Happy New Year folks,
I started at a local Lagoon (Coomaditchy) in the early morning. Some classics to start off.
1 Pelican - never noticed the red on the male's bill-pouch before
2 Little Corella
3 Willie Wagtail
4 Silver Gull
5 Kestrel - As I stood above the beach this one hovered at head-height for me for 5 minutes. It picked a few cicadas among other things. Too many photos to choose from.
OK, off the mark. :)
Great start Michael, love the colour in the Pelican, and you Nakeen Kestrel is simply superb, well done.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Great start, Michael. Love the Nankeen Kestrel shots.
Borrowing from Alex; I might set a goal of 200 for the year. Given my 130 (2021) was mostly the Illawarra, it might encourage me to travel further afield.
One of my local trails from last week; Mt Robertson towards Mt Keira.
6. Black-faced monarch
7. Golden whistler - both of these first 2 are quite confiding, so I hope for better shots throughout the year.
8. Rufous Fantail - very happy with this as I am normally not quick enough for these guys.
9. Pilotbird - a little dark and dodgy light, but that's what they like. Adult and young sharing a grub, and didn't mind posing for me.
(no fact sheet for the pilot-bird)
10. Bassian thrush
11. White-browed Scrubwren - great pose.
Great start, Michael... love the Pilotbirds and the Black-faced Monarch. Sounds like you have aplan for this year... enjoy!
So many beautiful photos! What a great experience with the Nankeen Kestrels, sounds amazing to have it hovering so close!
The Pilotbird is such a cool find, and I love the Monarch as well - birds we don't have down around Melbourne.
Love your aspiration to travel around and find more birds this year, good luck!
Great to see your start - and with some good forest birds too! Never seen pilotbirds, love those shots. Its a good reminder that I need to come and explore some of your coastal forests and look for some of these. The kestrel shots are great too - how cool!
Good luck with the goals for the year too - its great to have a goal and something to aspire to - from your rapid climb last year, I suspect you'll make it handily :-)
Some more nice birds Michael and some great photos of them. Thanks for sharing.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Welcome to the year Michael... that's a great set of Nankeen Kestrel pics. Well done!
I think you'll nail 200 this year easily :)
Lake Illawarra (South)
12 Pied Oystercatcher
13 Little Egret
14 Eastern Curlew
Windang Island
15 Australasian Pipit - lifer for me
16 Red-capped plover
17 Red-necked stint
Local park
18 Crimson Rosella
19 Kookaburra - hefty worm (early bird etc)
20 White-faced heron
21 Yellow thornbill
22 Superb fairywren
bonus orb-weaver; the sentry on the path
Great photos Michael, especially the kookaburra.
Lovely set, Michael. My favourites would be the Red-capped Plover and the Kookaburra but the White-faced Heron seems to be missing.
Some really nice photos here Michael, loving to see them come in. I really love the Curlew, I'm hoping to get a good sighting and photo this year! And the Red-capped Plover and Pipit are great too.
Oops. Thanks Sue.
20 White-faced Heron - take 2.
Lovely photos Michael, going great guns. Thanks for posting
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Nice photos Michael. Looks like a great spot!
Coomaditchy lagoon again, photos from two different days, trying to get some in flight. Some blue skies, some dull and/or rainy, but cool at least!
23 Great cormorant
24 White ibis - caught the wing, but missed the spark in the eye.
25 Spotted dove
26 Pied cormorant
27 Rainbow Lorrikeet
28 Darter
29 Reed Warbler - heavy croppping, just can't get these guys close or still. I might have to camp in the swamp overnight!
Bonus fly-by dragon.
Jerrara Dam last week - rainy, but a successful session for me. Cool and peaceful, nobody else around.
31 Black-shoulded kite
32 Large-billed scrubwren - getting better at ID-ing these now.
33 Green catbird - young-un. Making a racket above me and showering me in drops.
34 Satin bowerbird
35 topknot pigeon
36 red-browed finch
37 Pacific black duck - in flight, ok composition, but not quite sharp in dull light
38 black swan
39 dollarbird - sun came out for a bit
40 Silvereye
41 Sacred kingfisher
42 (maybe) Heavily cropped and processed young brown falcon? Will edit and remove if not. Multiple shots to assist ID.
bonus wallaby - keeping an eye on me.
Nice set of photos Michael.
Lovely selection, Michael... what is that Darter doing? I love the Black-shouldered kite and agree with the ID of Brown Falcon as you can just make out the tear drop pattern.
Another great set, and I agree with Sue, you "maybe" Brown Falcon is confirmed Brown Falcon. Funny, 2 years ago, I would see Brown Falcon every time I went to the city (30 minute drive from home), last year only saw them when unable to stop, this year none yet, although my son sees them "everywhere", just not home when I go!
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Darters pull the darnedest poses :) great photos Michael. I love the red stripe on the Ibis underwing.
Thanks folks; Brown Falcon it is then and another 'lifer' with it. Without the suggestion to shoot RAW, it would have remained a falcon-shaped silhouette.
Another awesome collection added to your big year, nice work!
Really love that first Darter photo, what a hoot! So comical to see such a large bird hanging upside down like that, does it think its a parrot?
Some great species I'd love to see like the catbird and dollarbird, and the Black-Shouldered Kite pose was lovely!
Glad shooting RAW has worked out for you, you can recover a lot more in post editing as long as you have the memory space on your cards and computer to hold it all!
The darter had dropped his phone in the reeds; embarrassing for him.
