Leaving the coastal banksia and ti-tree habitat a short trudge over the dune reveals a magnificent surf beach. Returning via the Powlett River estuary enables views of estuarine, reeds and salt-marsh habitats.
Today the flowering coastal banksia around the Ti-tree and Echidna car parks provided the best birding.
I have placed this car park on my list of Great Birding Car Parks!
Red wattlebird (Anthocaera carunculata) |
Red wattlebirds seemed to be outnumbering Little wattlebird 10 to 1. |
Little wattlebird (Anthocaera chyrsoptera) |
Silvereye (Zosterops lateralis) |
Crescent honeyeater (Phylidonyris pyrrhopterus). Not a great photo but I was surprised to find one. |
Looking west towards Kilcunda |
There were a dozen or so surfers at the time. Mouth of Powlett (below). I was expecting a sand barred entrance but the river does flow to the sea. It has even cut a channel through the rock platform. |
Sooty oystercatcher (Haematopus fuliginosus) |
Eastern grey kangaroo footprints (My guess - based on the 2 metre distance between prints and seeing some roos locally) |
aren't the banksias at their best just now Pete?! Lovely series of photos and I like how you managed a close-up to show the wattles on the Red Wattlebird.
ReplyDeleteYes they're the most prominent red wattles I've captured for a while! As far as wattlebirds go I suspect it thinks it's quite handsome!!
DeleteI agree banksia flowers seem to be providing a lost of interest down here currently.
Great post again Pete!
ReplyDeleteYes I agree, car parks are a very good choice to shoot birds, but that means people have been feeding them of left food of some kind...
With birds it might not be such a problem though, but where wild animals such as baboons in Africa are concerned, they become very dangerous and have to put be eventually put down... a pity!
Anyway, your pictures are brilliant especially the Red wattlebird sitting in Banksia tree!
Cheers and sorry for this long comment! LOL!
Hi Noushka, great comment! I agree about wild animals being fed.
DeleteOn this occasion all the birds were visiting for banksia flowers. This a reasonably out-of-the-way place with just a few surfers and fishermen visiting - they are not interested in feeding birds! When the flowers go, the birds disappear!