Sunday, January 16, 2011

More Gray Days.

We've had several days of dry weather but unfortunately there are still lots of gray clouds around. When I walked out to the Mullens shorebird roost this morning and yesterday morning I saw lots of birds - but gray skies and gray/brown birds on gray/brown sand don't make for great photos.
There were lots of birds on the far side of the bay. The larger birds - Godwits and Curlews - were further down the bay where the water is deeper.
Many of the smaller birds were on a sand bank at the shallow end of the bay.
There were large numbers of Lesser Sand-Plovers in among the other birds. They were standing in the shallow water in front of the Bar-tailed Godwits.
They were also out on a sand bank with some Pacific Golden Plovers.
There was also a small flock of Great Knots.
There is still a lot of fresh water running into the bay from the recent heavy rains. This fresh water is stained with the vegetation it filters through and comes out colored dark orange/red. I am still trying to get a photo that shows all the tints of red as the water gets deeper out from the shoreline.
For more bird photos visit the Bird Photography Weekly.

12 comments:

  1. Hi Mick
    Nice bird photos, but that last shot is very dramatic.
    Cheers
    Denis

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  2. I'd love to see the different shades of red in the water. Must be quite beautiful.

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  3. Lovely shots. The orange/red water must be really cool to see in person!

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  4. Hi Denis, Gwendolen and Lana. Thanks for commenting and glad you liked the red color in the water.

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  5. Hi Mick, And yes our Curlew is Numenius arquata, slighly different from your own, is that Numenius madagascariensis? So glad you haven't had the disasters of other parts of Aussie.

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  6. I'm sure this weather is as hard on the wildlife as it is on the people, keep safe.

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  7. Hi Phil, yes our Curlew is N. madagascariensis.
    Hi Martha, thanks for your comments and wishes about our weather.

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  8. Hope there are some fine and sunny days on there way. Great photos.

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  9. he coming season I hope to see more of the waders. I have so much to learn. But I will have to travel a lot. I hope you get your watershots.
    The muddy water can be very nice.

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  10. I hope so too Neil.
    Hi NatureFootstep - there are so many waders around here that - for me - they are the easiest to learn. I hope you can see more of them this next season.

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  11. Nice shots of all the waders Mick but I especially like the Golden and Lesser Sand Plovers.

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  12. Cool to see the colour change in the water. Beautiful!
    And the shore birds are so plentiful, wow!

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