City Waterbirds

Lake Alford Park is one of parks in Gympie. It is right beside the Bruce Highway on the south side of the city. The birds there are very much what one expects to see in a place with people all around - but not the birds that I commonly see out here on the coast. On a bright sunny day it looks quite beautiful.

When I was there last week the day was grey and cloudy. The water in the ponds looked a dirty brown color and where the trees and bushes shut out the light it was almost black I never even thought of taking a photo of the landscape - it didn't look at all appealing. I just took a quick walk around to see if there were any birds I wanted to photograph.
The trees on the islands in the center of the ponds were filled with white birds - mainly Egrets and Ibis - but none close enough to want to take photos. Then I saw this one - perched lower down and close enough for photos. It is an Intermediate Egret and one I don't often see out here.

There were the usual ducks and black swans - and lots of  Dusky Moorhens (Gallinula tenebrosa). The Dusky Moorhens all seemed to have young ones around them. I think all baby birds are "cute" but these ones are rather ugly along with it. The feathers all looked sparse and rather spiky and then there is that red patch on the top of the head!

The very tiny ones wanted to stay as close as possible to the parent.

The ones a little bit older wanted to explore on their own.

The older juveniles were a brown color and didn't have the bright red beaks that showed so clearly on the adults.

 Before I could even get back to the car it was raining again - not heavy but enough to stop my photography!

For more scenery from around the world visit Out World Tuesday

and for more birds visit Wild Bird Wednesday