ANZAC Day Part 3

Following Cape Nelson and Cape Bridgewater seabird watching and an afternoon in the drizzly rain at Mt Richmond NP, I drove to Nelson and Picaninny Ponds (just over the SA border). There was not a lot of bird activity at the ponds or on the Glenelg River so I drove back through Lower Glenelg NP. By late afternoon it was getting dark with the low cloud cover so I didn't spend too much time searching for birds in the forest but the macropod watching was great with kangaroos and wallabies feeding on the edge of the tracks every few hundred metres. The persistent drizzle was occasionally broken with glimpses of sunlight but the animals always seemed to be on the side of the road with the sun behind them but they did allow close approach from inside the car (this one is shot with a 200mm lens).

Red-necked Wallaby, Lower Glenelg National Park, Victoria

I enjoyed the slow drive through the park eventually reaching the Princes Hwy just west of Heywood. From Heywood, I took the Woolsthorpe Road 'short cut' and just on sunset spotted a paddock near Tyrendarra (see map) with a small flock of Cattle Egrets. The clouds had broken up and the sun was peeking through giving a beautiful orange glow to the landscape so I stopped to see if I could capture some of the egrets among the cattle on the other side of the paddock.

Cattle Egret, Tyrendarra, Victoria

Cattle Egret, Tyrendarra, Victoria

Five of them took off but maintained a tight formation allowing me to capture them in one shot and the slow shutter speed (1/125th second) gives them a slight blurring that to my eye is quite attractive.

Cattle Egret, Tyrendarra, Victoria

When I turned around to cross the road back to the car, I spotted a large flock of Common Starlings flowing across the farmland.

Common Starling, Tyrendarra, Victoria

The swarm crossed paths with another one approaching from the other direction

Common Starling, Tyrendarra, Victoria

and they merged into one larger flock, flowing across the pasture

Common Starling, Tyrendarra, Victoria

then turned towards me, filling the sky in front of the lens

Common Starling, Tyrendarra, Victoria

I love these large flocks. They seem to take on an life of their own, flowing and gyrating like a single meta-organism. It is fascinating to think about what is going on with each individual bird...what cues are they taking from the birds around them to enable this to happen and who decides where they are going?

Breamlea

Another dull and windy day but thought I would go in search of the Pacific Golden Plovers at Black Rocks. I had seen them there 6 weeks ago when a few were starting to get breeding plumage but reports from earlier this week suggested they were still there and some were in full plumage. The wind was howling off Bass Strait such that even the gulls were taking shelter

Silver Gull, Black Rocks

There was a small flock of Red-necked Stint and Double-banded Plover further down 13th Beach but no PGPs so I opted to practice some more hand-held flight shots

Great Cormorant, Black Rocks

There was not much else on the beach at Black Rocks so I headed into Breamlea where a flock of Common Starlings was flying around the saltmarsh on the Nature Conservation Reserve. This is one of the hardest shots to get with a moving flock of small birds at long distance and a detailed background - not the most exotic of birds but happy with this shot.

Common Starling, Breamlea Nature Conservation Reserve

Past Breamlea onto Pt Impossible Road, there were 5 White-faced Herons feeding along the edge of the creek. A bonus of shooting in dull light is the low contrast allows the subtle colours of the saltmarsh to show. The colour gets washed out in bright sunshine.

White-faced Heron, Thompson Creek, Pt Impossible Road

Not much in the way of birds at Pt Impossible but a Nankeen Kestrel did cooperate for a couple of flight shots and even a bit of blue sky :-)

Nankeen Kestrel, Pt Impossible