Anstead
31.12.15
Last day of the year and we arrived
on site at 6.00. It was relatively quiet, especially lacking in Honeyeaters and
smaller birds. A couple of fly-over Bazas
and Channel-billed Cuckoos, a
flock of Apostlebirds, two groups of
birds hunting cicadas - in one Pied
Currawongs, Oriental Dollarbirds and Black-faced
Cuckoo Shrikes, the other primarily Noisy
and Little Friarbirds.
Several butterflies were noted
including a new photographed one for me – Dainty
Swallowtail (lousy picture, but it wouldn’t come any lower) – and a flyby Blue Tiger called by Mr D that just kept going and going....
 | ||
| Dainty Swallowtail
We also had this, as yet unidentified cicada that was panicked from the canopy by a Friarbird - possibly a Brown Bunyip?
|
We ambled slowly along but had little
else of note before heading home and breakfast at Café Tara in Kenmore from where
we watched White-throated Needletails
feeding over the valley.
Toohey @ night
(still) 30.12.15
We had two objectives – find an Owlet
Nightjar and gain some success sugaring for moths.
We started off trying for
White-throated Nightjar at the cemetery fence just after dusk – no success.
Then it was heading up the path and (me) sugaring as we went.
Further up the track with a calling
and a second visible Tawny Frogmouths
under our belt we struck complete success with the first objective – Owlet Nightjar at arms length, well
almost. Outstanding!
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| Owlet Nightjar |
We moved on and walked the track to
the top of the hill seeing Ring-tailed
and Brush-tailed Possums a-plenty, Garden & Golden Orb Weaver Spiders, but not much else, apart from this Jumping Spider (I think), which I have,
so far been unable to identify.
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| Jumping Spider |
Then it was back down the bitumen to
the sugared trees – where we had a little success too - Granny’s Cloak Moth (Speiredonia spec tans)
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| Granny's Cloak Moth |
Not a bad evening’s work, but,
surprisingly maybe, fewer spiders than I expected and no geckos or owls. It was
very dry and maybe some rain would encourage more activity.
Minnippi
30.12.15
Mr D’s turn to drive and we were on
site at 6.15. Bird-wise it was a quiet morning as is normal for this time of
year, but we did see plenty of butterflies and I got photos of a couple of new
dragonflies.
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| Yellow-striped Flutterer |
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| (Female) Australian Duskhawker |
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| (Female) Speckled Line-blue |
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| (Female) Speckled Line-blue |
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| (Male) Speckled Line-blue |
The bird of the morning was another Peregrine Falcon fly over – two in less than 24 hours! The Tawny Frogmouth was, surprisingly, back
on the nest in the carpark again, for the third time this season? Have the
previous broods been unsuccessful? Or so successful they are using the same
nest again?
Breakfast was a problem - several
cafes we tried were closed and we ended up at a small place at Annerley Junior
football club for coffee and toasties and a review of Mr D’s Cuban Experience.
Trotter
(Still) 29.12.15
I contacted Mr D to see what he was
up to and he suggested Trotter for an afternoon stroll. I picked him up at
16.00 and we were on site 15 minutes later. Normally trotter is dead with a
capital D and to start with, once again, lived up to that reputation.
However, a dragonfly started us of
after about 20 minutes – later identified as a probable female Wandering Percher.
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| Female Wandering Percher |
We scanned the lake
but little was in evidence – just a few Cormorants
and Black and Wood Duck. A White-bellied Sea Eagle flew overhead
before we returned to the forest trail and continued on. Four Striped
Honeyeaters moved ahead of us hunting cicadas and then, suddenly a huge
‘thing’ flew slowly over our heads – we both lost it when we went for our bins,
but, after a fruitless search, it re-appeared and this time crash-landed. It
was a massive cicada – a Double Drummer,
the biggest of the Australian cicadas and, reputedly, the nosiest insect in the
world. It sat placidly in my palm for photographs then I returned it to the
wild.
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| Double Drummer |
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| Double Drummer |
Immediately afterwards Mr D pointed out a small praying mantis which turned out to be a Stick Mantis.......cause it resembles a stick......what else? Not quite as exciting as the loudest insect in the world, but never the less I'm sure it's partner thinks it's important.......if it's still alive......
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| Stick Mantis |
At the corner of the track just below
the power lines a Peregrine Falcon
took off from low down and perched up, calmly, on the pylon. It appeared to be
a female and was obviously waiting for us to go so it could return to whatever
it had been at.
