wandered around the recently renovated lake/wetlands in Shepparton during pleasant overcast weather this afternoon. the place was alive with the usual waterbird culprits and being nearly smack in the middle of town they're very used to people.
waterbirds included; cormorants (little black & little pied), Great Egrets, White-faced Herons, Sacred Ibis, Ducks (Black, Hardhead, Wood), Grey Teal, Australasian Grebe (scads and up close), rails (Purple Swamphen, Dusky Moorhen and scores of Coots), Masked lapwings & Silver gulls.
well worth a visit (I'd say the overcast weather contributed to the numbers).
schulzzz, toolamba, vic
Nice Schulzzz, but what are Silver Gulls doing in Shepparton??? Don't they belong to the beach?
What a nice walk you had. I would love to see some photos of the Heron and the Egret please.
M-L
Ha ha, I used to live in Shepparton and it was surprising how many so-called "sea" gulls there were there!
:-)
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
the pictures are in my mind Araminta. much more relaxing not worrying about exposures & focus.
there must be a bird equivalent of "if a tree falls in the forest and no-one hears it, does it make a sound?". something like, "if a fowl flutters and no-one photographs it, does it fly"
i did regret not having a camera when an Egret, Cormorant & duck were all sitting on the same small rock.
schulzzz, toolamba, vic
I think you can find silver gulls a long way from the ocean, depending on conditions, Araminta. They nest in their thousands if not hundreds of thousands at Lake Eyre when it's in flood. In fact, they predate the eggs of other birds, one species of which is endangered by the number of egg-predating gulls. (I think it might be the black-winges stilt). This is another good reason for humans to cease providing resources which encourage a higher than "natural" silve gull population.