Mangrove Honeyeater

This post is for World Bird Wednesday.

Mangrove Honeyeaters - often called Varied Honeyeaters - are common around the bay. If you hear a beautiful songbird calling from a mangrove tree this is most likely what you are hearing. I have cropped the second photo to show the bird's beautiful blue eye.

Mullens in the Morning.

This post is for World Bird Wednesday.

It was low tide the other morning when I went for a walk along the foreshore to the Mullens roost. I wanted an easy walk without having to carry a lot of weight so left the big 150-500mm lens at home. Oh well, we all make mistakes of that kind sometimes! There were small birds everywhere in the bushes and trees and the 70-300mm lens was just not long enough!
Because there is still a lot of blossom on the Paperbark trees there were numbers of honeyeaters around. The easiest to see in that area are the Mangrove Honeyeaters. This one stopped just long enough for a quick photo even though the light was not in the right direction.
There were also lots of Brown Honeyeaters flying around.
There were a number of other small birds flitting in and out of the Mangroves that are all around the edge of the salt marsh. I waited for quite some time hoping that one would stop where I could actually see it rather than just fly into the bushes where I could only see leaves moving. This is the best I did - not a clear photo of the bird but unmistakeable with that pale ring around the eye - a Silvereye.
The biggest surprise of the morning were a group of small waders that flew up ahead of me then dropped down into the saltmarsh plants again. I couldn't tell what they were just from their flight pattern but even a distant photo was enough to ID Black-fronted Dotterels. These are another of the small shorebirds that are resident in Australia. They are not common in this area although I had been told that there were two there a couple of months ago. There were at least 4 in the group I saw. I took better photos of one I saw out in SW Queensland last year and have posted that photo again.
The most colorful photo of the morning was of a Scarlet Honeyeater that flew high up into a dead tree and then sat up there and let me get a couple of distant photos against the deep blue of the sky.

Early Morning Birds

There was a heavy shower of rain just before I went for a walk along the shoreline the other morning. All the trees and bushes were still very wet and it seemed that the birds had used the rain as an excuse to delay their early morning preening. This Mangrove Honeyeater was intent on getting every feather into place.High up on a tree a male Mistletoebird also completed his morning preen.Out on the saltmarsh flat this Willy Wagtail was catching insects that were hovering over a puddle of water in an old vehicle track.The Scarlet Honeyeaters were already busy in the tops of the trees.The only shorebirds were small dots far out on the sand flats.

Early morning at Mullens

This morning was nearly perfect. There had been some fog around earlier but it did not last when the sun got up.
Although high tide was just before 8am it was only listed as 2.41M. The tide last night by contrast was 2.98M. I could still see where the birds had roosted last night but this morning the water was well out on the sand flats and there was no reason for the birds to even come up to their normal roosting place. I saw a small flock of Red-capped Plovers and a few Double-banded Plovers. There were also a few Gull-billed Terns standing at the edge of the water. There were no other waders to be seen.
The Paperbark was in full flower and even my poor human nose could smell the honey/nectar. Lovely! There were Mangrove Honeyeaters all along the foreshore - all singing at the top of their voices! -but they are experts at staying just behind the leaves and almost out of sight. This one sat in full view just long enough for me to get a photo. I wished I had also taken my old Canon S2 which has video and therefor sound recording.
As I walked back to the car park area I could see a number of white birds roosting at the edge of the water. There are often numbers of Little Egrets in this area and I assumed that is what they were. However, as I got closer some appeared larger - and photos showed a Royal Spoonbill. Then the two birds that had been perched in the trees flew off and they were Great Egrets. It was too far away for good photos but even record shots are interesting to show birds not usually seen right here.
My dog Misty really enjoys this walk with me. (I have said before that she is a Stumpy-tailed Blue Cattle Dog - some call them Smithfields. They are born without tails.) I have had her since she was a tiny pup and although she had always been allowed to run off the lead, when I saw birds she was quickly put on the lead and made to stand behind my legs while I looked and took photos. However, things have changed now. She often sees the birds before I do and she comes up behind me and gives me a little nudge on the back of the leg with her nose to let me know that I should have the camera up and be taking photos of whatever she has seen. This morning she thought I hadn't seen the Red-capped Plovers on a rather distant sand bank so came and gave me a nudge. However, they were too distant for good photos. When I have finished and move off she runs off too and continues exploring all the interesting things she finds down there. Its always a favorite game to chase the little fish that she sees in the shallow water. With all the splashing that goes on no fish ever gets anywhere near being caught!