Back to the Cooks River – More Birds and a Turtle – 17 Nov 2017

During the morning I saw a picture on Facebook of the Tawny Frogmouth family at the Boat Harbour posted by Jennifer, a resident who lives close to the Boat Harbour. So that afternoon I cycled down to the Cooks River to see if I could spot them.

On the way, I saw a Great Egret hunting for food in a shallow part of the river. It seemed to catch a few small things. Then flew off upstream.

At the Boat Harbour, as I parked my bike and started looking for the Tawnies, a Butcher Bird flew up and started singing its song.

I then spotted the Tawny Frogmouths. One parent sitting on a branch by itself and the other parent and chick close by on a different branch. I took a few photos.

Then the Butcher Bird flew to a perch about 1 m above them and its loud call startled the Frogmouths.

The Butcher Bird then flew off and the Tawnies settled down.

I was able  to get some nice photos of the chick as it yawned and stretched its wings.

I then took a few more photos and then left the area and cycled upstream. I did not spot any interesting birds at the Dog Area, so cycled back downstream and crossed the river and headed to the Cup and Saucer Creek Wetlands. Nothing too special in the lower pond. I did take some photos of the Dusky Moorhen chicks.

But at the observation area above the middle pool was a most interesting site –

A turtle had dug a hole and was laying eggs. On a visit about a year earlier I had noticed a similar thing – a turtle that had started digging a few holes. This time I moved away quietly and started watching from a distance.

On the grass nearby a Magpie was grazing on grass seeds and didn’t seem to notice the turtle.

A few Noisy Miners were in the area, and a couple of them did fly swoop low over the turtle, and one actually made contact with its shell. But apart from that they didn’t seem to disturb the turtle too much.

I sat watching for a while to see if I could get a photo of a Miner flying low and close to the turtle – but was unable to. A Purple Swamphen then climbed out of the reeds of the wetland and was also looking for grass  seeds. It looked at the Turtle but didn’t get too close.

But the Swamphen must have got too close to the Noisy Miners nests or territory, and they aggressively chased it away. This made for an interesting series of photos –

By this time, I think I had been watching for over an hour and I was getting a bit restless. The turtle now seemed to be slowly (very slowly!) filling in the hole, so I left the area, intending to return after a while.

I headed back to the Boat Harbour. Now there were nine pelicans sitting on the protected peninsula. I think this may be the most I have seen there?

I photographed a few other birds and had a Noisy Miner swoop down and strike my helmet. I was about to leave when I got taking to a local walking his dog. He mentioned that he had seen a family of Tawny Frogmouths on the other side of the river and their rough location.

So I headed back over to the other side. I made a short detour up to the Wetlands to see how the turtle had progressed. She had gone – and the hole was very well filled in. In fact it would be hard to tell there was something buried there. Apparently for eastern Long Necked Turtles, the incubation time for their eggs is 3 – 5 months. I then made my way down the path on the southern side of the river looking for the Tawnies. I soon spotted them – an adults and two quite large chicks.

I wonder if these are the family from the Dog Area that I had seen about a month earlier? Thanks to the gentleman who told me to look out for these.