BLob

Bird Week – Day Two: First Time Ever!

OK – so i’ve kept you all waiting long enough!

Last Friday a visit to a small suburban reserve resulted in me spending an hour or more enthralled with what i was seeing and able to capture with my camera. 

It is something i would never have expected to see where i saw it (them) – although i have seen both birds before separately.

I am showing a satellite screenshot of the area close to my home to give you a better feeling for just how strange this occurrence actually is.

I hope you enjoy the remaining photos, more will be posted over each coming day of Bird Week!

Wellington lake

My little part of suburbia showing the reserve (circled in blue) where i photographed all these birds . The black dot in the middle is the pond/lake which is roughly the size of an olympic swimming pool (50 x 25 m). There is a petrol service station located in the top right corner of the circle. The whole area is roughly in the centre of the Perth Metropolitan Area which is some 6,400 square kilometres in size (2,500 sq mi !!), the vast majority of which looks a lot like this! It is some 8-10 km away from the nearest beach.

Onto the birds…

(Click on a pic to open in a new window and click again for full detail 🙂 )lovewillbringustogether - Australian Pelican1 This beautiful bird was swimming next to a freshwater reed bed seeking out small fish hiding amongst the roots when i first spotted him (from a distance of 100 metres). He was on his own and far from his typical hangouts of the ocean or saline estuaries. He appeared uninjured and seemed in no hurry to leave, as i found him here again 2 days later, shortly after which he flew off.;-)

lovewillbringustogether - Australian Pelican6He was kind enough to stop his feeding for a time and step up onto a grassy bank and posed for me in the bright sunshine. I’ve named him Phillip Alexander after the 2 great kings of Macedon (Greece) 🙂  The brown blob close to the bank on the right is the back of a Pacific Black Duck some 3m (10ft) or so from the Pelican, who has his head under the water.

Just when i was thinking it could not get any better…lovewillbringustogether - Spoonbill and Pelican… I get a Pelican/Spoonbill double act!!

lovewillbringustogether - Spoonbill1I call him ‘William’, or ‘Bill’ for short. 🙂

More to come… Day Three. 🙂

Previous Pelican Posts:

Day One   (No Pelicans!)

 

love.

22 comments

  1. i love both spoonbills and pelicans. Pelicans are fairly abundant here, but I only see a spoonbill every couple of years, at best. They are delightful creatures and so much fun to capture digitally! Great shots!

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    • I always get a thrill spotting our larger or more unusual birds, and if i have my camera handy – even better! 🙂

      I like photgraphing the bigger birds as they generally move more smoothly; slowly and regally like the pelican!

      Thanks again.

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  2. That spoonbill is really interesting and for reasons I can’t explain, I just love pelicans!

    We were down by the river during last week and I could hear the honking of either geese or swans — I thought it was geese since they tend to be noisier than swans — but I never saw them. They couldn’t have been very far away, but the river is very twisty, so they could have been anywhere. The fisherman said he’d seen some swans and you never find both swans and geese in the same waterway because they hate each other and fight all the time.

    Also haven’t seen any herons this year. I’m sure they are around, probably on the bigger ponds and lakes.

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    • The spoonbill is cool! but really skittish about us hoo-mans. makes him hard to photograph as he flies off if you get closer than about 50 m (160ft).

      I love pelicans too – always have although i don’t get much chance to see many these days as i hardly visit our beach or river and spend most of my time close to home. Which is why seeing ‘Phillip Alexander’ was such a huge surprise!

      I have a couple of shots showing the back of his head and neck which are covered in ‘spikey’ feathers and thought of you! 😉

      Watching him slowly cruise past on the small lake, which made him seem even bigger (he could pick fruit hanging off a tree five feet or more above the ground while standing on two feet! – if he liked fruit! 😉 ), it reminded me of a cruise ship steadily steaming through a calm blue ocean. Majestic is the word, even if he can at times have a bit of a haughty look – like he is looking down his very long nose at you! 🙂

      Hope the herons show up!

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    • The reserve is 2 blocks away – easy walking distance.

      I only use my Nikon Coolpix B700 – 60X zoom ( = 1440 mm and then has a 4x digital zoom!!)

      Mucias gracias – i was well pleased how they all turned out. 🙂

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