Phillip Island Water Bird photos

Have spent a bit over a week at Phillip Island in Victoria and our time is coming to an end. We have had a great time with family and friends, and have seen some unusual and wonderful sights.

The bird life on the Island is varied with a number of habitats, but I have gone with a generalist group, namely water birds.

 Fairy (front) and Crested Tern

Cormorants (L-R)

Black-faced (3), Great, Little Pied

Cape Barren Goose

Crested Tern with fish

Crested Tern take-off

Fairy Tern

Pacific Gull take-off

Purple Swamphen backing away from rival

Yellow-billed Spoonbill

Kelp Gull chicks - photos - The Nobbies, Phillip Island, Victoria

Our last day for this trip on Phillip Island was a lot warmer and the northerly winds proved a new experience at The Nobbies - no jumper required! Even in Summer we have always needed a jacket or jumper for the cold southerly wind, but not today.

The highlight apart from the Fairy Penguins was a pair of immature Kelp Gulls:

Kelp Gull with chick

The Kelp Gull is able to be distinguished from the more common Pacific Gull by the "lipstick only on the bottom part of the beak":

Kelp Gull head shot

but the stars of the show were the two chicks:

The day was punctuated with a few other sightings. 

Fairy Penguin

Brown Songlark

Crested Tern

Sooty Oystercatcher

Birds of Victor Harbour, South Australia

Spent the past couple of days around Victor Harbour, South Australia. Yesterday was a beautiful calm, sunny, warm day, however the wind picked up today and showery clouds were scudding across the sky most of the day.

Below are a range of birds from the area, starting with an argument over space:

Crested Terns

Australasian Grebe

Australian Magpie

Australian White Ibis

Immature Black-shouldered Kites

Cape Barron Goose

Common Blackbird

Common Starling

Immature Crimson Rosella

Dusky Moorhen

Immature Galah

Great Cormorant

Little Black Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant

Little Raven

Little Wattlebird

Immature Nankeen Kestrel

New Holland Honeyeater

Pacific Gull

Superb Fairy-wren

White-fronted Chat

The Galah above was unusual, which fitted in with the Galahs here. There were a lot of different sounding Galahs to the ones in Alice Springs, and other places I have heard them, perhaps the immature ones have a different call. As you can see by the names above the photos, there were a lot of immature birds of all different species around, obviously the breeding season here has been going pretty well. The first day netted around 50 birds, and the total for the two days was around 65. Well worth a visit in a few years when the wetlands start to take shape to the east of Victor Harbour.