Roebuck Bay is undoubtedly the shorebird capital of Australia but Victoria has sufficient to keep the diagnostic skills in shape. As well, it often seems to me that they are more approachable down here. Summer is the time when the locally breeding species are reinforced by the migrants from the Arctic.
The photo above shows a Common Greenshank (not common around here, mate) that has come up nicely in black and white. Just as well, it was shot in awful light and looked shocking in colour! Below some other waders that I’ve found in the last couple of weeks.
In the dry and dusty prose of taxonomy it reads “Gallinago hardwickii (Gray, JE 1831)”. The specimen described by Mr Gray was collected by Captain Charles Browne Hardwick (1788–1880) who may have had an e on the end of his surname. He shot the unfortunate snipe somewhere in Tasmania. Today we know it as Latham’s Snipe. The Latham in question seems to have had no connection whatsoever with the snipe (or to have ever been rude about conga lines). He was John Latham an English physician and ornithologist back in the day. Getting rid of eponymous bird names is something of a trend in modern taxonomy. By and large I think that’s a shame but finding a more appropriate name for this bird wouldn’t offend me at all.
G. hardwickii breeds in Hokkaido and highland areas of Honshu in Japan, and in Sakhalin and the nearby Kuril Islands. It escapes the northern winter by migrating through New Guinea and northern Australia arriving in South-eastern Oz in October. It can be found, if you look very carefully, in marshy habitats until departing in February or March on the return journey.
They feed dusk to dawn and hunker down through the day in places where not a lot of people choose to walk. Add to that their beautiful camouflage and you can easily miss them.
Migration is a strategy that comes with certain risks, problems on the breeding ground, the wintering ground or on the journey between them. For Latham’s Snipe the main hazards are here in Australia. Their population falls after major bush fires and droughts and they are further squeezed by urban development.
They are not easy to photograph. If they are out in the open they won’t let you get close. If they are in good cover the first you know of them as you wade through their territory is an explosive “chack” as they fly rapidly away.
Richard of York gained battles in vain. A mnemonic for the rainbow, red, orange, green, blue, indigo, violet. The male Red-rumped Parrot would be a living rainbow if I could only find the indigo and violet. I’m sure there in there somewhere, maybe under UV light. Birds can see further into the UV spectrum than we can.
The Red-rumped Parrot, Psephotus haematonotus, is fairly common in open grassy habitats in South East Australia. It feeds on the ground. The female, sadly, is quite drab.
There is a seal colony on Lady Julia Percy Island about 22km from Port Fairy and occasionally a seal or two will pay us a visit. I found one this morning in the mouth of the Moyne River playing with a fish fillet that looked more like it had been donated than caught. The seal was shaking it and throwing it and occasionally chewing on it. It was having a grand old time.
The Australian Fur Seal Arctocephalus pusillusdoriferus is a subspecies of the Brown Fur Seal. It is found around the shores of Bass Strait and Victoria, it breeds colonially on smaller islands. Adult males will weigh between 190 and 280 kg (420–620 lb) the girls are a bit smaller. The nominate subspecies is found around the shores of southern Africa.
Back in Port Fairy now and one of the first birds I encountered was the other large Gull that is frequently found around Australia’s southern coast. Points of difference from the Pacific Gull in adults include
The bill looks less of a weapon
The bill has a red dot on the lower mandible only
The legs are a different yellow
No black band in the tail
A white margin around the black in the wing
Immature birds of both species have black bands in the tail, bill shape is then your best guide.
This guy had a vigorous bath then flew to the rocks to preen. Birds use their bill to distribute oil from the uropygial gland through their feathers.
I toddled down to Ricketts Point early, it’s good to get there before the dog walkers to the extent that you can. It was cold and very windy. I didn’t see a dog and indeed most of the birds were hunkered down, head into the wind, reluctant to fly. The exception was a young Pacific Gull that was not going to let the weather stop it from repeatedly dropping a mussel from a great height. It was at a bit of a distance and I’m not sure whether it succeeded in smashing it open or the wind carried it into the water.
When it found itself in need of a new mollusc it came quite close to me. I was able to photograph it coming in and while it tried to prise a mussel from a hollow in the rock. While I approved of its choice of mussel it didn’t work well for the gull. After a while it flew off with an empty beak to try further away.
It takes four years for a Pacific Gull to arrive at adult plumage and even then there may be some buff feather margins to give it away as a relative youngster. By my reckoning this is a second year gull. Back in March it would have been browner overall and the bill base would have been white. Now (November) the yellow parts have good colour but the bill tip is near black not red.
And when in Melbourne head to Braeside Park which is host to Freckled and Pink-eared Duck and even some Magpie Geese at the moment. Gentle light before the rain that’s now falling. A chance to lie in the wet grass and shoot contre jour at some Pink-ears.
A walk around Griffiths Island, especially early or late in the day will almost always turn up a few Swamp Wallabies. As long as you don’t go too close they tend to just stand and look at you. Occasionally you might also see an Eastern Grey Kangaroo, they are not so tame. When they’re bounding along Swampies tend to keep their heads low and travel in a horizontal posture. Eastern Greys are more upright.
Despite their name Swamp Wallabies are not regularly found in swamps. An alternative popular name is Black Wallaby but they’re not black. Their scientific name is also a dud Wallabia bicolor since they are rufous, black and cream.
While I’ve been living in the tropics the sun has had periods of stormy weather, space weather that is. A son who lives in Melbourne has developed a bit of a passion for photographing the Aurora. They never reach as far as Broome and I will confess to a little jealousy.
You need a few things to get a decent aurora photo. The sun needs to get excited, the weather has to let you see the sky, the sky needs to be dark, the moon has to be not too full, a decent composition and a lot of luck. From the south coast of Oz you do at least know which way to point the camera – south. High ISO, longish exposure, wide angle and on a tripod.
My son follows the aurora forecast closely. For a few days now he has been urging me to get out there after dark but the sky has been clouded and Port Fairy has seen a fair bit of rain. Last night we won the lottery. His vantage point was across Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne. Mine was Griffiths Island, Port Fairy. My first composition included the light house and you can see the aurora if you know what to look for! I was on the phone to my son. He was describing a better developed event and encouraging me to get a good view of the horizon. So I scrambled precariously across the rocks and hunted for more compositions as the event increased in intensity. Please click on the first picture to see them at their best.
The aurora looks better on the camera than to the naked eye. It’s all about the rods and cones. Rods make up about 95% of the photoreceptors in the retina. They do the heavy lifting in low light and see in black and white. The cones come in three flavours (usually) and give us red, green and blue. The aurora is faint and in colour. The camera sensor is all cones (figuratively speaking) and shows us what is really there.
Junior is an Australian Pied Oystercatcher that hatched on Griffiths Island. You can tell this is a youngster by the brownish feather margins and relatively subdued colours on legs, bill and eye ring. He or she was probably one of two or three but there has been no trace of siblings over the last few days. Life is hazardous for young birds. Junior is probing for food for themself but is still very ready to accept food from its parents which are still a bit bigger.
When danger threatens Junior pretends to be a bit of seaweed while Mum and Dad run into the open and pipe up a racket, a distraction display.
Around the corner I came across L9. I last saw L9 three years ago and I’m pleased to see them still going strong. They were in a relationship back then but do not seem to be paired up presently. The Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme tell me that L9 was banded on 17th May 2011 and was 3 years or older at the time. (First and second year Oystercatchers can be aged by examination of the pattern of their moult). Banding occurred 288km away. They are now at least 17yrs old.
bobmcgee 