My Nature Blog
My photos weren’t good enough to be able to ID the fish, but the experts at iNaturalist narrowed it down to a Weed Whiting. The gull did have trouble swallowing it. The nearby gulls were trying to take advantage of this and steal it whenever he regurgitated it.
I shouldn’t have let myself get too distracted, considering how much was going on in the rockpools. I also tried to get photos of birds pooping on this trip but alas, no luck.
Yesterday, I shared some images from Limeburners Point. It is a popular place for fishing and has a boat ramp. Naturally, this attracts the birds.
Those fishing will discard parts of fish, or fish that they can’t throw back, nearby. Patient birds can often scavenge a good meal here. Glenn and I had previously photographed an adult pacific gull eating a fish head here.
I’ve seen a young pacific gull floating around the Eastern Beach area lately. I’m now pretty sure that it hangs out here.
This series of photos shows the young pacific gull eating the fish remains. I’m proud of the shots I got, considering all the obstacles in the way and the fact that I gave the bird a lot of space. The others show the silver gull with the fish. In both cases I have no idea what the fish is!
There are also two photographs of both species of bird doing a #2. You can check out my growing collection of photos here. I’d spent way too many hours at Balyang lately trying to get a silver gull pooping. I hadn’t even put pacific gull on the list, thinking it would be too difficult. It was brilliant luck and I’m keen to learn more about this area. It doesn’t change much but it sure is interesting.
I have been visiting Balyang a lot lately, photographing the changes and trying to get that elusive shot of a bird pooing. A number of species are quite common here, especially the silver gull.
I missed out on that elusive shot a number of times – from others species too – but I did notice this interesting silver gull.
It seems to be missing part of the top half of its bill. It seems to be able to drink okay, and it doesn’t look like it is starving. I think this is because so many people feed the birds there and it is able to scavange enough food.
It reminds me of the gull with no feet. They really are clever birds!
In my attempts to get a great ‘poo’ photo, I managed to get this awesome shot of a silvergull yawning. I also got a photo of a rainbow lorikeet that had an odd bill.
I almost didn’t blog about this trip. I spent an hour at Eastern Beach before going to the movies, just sussing out the animal situation. It was so dull I didn’t think it was worth writing about.
That in itself it worth writing about. The photos are fairly self explanatory: the feral doves are flirting with each other, the tern was having fun and I’ve got another jellyfish picture. Will do some investigating to figure out what it is.
What I have noticed, especially now the beach is getting more busy, is a distinct lack of hoary headed grebes. A lot of my favourites are hanging out elsewhere now that the crowds are swarming to the beach on a hot day.
I want to know: where have they gone?
I’m assuming either Port Henry or closer to Rippleside. Or, perhaps further afield. I’ve never noticed this trend before and it’s something I want to investigate. Partially because I love photographing them as they dive for fish – and there were so many little fish there yesterday! Partially because I assume this is something that happens at many beaches, or perhaps they just naturally move on from places. Regardless, I’ll be investigating!
I also found this silver gull which didn’t have any feet. I often see ones missing a foot, presumably due to fishing wire. I had never seen one missing both feet. It didn’t seem to affect him, it seemed really well fed.
I know, I know. My post titles are just getting even more awesome.
We’d had the new lens for about 6 days as of Yesterday. I tested it out the day I got it, despite being pretty crook. Glenn has had an exhausting work week so didn’t have a chance to check it out until yesterday. Naturally, this made me pretty antsy. I hate it when the camera is going unused, even when I’m unable to go anywhere.
We did the usual, with me saying random observations in between coughing fits. Like me, he started with the welcome swallows.
I quite like this one, as the feathers on its chest was kind of puffed out. I would like to go back and spend a while photographing the swallows, or finding other places to capture them. I tend to overlook them in favour of other species. Glenn doesn’t.
He too was able to get a photo of the bird calling, and his photo was heaps better then mine. I’m looking forward to seeing what Glenn can do with this bad boy.
I managed to get this photo while Glenn was in the gentlemans room. Alas, irony didn’t decide to have a dolphin show up at that very moment. That would have been hilarious.
We were fortunate enough to see this tern flying near the promenade. The tracking was pretty hit and miss, although that could partially be because we had it on the wrong camera setting – and the bird moved faster then the gannet! Regardless, I was stoked. I haven’t seen a tern there in ages.
A lot of the photos turned ‘terned’ out blurry but still, quite fond of the ones Glenn got.
Glenn being the artistic nerd that he is. I really wanted to check out the nest to see if the chicks had hatched and, if they had, wanted to get photos from a respectful distance. They hadn’t – which is fortunate as I’m going away for a few days on a holiday. Will have to check them twice a week when I get back 🙂
Obviously, the gannet was one of the main reasons I wanted Glenn to test out the lens. The other lens just wouldn’t focus and both of us would get really frustrated at all the shots we missed.
We managed to get lots of interesting and clear shots of this gannet diving. At one point it caught a fish – I could visibly see it! But Glenn wasn’t focusing on the bird, he was looking to check the photo quality.
I totally understand why as I’d told him that most birds swallowed the fish before surfacing. I haven’t seen them eating a fish in weeks, especially at that closeness. It was diving a fair bit close to where we were.
The photos don’t really need much commentary – I’ve seen this behaviour so many times before. I love seabird photography though. I’d love to go on a pelagic with Glenn.
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Going to Apollo Bay for a few days. You jealous? I can tell, you totally are 🙂 ROCKPOOLS HERE I COME!