Also put me in mind of the gymnastic girls over-balancing on the beam, doing anything, but refusing to tumble off.
Haha that's an amusing thought!! Like when you drop something at work but don't want to get up off your chair so get it so you reach at full stretch to get it...and hope you don't overbalance and fall on your face! :)
Cool shot Michael!
Thanks Danika and Abby. I am thinking unusual poses and positions might be the way the catch the more usual birds I see. And the flip-side, a rare bird for me (lifer?) is likely to be a blurry-only-just-distinguishable photo. :)
South Coast about fortnight ago, mostly Shoalhaven area. Ducking out between the rain showers.
43 Chestnut teal
44 White-throated treecreeper
45 Variegated wren - not great focus, which is a shame because I like the composition.
46 Eastern yellow Robin
47 Sea Eagle - young one spotted high between the spotted gums.
48 Little tern - lifer for me
49 Crested tern
48 + 49 little and crested tern for comparison.
50 Red wattlebird
51 Koel pair on the roof of the boatshed
(31 Black-shouldered kite in flight)
I have realised I missed number 30, which was meant to be the magpie.
Apologies, Michael, I had not noticed the tally was wrong as concentrating on the ID of Brown Falcon. You can just edit the post where you missed 30 and slot it in there (for future reference).
Love the Little Tern size comparison and the Black-shouldered Kite is a beauty.
Wow Michael, love the treecreeper and the Variegated fairy-wren. Those kite shots are also awsome.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Michael, some fantastic shots - yes, agree with you that its always more interesting to get action shots / behavioural shots etc, and thats a fun challenge in itself with the more common birds - takes the difficulty level up a few notches though :-)
You've got some great birds down your way :-)
Nice shots Michael, love your Varigated Wren and your BS Kite shots! Awesome!
Really love the Koel pair, I've yet to see them but maybe when we head to NSW.
The tern comparison shot is really great, sometimes its easy to forget when trying to ID these birds how much relative size comes into it as much as markings!! That shot really shows that point so well.
Great photos!
The tern comparison pic is great :) and congrats on the lifer! Nice get on the kite too, they're a beautiful bird.
Awesome pics Michael, great capture of the BSK in flight too.
Cheers folks!
I haven't been out in a while, but still have some Januray catching up to do.
52. Gang-gang cockatoo - rearranging themselves high in the gumtrees, until they got everyone together for a group hug. New in 22
53. Crested shrike-tit - on the Stafford farm trail, not great, but new this year too. EBC
Walked Killalea lagoon on a rare hot morning.
54. Little wattlebird
55. Red-whiskered bulbul
56. Golden-headed Cisticola - so many great poses from this guy, struggled to pick one.
57. Australian grebe - a young one alone. I climbed a small 'mound' to take this photo, only to discover that the ticklish grass, was actually a colony of ants climbing my legs.
58. Purple swamphen.
This year's disappointing cherry-tomato harvest has been explained.
59. King Parrot - yes you! Sprung!
Royal National Park
Not quite early enough to beat the crowds, but beautiful walk from Wattamola down to Eagle Rock.
60. New Holland Honeyeater
61. Beautiful firetail - lifer
62. Lewin's Honeyeater
63. Welcome Swallow - is it young-uns with white lips?
bonus skinks and I think a brown antechinus scaling the cliff?
Some more locals and an update, and then I think that's January.
Lake Illawarra
64. Masked lapwing
(24. white ibis - all natural with a crab-catch, not a bin in sight)
65. Brown thornbill
66. Eastern spinebill - young-un
bonus butterfly - varied brown swordgrass
Love the variety you've got in these sets. And some brilliant poses too! The Gang-gangs are wonderful.
I really like the Beautiful Firetail, never seen one of those.
And the extras are excellent :)
Wonderful set, Michael and I agree with Tom, love the variety of poses.
Great birds! And some of those photos are just excellent! Love the Gang Gangs (and think I'm the only person in Australia who still hasn't see one grrrr), the Grebe photo is a cracker shot, and the very dramatic lighting on your NHHE sets the bird of beautifully. Love the extra shots too, thanks for IDs. Did you notice the mites on the nose of the White's Skink? "Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum..." but not often you can see it!
Alex, I can join you on the list who have not seen the Gang Gangs, still dreaming!
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Love your Gang Gang photos Michael. But that Firetail shot is a stunner! That would be a lifer for me too!
Great set of photos.
After lamenting the fact that I haven't seen Gang Gangs I saw a flock of 4 in the Capertee on the weekend :-) No photo as they were flying behind trees, but saw (and heard!) them clearly, so I feel better now :-)
I drove to specific spots in the hope of catching them last year, with no luck. Then this year I nearly ignored them on my local track, as I thought they sounded like corellas or galahs; but then the 'creaky gate' noise convinced me to have another look.
Early February has kept me close to home or at work. So a couple of very local birds shot through my windows.
67 Common Myna
(20 update - White-faced heron, on my neighbours roof, looking in my bedroom window)
68 Noisy miner - after using, and rarely sharing, my backyard birdbath.
Coomaditchy lagoon was covered in a green slime, seemingly overnight, and this dusky moorhen was the only species in the water.
69 Dusky Moorhen
That green slime is certainly visible on the Moorhen. Look like the Heron is looking straight at you, hope you were behaving in the bedroom!
Some more nice photos.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Sometimes the slime seems to appear from nowhere but obviously the Dusky Moorhen is not bothered... pesky birds looking in your windows!
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