Month: August 2011

Onkaparinga river

One more weekend, one more Nature walk. We have a little book of 40 greatest SA short walking trails. (Because long ones are very very long). This time we went to Onkaparinga River. A pleasant place to walk – quiet, calm, nobody scares any animals.

Nor little birds.

Nor big red kangaroos on the other side of the valley.

What a lovely kangaroo! Our first wild kangaroo and so near!

With a full pouch!

She looked at us, didn’t seem scared, until Laurius stepped on some branch.

Laurius is growing.

The same plant.

Sitting on the edge.

Onkaparinga!

Black Faced Cuckoo Shrike.

After a nice walk we drove towards sea. Through vineyards where the Australian Kestrel lives.

Happy full bird after dinner.

Where Onkaparinga meets the Ocean.

River banks.

And birds everywhere.

Australian colours – red rocks, blue sky.

Those little guys were hanging out with some gulls.

Red-Capped Plover is looking for some sushi.

Hyperactive birds, again.

Hooded Plover just hated photo camera and ran away. I’m getting used to that.

Laurius is showing the typical move of that bird.

Instead of art

One weekend there was an art festival in Adelaide, so Luka went to see some exhibitions. But Laurius, as always, grabbed the camera went out to the parks 🙂

Maned Duck is doing something.

Male duck – big and pretty.

Another duck. Couldn’t identify it so far. It was hanging out with Pacific Black Duck, but none of the sources say that these ducks can be black. So either it’s a juvenile, or another race. Can be anything 🙂

And here’s a Pacific Black Duck.

A little bit of showing off.

Once again, fishing in Australia. While fishermen are waiting, the pelican is also waiting.

But as soon as the fish is on the hook – be the first or you are the looser.

What? I’m fishing.

Love of the crested pigeons.

And again…

One day we went to the Markets for food, but accidentally stopped by the old book stall, and bought a field guide to Australian birds. Sort of Bird Bible from the 80’s. We ran out of cash for food that day 🙂

After running through the book Luka saw one bird (104, upper right corner) and said: “I want to see it”. Later she repeated that few times. Well, she really wanted to see it. And then a call from Laurius: “I found it! I found it! I found the unhappy bird!”

Bird with a long nice white feather on his head – Rufous Night Heron.

Few hours later the bird was still there – was probably taking a nap. No wonder – it’s a night heron.

Nigth hunt

We live very near the big park. One of it’s corner looks a bit abandoned by people, so, we call it the park of birds.
Finally, we got a flashlight and went here at night. Perfect place!

It’s dark here, but trees are without leaves. Then you can see shadows of… possums.

This is a female one, with a little baby in her pouch – only tail is seen. She didn’t care about us. While other possums were jumping from the tree with a noise and running away.

Seaside rock’n’roll (winter)

After enjoying strange Middle beach, we picked up our neighbours and headed South.

The beach on the right, in front of us…

… and on the left.

If they would look opposite direction, they’d see the first Australia’s nude beach. But it’s still too cold for them.
Actually, I’ve no idea what are they looking at.

Maybe, at this hill.

Or this.

Or a shore.

So, we spent some time possing.

…and again… and again…

We found a secret beach with little seashells.

Rolling tourists.

And cormorants.

It’s two different kinds of cormorants – black-faced cormorant and pied cormorant.

And of course, Silver Gull.

Feathers

Colourful feathers found in a park and city. Somehow, it is pretty hard to find them, maybe some grey bird collects all feathers and decorates his house.

Left:
– Unknown bird. Noisy miner? Thoug,h a bit too big.
– We don’t know why a magpie plucked feathers from a crested pigeon.
– A corella’s feather. Lost while running from photo camera. Birds often poop when they see us with camera, but this time it lost only a feather.

Right (unknown ones):
– Some lorikeet’s feather.
– It could be a rosella’s tail feather.
– Some lorikeet’s feather. Seems, it was plumage changing period in the park.
– Found in the hills, could be corella’s or cockatoo’s.

More photos here.