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| Peregrine Falcon |
We walked down to the shore line
again and spotted Black-fronted
Dotterels and Red-necked Stints (3)
on the distant muddy edge. As we approached to get a clearer view a pair of Red-capped Plovers scampered ahead,
doing the broken wing thing. I found their nest – the second I have seen in
this area.
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| Red-capped Plover's nest |
Wandering along the shore line
further adult White-winged Stilts
kicked up a fuss over a couple of chicks trying to hide, but little else showed
up before we again, entered the trees and headed back to the car.
For Trotter it wasn’t a bad afternoon’s
walk!
Nathan rd Wetlands revisited & Sandgate Lagoon
29.12.15
Following the rain over the Christmas weekend the muddy hole at Wattle Rd was now all filled up - no exposed mud left. Hence the wader numbers had dropped considerably to only 4 Sharp-tailed Sands and a few White-headed Stilts. I did have a group of 4 Mangrove Honeyeaters but apart from that nothing worth recording.
I thought I'd check out Natan rd itself and found it to be partly water filled again - but no waders evident on the exposed mud, apart from a few Black-fronted Dotterels and 4 Marsh Sands feeding in the shallow water. I didn't hand around long - there wasn't much point - and headed south towards home.
I stopped off at Dowse Lagoon in Sandgate as it was on the way. 4 Whiskered Terns (3x adults, 1x immature) and 2 Wandering Whistle Ducks were the only items of real interest - although I did note Blue Skimmers and Graphic Flutterers as two of the dragonfly species on site.
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| Graphic Flutterer |
Nathan Rd Wetlands
24.12.15
Well, really, it should be called Wattle Road Wetlands - as the only remaining surface water is now at the end of Wattle Rd......anyway I took the opportunity to go and look for the long-staying vagrants. Thanks to Mr T (aka Ged) I had good directions and after sitting out the spitting rain in the car for 10 minutes I headed in along the side of the school playing fields.
Three birders were already on site - Arthur Keats and two birders from Switzerland. Arthur quickly pointed out the Ruff - partly hidden by a low grassy island - and I found the Wood Sandpiper directly opposite us. The third species eluded us for a while but eventually the male Swiss birder picked up the Pectoral Sandpiper in his bins despite our scope scanning. This was a lifer for the Swiss and we spent some time enjoying what could only be described as crippling views.
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| Pectoral Sandpiperhttps://youtu.be/KOZp4txefXc |
They left and I moved in on the Wood Sand and the Ruff for better views, both of which I saw to my great satisfaction.
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| Ruffhttps://youtu.be/pMGHiJe4vp8 |
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| Wood Sandpiperhttps://youtu.be/mQR6UDiq1Wk
Three rarities, all seen well, in one spot - Happy Christmas!
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Moggil
23.12.15
Headed out to Moggil, specifically Mill Rd, mainly to look for butterflies. This spot has always been a hotspot for butterflies and I thought I'd check it out.
As I got out of the car at 5.45 I heard the wailing calls of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo and briefly spotted two or three birds flying off through the trees, unfortunately they didn't reappear. There was plenty to hear - Wonga Pigeons, Brown Cuckoo Doves, Lewin's Honeyeater, a Pheasant Coucal, Eastern Whipbird, Pied Currawongs, all easily identifiable even with my poor hearing.
Walking down the track it seemed I might have got there too early - there wasn't a butterfly in sight, in fact there was nothing in sight - the sun hadn't penetrated the valley yet. A family party of White-throated Treecreepers were the only visible birds in the first several hundred meters, a trio of Eastern Yellow Robins popped up on the one tree trunk further on and a tatty looking fly over Baza and the ubiquitous Channel-billed Cuckoos, but apart from that there was little else, bird-wise. However, a pair of Caper Whites danced around a bush for ages before I got a chance with the camera and an Orange-streaked Ringlet posed nicely in a patch of sun.
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| Caper White |
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| Orange-streaked Ringlet |
Walking back I stopped for a while at a pool of water remaining in the otherwise dry creek bed and took photos of the dragonflies and butterflies taking advantage. If you think taking pictures of birds is difficult try dragonflies! They are very........challenging!
I did identify a couple of new dragonfly species though - Graphic Flutterer and Rosy Skimmer among the more usual Blue Skimmers and Scarlet Perchers - and I identified my first female Blue Skimmer as well and a (butterfly) Yellow Migrant.
Interestingly the female Blue Skimmer appeared to be depositing eggs in the shallow pool - it hovered then dropped its rear end into the water, causing a splash each time. I assume it was depositing eggs, I can't see what else it could have been doing.
