Today, Glenn and I went to Werribee Zoo. I’d gone there last year for my birthday and thought Glenn would get a buzz out of it. Yes, I did have the ulterior motive of birding. The primary goal though was to let Glenn have fun with the telephoto lens.
It was a bit hit and miss. A couple of animals weren’t on display. There were primary school students there – screaming and crying – so we didn’t stay in some sections as long was we liked. Most of the animals were just sleeping, which doesn’t make for interesting photographs. I felt like I’d made a mistake recommending that we go here.
Fortunately, the safari experience made up for it. So many birds of prey!
Birds of prey
Black kite. Mama knows how to ID those.
The above two are whistling kites. I had to consult my guide as I’m unable to ID these just by looking yet. I like how I got a shot of the top of the wings too. I have noticed that the western suburbs have a lot of kites. It is probably a bias, as I haven’t explored it in depth. I’m basing it on 3 visits to Serendip, todays trip and last week when I saw two black shouldered kites.
I got a glimpse of this fella, or lady, while we were on the tour bus. I only got a glimpse of it and instinctively snapped two shots just in case. The bus was very bumpy and the lady was going quicker at that point. I tentatively ID’ed it as a nankeen kestral, with a slight possibility of being a light coloured brown falcon. This was because my gut said kestral when I first saw it and falcons… have no idea about those yet.
As usual, I posted it on a bird identification FB group. I’m so amazed at how people can tell what a bird is with such little data. It apparently holds itself more like a falcon, and Nankeen kestrals aren’t that common in the area. The ‘chest was too large and the body proportion wrong.’
I love how people know so much. I fucking love this hobby. I don’t know how people are able to hold all this information in their heads. I probably wont add this to my list yet but still. Learned a lot. Especially at a time when my priority was making sure Glenn got the awesome photos.
Waterbirds
I had checked out a map online, and asked on Facebook, and knew to concentrate on the areas that had a lot of water. The photos we got were of birds that may be considered generic but I don’t care. I love baby and juvenile birds.
Dusky moorhen plus chicks. It looked like one of the birds were still on chicks. The photos aren’t the best as I took them using the Nikon. I wish I could have gotten some close ups of the chicks. They looked very young, and it looked like several birds were working together to feed them.
Young swamphen. I was confused as to what it was, thinking it might have been a crake. Then I saw the adult. This was in a wetland area of the Aussie animal section. There was a bunch of annoying teens screaming and swearing as they walked through the section that made birding difficult.
The buff banded rail. Got several long looks at this little guy and had a lot of opportunities to get good photos. Glenn got these, because he knew that I really wanted them. I could have spent most of the day photographing it.
Others
New Holland Honeyeater. We photographed this guy after walking around for half an hour. Glenn made a comment about how it was just like what we do at home – photographing common birds. The birds here were more used to humans and allowed for really great shots. This is blurrier then I would have liked but I was letting Glenn use the Canon.
Blackbird. Loved the contrast with the beak
Ducklings. Because they’re ducklings.
There was a section of the wetlands where there was a grey fantail and a silvereye having a bath in a stream of water. None of the photos really turned out but I loved watching it. I also saw a red browed finch in the area. Common… but I want to see how many of the alleged 160 species in the area I can find.
It was recommended that I look out for black chinned honeyeaters and purple crowned lorikeets. I had no luck but didn’t get a chance to properly explore. I did see two species of ibis and pelicans flying over.
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I would like to return again so I can birdwatch properly. African animals in an artificial settings don’t really intrigue me. I did want to see the serval cats but that presentation was cancelled.
Also wanted to go to Truganina afterwards but someone had chewed up the memory cards. Fair enough, I’ll be doing so much birding over the next week to make up for it!