I spent part of the day cycling along the Cooks River between Cup and Saucer Creek and Tempe Reserve looking for and photographing the birds.
At the Boat Harbour, there were the usual Cormorants and Pelicans. It was interesting to watch a failed attempt by one of the Pelicans to take off and land on the protected area at the Boat Harbour –
At the Dog Area, a little upstream of the Cup and Saucer Creek junction, I soon located the Tawny Frogmouths – both parents and their two chicks. They had now moved out of the nest (which was very flimsy).
At the Cup and Saucer Ck wetlands, some of the Purple Swamphen chicks were asserting their independence and coming quite close – allowing for some nice photos.
The turtle was also sitting on its rock in the lower pool –
I then cycled downstream pausing the photograph a Willie Wagtail –
And later stopping on the way to photograph and Egret, a Cormorant and a Heron near Tempe Station –
Then down to the Tempe Wetlands. The lower pool had the usual Moorhen chicks –
Since my last visit to the Tempe Wetlands there had been a bad fire. This is between the lower two pools and has burnt out a lot of vegetation. Fortunately it was extinguished by the fire brigade before it could spread too far. The very dry weather recently has caused the ash to dry out, and the fire could have been started by a discarded cigarette butt, or more likely local kids. It did happen towards the end of the school holidays.
Here are some photos taken in the middle pool –
I tried to photograph the very fast moving Welcome Swallows as they fly low over the water. Difficult to do.
But I also observed another pair of birds, not swallows, doing the same thing. I think they may have been White Plumed Honeyeaters.
I was later able to photograph some White Plumed Honeyeaters in the forest area, and I think they are the same birds as I saw in the water.
And a few other photographs –