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| Female Blue Skimmer depositing eggs? |
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| Graphic Flutterer |
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| Rosy Skimmer |
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| Female Blue Skimmer |
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| Yellow Migrant |
Nearing the entrance of the walk a large butterfly attracted my attention - it, too, took some time to photograph but i was eventually successful, although the rather dowdy Clearwing Swallowtail (aka Big Greasy, but I prefer the Swallowtail option) was really only worth looking at from underneath.
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| Clearwing Swallowtail |
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| Clearwing Swallowtail |
Oxley
22.12.15
Fell asleep on the couch after
breakfast so didn’t get on site until 7.15. Typically warm December morning,
partial cloud cover, with bright spells and a warm wind.
The whole Common was pretty quiet
bird-wise, with nothing exciting to report. I tried for ages to get photos of
Dragonflies around the main pond. Did add a new species (I think) Wandering Percher, a bright red medium
sized Dragonfly and got some more shots of Blue
Skimmer.
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| Wandering Percher |
While I was doing that a butterfly
landed nearby and I think it’s a Swamp
Darter. There were heaps of Monarchs,
some looking quite worn and a few Chequered
Swallowtails and Common Eggflys.
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| Swamp Darter |
I did take a couple of photos of
other flying insects that I have no idea of…If anyone has any suggestions?
A small Eastern Water Dragon crossed my path near the second culvert and
appears to be a female – the first time I have recognised a gender difference.
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| Female Eastern Water Dragon |
Finished up just after 9.00 and
retreated home.
Oakey/Jondaryan
19.12.15
Random Fungi
19.12.15
The Great Painted Honeyeater Hunt………..well, maybe not - considering we knew
where to stop and saw a bird before we even got out of the car!
Mr J, Mr P and I were on site at 7.00
after a two hour drive. We wandered the area for two hours seeing approx 6
birds and hearing a total of about 10. There was no shortage of them in the scrubby
woodland on both sides of the main road and we got crippling views. It was
difficult to get them down to a lower level for decent photos though.
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| Painted Honeyeater |
During our ‘hunt’ I held things up
photographing several butterfly species – Spotted
Grass-blue, Small Grass-yellow, Lesser Wanderer and Meadow Argus among therm.
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| Small Grass-blue |
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| Small Grass-yellow |
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| Lesser Wanderer |
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| Lesser Wanderer |
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| Meadow Argus |
We also had close views of a Cockatiel and, later, down a side road,
a classic Brown Songlark perched up
on a pole.
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| Cockatiel |
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| Brown Songlark |
On the return trip we stopped off at Lake Galletly
at the Uni grounds in the Lockyer Valley – the birds were a bit
disappointing, but (what I think were) Macquarie
Turtles basked in large numbers.
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| Macquarie Turtle |
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| Old Man of the Forest - Anstead |
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| Scarlet Bracket Fungus - Sandy Camp |
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| Laughing Jim - Sandy Camp |
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| Pale-gilled Barefoot - Fuller |
Sandy Camp
As Mr P and Mr D were both
unavailable I went to Sandy Camp alone on a dull, overcast morning with rain
spitting from the southerly wind. It reminded me of birding in Ireland – except
it wasn’t cold.
A couple of people had arrived before
me, but the usual birds were on display. It was all fairly quiet actually as I
followed my usual route; the only points of interest were turning up two
butterflies for my site list – Evening
Brown and Common Crow.
The bird of the day presented itself right at
the end, in its usual place – Spotless
Crake, with two well developed chicks
https://youtu.be/DQ7UBDjc57U
https://youtu.be/kysJ0vJUbBA
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| Spotless Crake |
Moving on to Fuller the rain increased, but
was still manageable. A feeding party of 6 Latham’s
Snipe fooled me for a second into thinking they were fat Sharpies, an
unusual sight! Total of 12 Glossy Ibis
was a higher than average number, I thought, as I retreated in the face of the
increasing downpour.
Driving across the railway line and
parking up outside Lindum I sat out the rain for 10 minutes or
so, before it appeared to ease and I made the trudge across the grass. There
wasn’t much going on – only a couple of Marsh
Sandpipers were in evidence, so, as the rain picked up, I once again
retreated to the car and this time headed home.
9.12.15
Minnippi
Having an appointment with the bank
to discuss my pending change of circumstance I took another day off work – and
went to Minnippi. The appointment was earlyish, so didn’t have time to go
further afield.
Another hot, moist morning which had
my shirt sticking to my back shortly after leaving the car despite the 5.45
start.
