After seeing the Purple-crowned Fairy-wren on the weekend, I decided to stop in on my drive home to see if they were still there, and to try to take better photos. Fortunately for me, they were still there, and even though the adults kept to the pandanas, the young ones eventually came out into the open. The photos are below:
I also wanted to see if I could find some more Crimson Finches. Again, the younger ones were much happier to be in the open (I think the adult finches and fairy-wrens were having the afternoon off and were having cups of tea in the pandanas together!)
A bird I had beard but not seen on my previous visit to the Camfield River was the Rainbow Bee-eater, and this time a few of them sat on exposed branches as they normally do, displaying their beautiful range of colours in the afternoon sun:
The above photos were taken at Camfield River on the Buntine Highway on Camfield Station. Other birds there included flycatchers, doves, honeyeaters of various types and surprisingly, bats. They were very noisy down along the river in the pandanas, and at first I thought I had heard a new species, but then quickly realised the noise was coming from the bats. Just after dusk on the same day, I watched an amazing migration of bats from the spring areas to their night feeding grounds, the numbers were well above a thousand, possibly up to 2-3 thousand.
Even though I have seen a number of Australian Bustards, or Bush Turkeys as they are also know, I don't think any have been so close or so non-threatened by the presence of the car as this one:
From the car to the bird would have been 4-5 metres to start with, it then wandered around near the car for about a minute and then leisurely crossed the road behind the car. The locals love hunting these birds for food so maybe it knew the camera wasn't going to hurt much. Lucky for me.
I also wanted to see if I could find some more Crimson Finches. Again, the younger ones were much happier to be in the open (I think the adult finches and fairy-wrens were having the afternoon off and were having cups of tea in the pandanas together!)
A bird I had beard but not seen on my previous visit to the Camfield River was the Rainbow Bee-eater, and this time a few of them sat on exposed branches as they normally do, displaying their beautiful range of colours in the afternoon sun:
The above photos were taken at Camfield River on the Buntine Highway on Camfield Station. Other birds there included flycatchers, doves, honeyeaters of various types and surprisingly, bats. They were very noisy down along the river in the pandanas, and at first I thought I had heard a new species, but then quickly realised the noise was coming from the bats. Just after dusk on the same day, I watched an amazing migration of bats from the spring areas to their night feeding grounds, the numbers were well above a thousand, possibly up to 2-3 thousand.
Even though I have seen a number of Australian Bustards, or Bush Turkeys as they are also know, I don't think any have been so close or so non-threatened by the presence of the car as this one:
From the car to the bird would have been 4-5 metres to start with, it then wandered around near the car for about a minute and then leisurely crossed the road behind the car. The locals love hunting these birds for food so maybe it knew the camera wasn't going to hurt much. Lucky for me.
Happy Birding!
(to see more photos of any of the birds in this post, click on the links below)
loved to see the purple-crowned fairy wren for the first time. Delightful series of photographs and the bustard is a real treat too.
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteLovely post as allways.
Have a nice weekend
/ingemar
A great collection Rich!
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