamphen. I’m pretty stoked at being able to get the last two, but I really wanted to get an eurasian coot. I’ve seen photos and they are so adorable when they are tiny.

I was at Jerringot, surveying the area from the bird hide. I’d visited there two weeks earlier with Sethy, but I hadn’t been able to get a proper look. He wanted to look for rabbits 🙂 I sat for an hour in the hide, looking for any signs of movement, when I saw this.

I don’t know how old the chick is. I also don’t know why there is only just one. Perhaps this area has more predators then others? I think the markings across the chest are fascinating, as is the black line down the beak.

These photos were taken from the hide at Jerringot using the telephoto lens. I’m stoked at how clear they turned out, usually the lens gets a bit soft at 500mm.

Balyang: Early November

November 18, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on November 9.

There is a problem with repeated visits to the one location. You see all these interesting things that warrant documenting. Yet, that don’t fit into a normal narrative. Normally this is fine. Lately, however, it means a whole bunch of posts titled ‘Location: other.’

I have no idea if there is an easier way to process these notes. Feel free to email me with ideas. For now, as I have a small readership, this will do.

I saw this raven while walking along a street towards Balyang. I’m assuming the purple bit is a gape and that it indicates it is a juvenile.

There was a raven seemingly collecting nesting material. It did drop it, without provocation from the cantankerous willy wagtail.

A beautiful long billed corella was hanging around. It was coorporative for my project of taking photos of birds drinking. As was this red rumped parrot.

I was photographing the white faced heron when I saw what I’m assuming is the parent flew towards it. I have no idea why they still hang out and what the dynamics are of their relationship.

I hate mynas – but I still enjoy getting photos of them with food in their mouth.

There was a lot of activity in the tree above me at one point. I’m assuming some of these are juveniles.

The above is a sulpher crested cockatoo without the crest. At first I wondered whether it was a hybrid, as I don’t believe I’ve seen one without a crest before. It made no sense. Could it be a young?

I asked online and they said it could have lost its crest for a number of reasons. I don’t think it is a juvenile. I’ll tell you why in a future post. Babies, babies galore at the moment!

There appears to be ducklings galore too, but they never hang around for long. I think they realize pretty quickly that it isn’t safe.

I also saw these two feral ducks mating. Couldn’t understand why the duck was sitting so funny in the water until I saw the other ducks head bob up. Apparently this makes me a perv. I reckon it just makes me weird. Science is science. And I can never compete with the other birders so I need unusual areas where no-one will bother to compete.

A juvenile masked lapwing. I was disappointed to miss out again on seeing a younger one, however that disappointment didn’t last long. I love the markings on its feathers and the shorter wattle.

Another corella. Perhaps the same one?

This eurasion coot photo almost isn’t worth sharing. Really, I was trying to get a poop shot. I *just* missed. I still love it poking its little tongue out.

I kinda can’t wait until the mating/breeding season is over and I can start revisiting other places again. It’s going to be weird NOT posting daily.

Visiting Lake Lorne and Mcleods Waterhole

July 15, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This trip took place on July 9.

On Thursday I woke up, keen for an adventure. I had impulsively decided to go to Serendip, after someone had commented that there was a baby moorhen there. I waited for the right bus…. and waited…. and waited.

The bus timetables had changed in Geelong and I wasn’t able to catch the right bus in order to get the train to Lara. I flipped out. My anxiety was extreme that day and I hadn’t created a back up plan. I caught a bus into town, debating whether to go to Lake Lorne or walk along the beach. I walked up and down the bus bays at the Geelong Station, trying to see which place would be the best to visit.

By the time I got there, I had calmed down. I’d seen a couple of black shouldered kites along the road, especially near Moolap Saltworks.

I got there around 2pm.

Initially, I was a bit disappointed. There didn’t seem to be much wildlife there. Ducks were scattered and hard to see, even with my 500 lens.

I did see this lovely fungi when walking there.

I also saw this cute pardalote. I think there have been a lot more pardalotes around then I would have assumed. I saw one at Balyang recently. They are so small and hidden that it is easy to assume it’s a thornbill.

Mcleods Waterhole

My main reason for going was photography. I wanted to observe some bird behaviour to help me calm down. There were interesting ducks at Lake Lorne, as someone pointed out later. I prefer Mcleods Waterhole. Larger numbers, easier to see them. They are fairly skittish though.

There were about 70 pink eared ducks there, which was fantastic. They are one of my favourite species of duck. I never get really close enough to get good photos or observe behaviour. The ones at Balyang, and Jerringot, were by themselves and I never got to observe group behaviour. I did get to see a couple of them flap their wings from a distance. The above photo is cropped. It’s awesome because I got to see under the wings

The underside of the birds chin. I don’t know if this is normal but I thought it was awesome.

The pink eared ducks were extremely skittish – I’d sit down somewhere and they’d instantly fly away. They would swim back shortly after. The freckled ducks would just stay hidden in their little area and not care.

I did see some interesting behaviour when they called. There would be one main duck in the group that would raise its head up and do an interesting hoot, causing the others to follow it. I had never seen this before. I’d love to learn more about it. In one group, the other birds were smaller. I wish I could have recorded it.

Saw a black kite flying overhead, which was a bit disappointing. I had really hoped to see other birds of prey.

I was able to see a couple of pairs vortex feeding, which was a first. I’d seen youtube clips but had never seen it in person. The birds were a fair bit away so I couldn’t get close up photos and only saw it about five times. The feeding only appeared to last 6-10 seconds. Sometimes another duck would interrupt them. I wish I could find more information on this – I almost want to go back and see them again.

I did get some awesome photos of this eurasion coot feeding.

More views of their underwings. Love it.

Was lucky enough to get a photo of the bird with its mouth open.

Crested Pigeon – taken using creative auto. I think I need to experiment with this setting for birds that are up close!

More fungi

A bit of a rushed post; at my families and the nephew is making it hard to type. Have recorded most of the major observations. Didn’t get to even start the post about Balyang though 🙂

Hoping to do more adventuring now that the weather has improved.