Everything was pretty quiet and not
much to show for it. One Common Tern
was hawking the lake and I did have a single Yellow-faced Honeyeater on the M1 track.
I also had a ‘new’ butterfly for the
site; not necessarily new for me or Minnippi, only ‘new’ because of the new ME
and my re-vitalised/re-discovered interest; an Evening Brown perched up nicely in its favoured habitat of gloomy
surroundings.
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| Evening Brown |
The two Magpie Geese had roosted in
the tree over the lake again and flew off as I walked up the path – they
returned later and landed honkingly on the back of the island.
On the Airfield track small numbers
of Dainty Grass Blues flitted around,
but no sign of the Blue Triangles of last week. I did find a couple of Common Bluetail dragonflies back near
the lake, but otherwise, as noted, it was pretty quiet overall.
Sugaring - Trotter
In March 1966 my Dad gave me a book which I
have retained and referred to many, many times over the intervening years – the
Junior Naturalists’ Handbook by
Geoffrey G Watson, founder of the British Junior Naturalist’s Association.
Through it I experimented with
taxidermy, rock, fossil, fungi, beetle and butterfly collecting, cleaning
animal skulls, making plaster casts of animal prints, the dissection of owl
pellets etc. Occupations that have fascinated and taught me so much about the
natural world - but there was one activity
I had always wanted to try and never got to - sugaring for moths. This involves
spreading a sweet sugary mixture on trees at night and just watching the hordes
of hungry insects flock to the feast. I imagined moths, followed by stick
insects and geckos, maybe even gliders would be interested?
So, after (almost) 50 years (!), I finally
decided the time was right. I bought the treacle and brown sugar, heated and
mixed them, added a splash of Bourbon and bottled the mixture ready to go. The
night was as prescribed –warm, still, moonless.
I arrived at Trotter at about 7 and
set off into the woods, ‘painting’ the sticky mixture onto trees along the
track. I chose a variety of tree trunks – smooth eucalyptus and rough barked ironwood.
Once I had spread enough around I dumped the bottle and brush back in the car
and walked again checking the results of my handiwork – nothing, nada, zip, no
interest…….
OK, OK, so give it time. I set off
and walked around our usual track in Trotter – i.e. down to the lake, along the
shoreline, back up under the powerlines, back around to the original entry
track; and checked my trees again. And again – nothing, no gliders, no geckos,
no stick insects, not even a moth of ANY size or description…..
Now, it wasn’t a huge surprise. There
weren’t exactly flocks of moths waiting with bated breath to get pissed on my
sugary concoction. There were plenty of micro moths in my headlight beam, but I
had only seen two small to medium size moths in my hour long walk, so ……….I had
found Garden Orb Spiders building
webs, several Cane Toads, a Bush Cockroach showing interest in the
offering at one tree and a single Brush
Possum near another, but other than that it was singular failure.
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| Bush Cockroach - one of the good ones! |
Was I disappointed? Was I depressed?
Did I throw the remaining mixture into the night?
No! I’ll try again, somewhere
else, another night. Maybe it was too early in the season? Maybe it was too
windy? Maybe it wasn’t warm enough? Maybe it was just Trotter – its not exactly
renowned for its masses of wildlife, maybe it wasn’t the best place to start?
I headed home and finished off the
bottle Bourbon myself……….
PostScript: On
Sunday I went back in the afternoon to see if any butterflies had been attracted
to my trees. Again, no-one seemed to be interested, the painted splashes had
dried out a bit, but were still tacky and the smell persisted. I didn’t see a
single butterfly in the area either so it didn’t prove anything. If they’re not
there they can’t be attracted…….
Oxley
Mr D picked me up and we arrived on
site at 5.45. Warm morning, fairly still and the birding was relatively quiet -
as one would expect this time of year. On the way to the ponds there was little
of excitement and the first bird to cause any sort of stir was a Latham’s Snipe sitting up nicely in the
grass beside the first pond on the left.
As we headed back from the lakes, Mr
D stopped and drew my attention to a female Pacific Koel perched up on a fence in the open! We had absolutely
crippling views of her before eventually leaving her in peace – amazing views
in fact, so unusual for this normally very discreet and difficult to see bird.
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| Spot the female Koel |
https://youtu.be/qwjuu_QvY44
As the morning had warmed, the
butterfly activity had started and I immersed myself in trying to digitally capture
tiny Blues and Darts and a couple of curious Dragon/Damsel
fly types darting round above the short grass. I later tentatively
identified these latter as a Red Swamphawk
and a Blue Skimmer.
