Middle Lagoon 2 - Birds of the skies

Just around the headland of Middle Lagoon is a second small bay. This view shows the beach at low tide and the ridge available for camping. While we were camped there the small headland was used as a perch by one of my (well, everyone's) favourite birds, the Brahminy kite. It was tricky to get close but I managed it once.

 

The Brahminy was just one good reason to keep an eye on the sky. We were thrilled to have distant views of what to us was a striking but immediately unfamiliar bird - Lesser frigatebird.

 

 

One morning I was alerted to the sound of a sizeable flock of Red-tailed blacks on the move. Only one week before our arrival there had been a bushfire. Now there was smoke in the air again and cockies on the move. They were moving in fits and starts, advancing 100m or so then landing in trees, perhaps picking up birds that had perched there. They became a group of 60 to 80 birds -  certainly more RTBs than I had ever seen together before and I hurriedly grabbed gear and tried to find myself in their path!

 

This was difficult and I wondered at my foolishness given the smoke in the air!!

Unfortunately no good shots resulted but I had another memorable Middle Lagoon experience!

Bird on!

 

Double-barred finch - gorgeous at Geikie Gorge

Double-barred finch are the sort of bird which cannot help but look gorgeous. We enjoyed the company of this group of about 15-20 birds at Geikie Gorge in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in August this year.

That's going to ruffle a few feathers!

It knows it looks good!

A photo shoot can be thirsty work after all! In our 1.5 hours at Geikie we also saw Rainbow bee-eater, White-bellied sea-eagle and honeyeaters amongst others. You can see the full list here.

When visiting Geikie it is worth knowing that there are boat tours (departure times didn't sync with the hours we had allowed unfortunately).  We walked the 1.5 hour "Reef walk" which takes you along the gorge's eastern walls up the flood plain to where the gorge wall meets the river. A better option may be to combine a boat tour with the shorter loop walk which breaks off from the Reef walk and rises into the limestone ridges. You can find out more about Geikie Gorge here.

Rainbow bee-eater

Brown honeyeater

White-gaped honeyeater

Rufous-throated honeyeater demonstrating its identifying feature

Finally, a few shots showing the environs ...

and a few Red-tailed black cockatoos to boot!

 Bird on!

Kununurra cockies

Oh if I had my time over again! I was towing a trailer pop-up caravan through the busy regional town of Kununurra. We had the whole family on board when I spotted these guys feeding. I remember thinking they may just be funny shaped rocks but as we passed realised "Red-tailed blacks!" Well, there was no reversing or U-turning. I had to drive around the entire block and still negotiate a park in a non-trailer friendly spot!

Red-tailed black-cockatoo (female)

At this stage I was so unfamiliar with the bird that I didn't really appreciate the difference between the sexes. As it happens I have largely ended up with pictures of the females! Through the viewfinder & in the heat of the moment I'm afraid I wasn't being particularly observant. I must change that!

Further I didn't make any observation of what they were feeding on (and I still can't guess even with some close up views). I will be quite specific with my geotag. Maybe someone can help me out! I recall being under trees on a lawn nature strip in front of some sort of municipal building!

Female at front, male at rear. The male is "black with clear scarlet panels in tail". The female & immature birds have the yellow spots as seen. The female tail panels are "orange-yellow barred black" (descriptions from Pizzey)

I find the outline of the ground-feeding birds quite unusual (above & below)

Female tail-panels

Perceived "social pressure" meant I had to move on (kids waiting in the car, passers-by wondering what was this freak doing?) and I left the birds to their feast! If I had my time again ....

Bird on!