Category: where I live

Teenage Darters

December 20, 2020

I’m following the growth of these Darters in a nest close to my house. They are becoming more adventurous and were out of the nest as I approached. They scrambled back to the nest and were more interested in waiting for mum to return than to bother about me. Mum was sitting on a log watching, and didn’t come by while I was waiting.

They are still downy, but and really growing, gaining weight and strength. And they are still hungry!

More photos of the darters. When they were very young. and the rest of the family.

Darter babies – growing up

December 11, 2020

I photographed a family of darters, mum, dad and three chicks a week ago. Now a week on, what a difference! More pics here.

They still look up, watching for a parent to return to feed them. Sadly, there are now only two. I noticed the difference between them previously. These two were much more aggressive about being fed. I imagine the weaker one got pushed out of the nest. They’ve grown so much, there really isn’t any room in it for another one. They are still so soft and downy looking.

This was a week ago.

Now they’ve put on weight!!!.

It’s a Platypus … in the wild

December 10, 2020

A series of shots of an Australian Platypus.

These animals are extremely shy. I couldn’t believe my luck when this one just appeared. I knew it existed but I’d never seen it so close before. It lives in the lagoon, literally just over the track from my front door. I’d had a large glass of wine and gone outside with my camera to enjoy the evening.

It all happened so quickly….. and then he just disappeared under the water.

Turtle

December 7, 2020

I was focused on a bird, when I noticed what I thought was a stick move in the water. He looked at me and I quickly swung the camera around and ‘klicked’ just before he disappeared again.

This might be a friend of his. It was about a month ago. It was just starting to rain a little when my husband spotted him by the edge of the water.

I didn’t have my ‘big’ lens but managed to get quite close to him before he shrank back into his shell.

At least he stayed dry inside his shell.

The Darter Family

December 4, 2020

A family of Australasian Darters has a nest on the water’s edge very close to our house. I spent some time watching their behaviour and was lucky enough to get close enough to get some detailed photographs.

I’m only guessing that the dark bird might be the dad. He took his turn feeding the young and looking after the nest.

Here’s mum, at least I think it’s mum, taking her turn to look after the nest. There are three chicks, two much more active than the third.

And here’s the family portrait. There are three very downy chicks in the nest. The parent birds had their mouths full and fed the chicks. You can see the chicks with full mouths in the pic above.

More photos to come….

Great Cormorants

November 30, 2020

These birds were lined up along the edge of rocks. Every now and then one would lean into the water and grab a fish.

This one suddenly got the urge to leap into the water, catch a fish and then fall back into line along the edge of the rocks.