Wetlands in winter – a compilation.

 

Winter at the Wetlands is quieter of course, but still lots going on. The Pink-eared ducks are more common in winter, and this pair made sure there were no easy targets for the icy water and winds. (A brilliant line in a 1926 government publication aimed at encouraging people to come to the new Capital: “the wind, coming from the south, is shrewdly searching!”).

This juvenile female Wood Duck looked and sounded plaintively lost. If you look closely, especially at the first photo, you can see its little beak babbling with a plaintive “mummm?”

 

 

What I thought, a few weeks ago, was a first sighting of a Yellow-plumed Honeyeater, rather on the edge of the normal habitat, turned out on a better sighting the other day to be a Fuscous Honeyeater, also though my first sighting of this bird.

The Black-winged Kites are nesting again, and the search for food has been quite prolonged.

The Grey Teal had sole use of the preening log, probably because it would be freezing up there.

My first sighting of Spotted Doves, an introduced species, and a bit outside its normal coastal habitat:

As always there were plenty of Fairy Wrens. There were also plenty of Silvereyes and White-browed Scrub Wrens:

 

Away from the water, my first sighting of a White-naped Honeyeater, and some Spotted Pardalotes:

 

Unusually, perhaps also lost, was a single adult male Red-rumped Parrot:

 

Commonly seen at the Wetlands, the Australasian Darter and New Holland Honeyeater:

 

Finally, a juvenile Grey Butcherbird enjoying a scarab grub:

 

Michael Monaghan

July 2019