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royal spoonbill

Jerringot in Autumn

May 2, 2014 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Today, I was meant to go out for an hour with family. I called 2 hours beforehand to doublecheck the time and… it was cancelled. Everyone had forgotten to tell me. I was angry but then I realized. This frees up an afternoon! Jerringot, here I come!

I haven’t done much birding lately because I find wetlands to be boring when the water dries up and the waders leave. I was primarily going there to see crakes and rails, and had mostly dipped.

Lately, I’ve been realizing the importance of really getting to know a place. To learn how it changes with the seasons and monitor the ebb and flow of various species. Sometimes it will be generic but it will contribute to the birding community. It may be able to help someone, like the many birding bloggers and tweeters have helped me.

As predicted, it was a pretty generic visit

!IMG_0829

I got to the hide and there was nothing nearby. It was awesome to see that the water levels had risen considerably since last time. There were workers along the road cutting down trees, so I didn’t spend much time in the hide. I saw a fair about of spoonbills at the back so wandered over to the chair to have a look.

!IMG_0926

It was truly amazing to see so many spoonbills. There weren’t any at Balyang. I stayed here for a while, not daring to get closer in case I scared anything. This means that I didn’t get a clear view of the spot the pink eared duck favours.

(Random: a scaly breasted lorikeet has been sighted at Balyang. Now have to double check all photos!)

I was mostly testing out the sigma lens to see how it works at a distance and in different situations. It didn’t handle this shoot too well, I suspect that’s because I was shooting into the sun and hadn’t adjusted any settings. The kit lens can handle that sort of situation but this can’t.

!IMG_0933

I walked back, glad that the workers were gone. I saw this awesome web on the way back.

!IMG_0934

Glenn and I have been practicing photographing spiders webs recently and have gotten some beautiful shots. This one sucks, but it’s always something that fascinates me.

I went to the hide and saw a person there that I had been talking to on the Bird ID’ing facebook page. I’d seen his posts a few times and he told me about two swans that were there.

I didn’t get any photos but YAY! I wonder if these are the two swans that had babies here last year. Wouldn’t that be awesome? If so, what attracts them to this specific place? They tend to love this little area close to the road, at least last years pair did. He also told me that the pink eared duck was there, which I always love hearing about.

It’s always nice meeting other birders and chatting to them. It doesn’t happen much, but I love learning more about birds and seeing the different types of people. Nice seeing someone closer to my age!

Now to go through other birding photos x

Filed Under: Barwon River, Geelong Tagged With: Jerringot, purple swamphen, royal spoonbill, white faced heron

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