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| Red Swampdragon |
Further on up the track a large
brightly coloured butterfly had me scrambling over the barbed wire fence and
ploughing into chest-high weeds to catch up, successfully, with a Chequered Swallowtail.
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| Chequered Swallowtail |
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| Chequered Swallowtail- underwing |
Little else of importance interrupted
our return to the car and or usual destination in these parts - to Café Europa
for a Hungarian inspired breakfast.
Minnippi - again
I took a sickie as I had an
appointment in the city in the afternoon and had been kindly offered a lift in
and out by a very close friend – hence avoiding the sweaty bike ride or the
nightmare of public transport, shudder at the thought….. Normally I don’t take
‘sickies’ but, at this advanced stage of my career, I figured ‘what’s the worst
that can happen’? They can’t fire me….
I waited out the spotting rain as I
had a slow breakfast and so didn’t get on-site until 6.15 – later than I had planned.
It was very, very muggy - incredibly so, sweat running down my back the instant
I stepped out of the car, the air thick and still.
The river was quiet; the lake just
so, however, as I stood at the pylon a white Tern appeared dipping and swooping
towards me. My immediate response was ‘Common
Tern’ – however, I started to doubt myself as I was pretty sure CT had
never been recorded in Minnippi before – I certainly hadn’t seen one here. I
checked my in-phone Pizzey & Knight and came to the conclusion it was
probably a non-breeding Whiskered Tern. Within a few minutes two more birds
joined the first one and they worked the lake in a very familiar style…… I
tried to get some shots but failed miserably. It was still niggling me,
something wasn’t right, but I moved on as they moved to the upper lake and
disappeared out of sight.
The M1 track was quiet, very little
moving. The only real excitement was a Sparrowhawk,
I believe, flying away through the trees with what appeared to be a Rainbow
Lorikeet clutched in its talons – not that I got THAT good a look at it, but
the screaming Lorikeet in its wake suggested the id of the dead bird.
Up the grass track and back to the
lake – still with very little to record. The 2 Magpie Geese were still perched up in the tree as they were on the
weekend – they left as I watched. I checked the Tawny Frogmouth – sitting securely on the nest - and then noticed
the three terns perched on the railing of the boardwalk. This gave me an
excellent opportunity to take photos and two allowed close approach.
The cap appeared too ‘far forward’
for Whiskered, there was a dark carpal bar which didn’t appear to be part of
the W’s plumage, the tail and wing feathers were very long when closed and the
primaries darker than I thought W’s should be – but Common Tern? Really? At
Minnippi? REALLY? It seemed such an unusual place to see CT. I know some do go
inland, I’ve seen them, of course, at Samsonvale for example – but usually to
much bigger bodies of water – such as Pine River Dam. It seemed a real stretch
here, so I resolved to send photos to Mr
P without offering any hints and see what his conclusions were – I knew, too,
that if they were CTs he’d want to add them to his site list……
(Post
Note: Mr P later confirmed my first instincts, they were definitely Common Terns – a little embarrassing,
but sometimes you see what you expect to see and not what is clearly
indicated.)
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| Common Tern! |
Moving on – I watched at least three
species of Dragonfly soaring round the water weed near the boardwalk, but they
didn’t land. I can see it’s going to be a challenge to photograph these things…….unless
I catch them in compromising positions (aka Cycle position) as I did with a
couple of Common Bluetail.
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| Common Bluetail |
Over the hill and down the Airfield
track. Heaps of Dainty Grass Blues
but none would land and/or open their wings for me. Several Blue Triangles fed on the lantana and I
managed to get some shots although their continuously fluttering wings didn’t
help….
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| Blue Triangle |
I saw another Donuca Orbigera, or what
I am starting to think of as Stu’s Moth,
and I photographed a different spider which I later identified as a Golden Orb Spider mainly due to the
general body shape, web design and the brown patches on its legs – just visible
in this rather shitty photo….
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| Golden Orb Spider |
Bird-wise the track was very dead and
I trudged back up the hill wet from head to foot.
Back beside the lake a couple of white
butterflies attracted my attention and I chased one down. With Mr K’s help I
identified it as a Cabbage White,
even though the rear underwing was not as yellow as depicted in the books…..
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| Cabbage White |
a few meters further along the bike
path and a nice Common Eggfly posed
near a family party of Red-backed Fairy
Wrens!
So……another morning at Minnippi, my
169th visit. A new spider,
two new butterflies, a new dragonfly and, best of all, a new bird for my site
list – worth having the day off for!
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