I returned to Koomba Park in the outer eastern Melbourne suburb of Wantirna today. The park contains lakes and billabongs fed by the Dandenong Creek. Although sizeable and containing some nice wetlands the park is absolutely metropolitan in nature. Reminders include the high tension electricity pylons and the prominence of noxious flora. Whoever contributed the Wikipedia Koomba Park entry felt it worthwhile to include a paragraph about crime in the park. Lovely!
It was another grey day in Melbourne with intermittent misty rain threatening to become showers. Armed only with my camera and long lens to ward off the advancing criminals I wandered off keen for birding pleasures to gladden the heart.
The only highlight was a colony of Bell miners in the same spot I had seen them in March 2011. Again they came lower than I have experienced elsewhere giving a chance for some photos.
I enjoyed watching them and was impressed with how aggressively they defended their patch. They would interrupt their feeding to see off any bird threat (principally other honeyeaters and a pardalote I think).
It would be remiss of me to not mention the gorgeous call of this bird. I was reminded today that if heard close by the noise can be startling as it is quite loud. Cameron Stephen's webpage has a recording of the call here. I enjoyed hearing it again!
Bell miner (Manoria melanophrys)
The light was difficult and results not great but I appreciate any photo of these guys as they are generally dots in the canopy or invisible!
New Holland honeyeater ducking for cover from the aggressive Bell miners. When seen in the larger version the swirling light rain could be mistaken as snow!
Site of the Bell miner colony, Koomba Park
Koomba Park - a very metropolitan reserve!
Did I mention the weather?
Another great recording of bell miner calls on stevehapp's youtube clip from Lake Macquarie, NSW (with Eastern whipbird calls and Satin bowerbird bower thrown in!):
I was at Koomba Park, Wantirna, surrounded by the chiming of Bell Miners and, as usual, finding the little blighters very hard to see let alone photograph. At times you could swear the call was 3 metres in front of you where stood nothing but a pathetic sapling!
It got to me. I found myself deciding to not settle for a "heard only" Bell Miner tick today.
I persisted.
Then it started. Like stars in the night sky as eyes become accustomed to the darkness I started to see the miners. I got a few indistinct photos of birds among distant foliage.
Then, bizarrely, one bird (which I can only assume had lost its miner marbles) started feeding right next to me and here's the result!
Bell miner Manorina melanophrys
A comical character really! The next shot captures apparently flightless movement through the foliage (or more correctly doesn't quite capture the movement as the head is out of shot!)
