Kit & Herman Year 2

[Galana]

Just now, Dave Williams said:

We used to get a regular visit from a couple of Black Swans at our local reserve

Us too. Then one winter they were often found with visiting Whoopers and when the Whoopers left to go north we never saw the Black Swans again. I wonder if they made Iceland but have never heard. Being Aussies they may well have just thought "S.d This! and gone south.

[michael-ibk]

We have one as well, it has featured in every BY so far. 

[Kitsafari]

there is a couple of black swans in the Singapore Botanic Gardens and they had a cygnet just last month. the gardens had to move the baby and swans out of public sight as they attracted too many photographers and onlookers. 

 

[Kitsafari]

384/wA 61 : Australasian Swamphen, Herdsman Lake

 

Formerly known as the purple swamphen which got split into several species with the one in Australia, eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea called Australasian swamphen. Several of them at Herdsman Lake - a pretty colourful and large bird.  

 

[Kitsafari]

385/WA62 : Rufous Treecreeper, Flint Street Forest 

 

Just another one that led us on a merry go-round, chasing it from one side of the road to the other side as it hopped from low branches to the ground, tossing leaves as it moved along, then disappeared before re-appearing on a tree trunk where we discovered there were two of them, before finally resting on branch, perching long enough for us to get a couple of steady shots. Herman's one was better than mine, naturally. People will think us insane chasing a dull brown bird. 

 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

386/wa63 : Greater crested Tern, Fremantle marina

 

[Kitsafari]

387/WA64 : Western Thornbill, En Route back to Fremantle from Flint street

 

An endemic to WA, the western thornbill was accidental.  While shooting the black cuckatoo, I looked around and saw this tiny bird frozen and hoping it wouldn't be noticed. I rushed the shots but it took off as soon as I pressed the shutter. Hence the EBC! this thornbill likes thick forest and is found mainly in the middle tier of tall eucalypt trees. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

388/WA 65 : Yellow-Rumped Thornbill, Victoria Dam

 

Another EBC cropped very tightly - there were a handful of the birds feeding on the ground and they were way off in the distance and we couldn't get closer as there was no cover and they would have flown off. oddly although the book says they are rarely in open spaces, we saw them in a large open clearing. it's distinctive with its yellow rump, though it was hard to see from where we were. 

 

Edited September 22, 2019 by Kitsafari

[Alex Rogers]

Lovely photos, and great to see someone else's Aussie birds. And you are inspiring me to keep working on my photography, as your photos are so much better than mine ;-) The Red-tailed Black Cockatoo photo is awesome, to get a shot showing the tail feathers as well as the back of another bird - fantastic. Appreciate your commentary too. I had never noticed the striking facial differences in the magpie larks (great tip) and didn't realise that there even WAS a White-cheeked Honeyeater - I wonder how many I've seen and thought they were New Holland Honeyeaters?!  I'll have to pay more attention.

[Kitsafari]

@Alex Rogers I did initially think that they were all new hollands, but on closer look i found some of them looked whiter and checked it out. so pleased that I found another to add to the list!

 

 

[Kitsafari]

389/WA66: Willie Wagtail,  Herdsman Lake/Fremantle/ Kardinya

 

I love this bird - it's got such a massive character for a fantail, so much so that it has gotten its own name as a wagtail. This is the largest of all fantails in Australia and is found everywhere in the country - whether be it in the cities or forests, or parks or desert. It is not shy at all, and would hop around you, hoping you will stir some insect it can catch as you walk by. It is sometimes called the Chitty chitty bird, according to Simon Nevill's bird guide, because that how it makes its calls. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

390/WA67 : Red Wattlebird, Herdsman Lake/ Victoria Dam/ Fremantle

 

Another rather common bird found in the woods and parks. This is a honeyeater, but this is the largest honeyeater in south western Australia, more than double the size of the smaller ones. the only honeyeaters just a touch smaller than the red wattlebird are the western wattlebird, an endemic to WA and which eluded us at Victoria Dam although we heard them, and the blue-faced honeyeater which is distributed only in the northern parts of Australia. It feeds mainly on flowering plants and trees, but also eats small invertebrates. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

391/WA68 : Dusky Woodswallow, Flint Street Forest

 

Another chocolatey bird that sent us scampering after it posed tantalising on the tree trunk, beckoning us. but it rewarded us by posing in the shaft of light. The woodswallows are found mainly in Asia, Australia and New Guinea that was used to be referred to as swallow-starlings. The dusky woodswallow has a blue bill with a small black tip and feeds both on perches and on the ground on insects. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

392/WA69 : Spotted Scrubwren, Victoria Dam

 

a small energetic bird which was a challenge to photograph as it was high up in the trees and always on the move. The spotted scrubwren used to be known as the white-browed scrubwren but has been given a name of its own to distinguish its distribution in the western regions. the spotted scrubwren has grey or blue eyes - as against the yellow eyes in white-browed scrubwren in eastern Australia - and a yellow tinge to its flank and belly. 

