White-browed woodswallow & other road trip birds

We drove home from Wee Jasper to Melbourne last Saturday. Here are the car stoppers! The first two shots were taken on the Wee Jasper - Yass Road near the intersection with Sawyers Gully Road (locale known as Narrangullen?).

White-browed woodswallow 

Australasian pipit

Nankeen night-heron lurking near the bridge over the Goodradigbee at Wee Jasper

Lunch was at Holbrook (the queue at the well-known bakery was out the door - we settled for our own sandwiches) where I was surprised to see Blue-faced honeyeater and a pair of Dollarbirds.

This Dollarbird and what I believe to be Yellow thornbill were seen when walking the Ian Geddes Bushwalk at Holbrook.

Nice January additions to this Melbourne birder's year list!

Bird on!

Parry Creek Lagoons - Visit 2

Circumstances landed us back near Parry Creek Lagoons about a week after our first visit so we took the opportunity to have another look. The flat grassland on either side of the dry-season dirt road had become more familiar - I love it! Again pratincole were a regular sighting.

A cooperative Rainbow bee-eater provided one of the highlights.

When one can tear one's self away from the water birds there are other species to be seen in the surrounding vegetation including Rainbow bee-eater and White-gaped honeyeater. Buff-sided robin was also seen (good views, poor photo)!

Pied heron once again afforded good views but it was the close viewing of a few brolga that had us most excited ....

Brolga were readily seen on this visit.

Comb-crested jacana were a family-favourite once again and featured in the educational signage (photo by Ellen).

The higher you are, the more you see! Magpie goose and Plumed whistling-duck at Marlgu Billabong, Parry Creek Lagoons.

Intermediate egret

Nankeen night-heron

Gorgeous close-ups of Australasian grebe were possible from the viewing platform.

Bird on!

Night Herons @ Blackie Lake

There are (to my mind) remarkable numbers of Nankeen night heron at Blackburn Lake currently. It has prompted me to examine the Eremaea sightings for this species which reveals that they are not sighted for much of the year and most likely seen from late spring through summer.

Nankeen night heron (immature)
Blackburn Lake, 16 September 2011

Nankeen night heron at Blackburn Lake
Graph generated by Eremaea website

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I have always found them a bird that is not readily seen even when they are present. Even when trying hard (for me) I would generally only pick up one or two. Lately however there have been days on the water's edge when it feels like they are the dominant species with much posturing and flying around. An Eremaea list from 15 November 2011 from Richard and Margaret Alcorn records no fewer than 12 sightings.

The photo below is taken on a day when I sighted seven night heron, four of which are in shot:

Night heron at Blackburn Lake
18 November 2011

Spring is certainly a lively time at Blackburn Lake for birding (more images from 18 November):

Little pied cormorant

Pacific black duck

Little black cormorant

What's uglier than a night heron?

Answer: A juvenile night heron. Before last weekend I'd really only seen mature birds in various states of plumage but this juvenile is really a weird looking dude.

This fella was seen at Jell's Park - Tom kindly joined me for a mid-afternoon outing & he was manned with the original digital SLR & lenses (daddy has a better camera now!). We discussed the different settings you can use & here's his photo of an obliging dragon fly he spotted:

We also had good views of darter (2) including witnessing why it is also known as snake bird. Watching one swim with body submerged, neck and head sticking out of the water was initially a little confronting (no photo of that sorry)!