 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

393/WA70 : Western Whistler,  Victoria Dam

 

Found mainly in southwestern Australia, the western whistler was split in 2015 from the Australian golden whistler when it was found to be closer to the Mangrove golden whistler which is found in northern WA. The Victoria Dam is a good place to find this lovely bird. 

 

 

[xelas]

Almost touching the #400 !You have only been able to post a couple of EBC photos, and not all of them deserves that title anyway . Great work out there, Kit & Herman.

[Kitsafari]

394/WA 71 : Grey Butcherbird, Fremantle

 

Australia really has strange fascinating names for its birds. Quite a well distributed bird in WA, the butcherbird does what a shrike is known to do - the prey is impaled on a branch or a fork of two brances to be eaten later. Nice. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

Thanks @xelas - not that many EBCs to win the title. but wait till I get to Gabon - plenty of EBCs to compete for the best EBC awards. it's a total shambles and pales in contrast to @michael-ibk's list. I'm almost embarassed to put it out!

 

 

Edited September 30, 2019 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

395/WA72 : Tawny Frogmouths, Herdsman Lake

 

On the last morning, Herman and I made a quick return to Herdsman's Lake. We had about 2-3 hours to do so before we had to check out of the hotel to fly back to Singapore. But we had heard that a couple of tawny frogmouths were resident at the lake, and I think it was our guide Peter who gave us clear directions to the location of the nocturnal birds.

Frogmouths are related to nightjars and are found mainly in Asia and Australasia. They are smaller than I had expected, and their camouflage was amazing which meant Herman and I had to check almost every tree to find them. Fortunately, the frogmouths were perched just above eye-level, and they were totally unfazed by our presence. The bonus was - there were three of them!

 

The Tawny frogmouth in the southwestern part of Australia is one of four subspecies. Unlike the other three which are variable in colours from grey to chestnut-brown plumage, the southwestern Australian species is only in the grey morph. when approached in day or night, the frogmouth will adopt a stick-like stance looking like a broken branch. 

 

for us it was a special find, so a couple more shots : 

 

[Kitsafari]

396/WA 73 :  Nankeen Nigh-Heron, Herdsman Lake

 

Herdsman Lake is regarded as a good place to find nankeen night-herons but we didn't see them on our first visit and almost missed them on the second. But we lingered at the Herdsman Lake Wildlife Centre to look for freckled ducks when a couple of birds flew into the trees next to us, their wings flapping pretty loudly indicating large birds. The nankeen night-herons were flying in to roost, and a few minutes later, a big flock came flying in with a couple of them perching very kindly low enough for us to get a few nice photos. 

 

The name comes from the colour of the cotton cloth made in the city of Nankeen in China - although I don't have any idea what the Nankeen cotton colour was! The heron is also known as rufous night-heron and is also found in the Philippines PNG and all of Australia. The adults have a rich chestnut colour on the upperbody and cream on its underbody with no streaking. The crown is black with two white nuptial plumes  - feathers from the nape of the head. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

397/WA74 : Western Corella, Kardinya, Perth

 

I almost forgot to include this. A large flock of noisy but fierce birds were gathering at a residential lake where a family was feeding some geese, which we couldn't identify, and some Eurasian coots and ravens were trying to steal as well. One raven was busily chasing the corellas from a railing but one corella was having none of it, and managed to chase the black bird away. the western corella  overlaps with the little corella but it has a longer bill than the little corella and has a more yellow on its underwings. western corellas are endemic to this area. 

 

[Kitsafari]

that wraps up our list from Perth/Fremantle. 74 species over 5 days seem low as the weather and fortune worked against us. but a good excuse to return again to the region soon. 

 

I'll just share some general photos of the areas we were at and a couple of birds that didn't get into the count!

 

A Muscovy-hybrid duck which is familiar to the park-goers and birders at Herdsman Lake It seems used to humans, suggesting that it used to be someone's pet and was abandoned at the lake. Poor bird was all alone. 

 

 

We have no clue what geese these are as I can't find them in the bird guide book. they were at the Kardinya residential pond being fed by residents. 

 

 

and some sceneries and sunsets

 

herdsman Lake: 

 

Victoria Dam

 

Flint Street forest

 

 

Fremantle marina

 

 

[TonyQ]

A beautiful way you finish your Australian section, and some amazing birds. The Frogmouth are very special indeed, and the Corella is lovely.

 

The white/white+brown geese look very much like Greylag geese (Anser anser) that we get in the UK. They were domesticated, and the domesticated version was white. Sometimes the original brown comes through. They could be introduced, or they could be a completely different goose that looks similar

 

Not long for your 400 I think

[PeterHG]

Lovely birds and scenery. I just love those Australian names: Willie Wagtail sounds like a TV show for children. Those Frogmouths were very special!

[michael-ibk]

7 hours ago, Kitsafari said:

not that many EBCs to win the title. but wait till I get to Gabon - plenty of EBCs to compete for the best EBC awards. it's a total shambles and pales in contrast to @michael-ibk's list. I'm almost embarassed to put it out!

 

Nonsense. I know for a fact that Kit has the most stunning photo of the most stunning bird of all the trip for example.