I had been down to Royal National earlier in the day, and it had been quite hot, but later in the afternoon it was quite pleasant so, around 5 pm, I cycled down to the Cooks River to see how the birdlife was going.
It was very pleasant with a cool breeze coming up the valley. The tide was low exposing muddy flats, so quite a few birds were feeding.
I noticed a Darter fly down the river and land on a post to dry its wings. I have not seen too many darters at the Cooks River, so I got a few photos.
I then continued upstream to the Dog Area and looks some photos of the Tawny Frogmouth family –
The chicks were still in their nest.
When I left, I spotted the Darter. It was swimming in the river. They swim with just their neck and head sticking out. But as i watched it dive and come back again, I noticed it had a fish (a Bream?). The fish was quite large and impaled on its beak.
It swam over to the closest mudflat with the fish, climbed out and then spent time trying to manoeuvre the fish for a good position for swallowing. The fish was rather large and the Darter had to place it on the ground to do this. They swallow them head first.
All this playing with the fish attracted the nearby Ibises. They approached trying to get a piece of the action, and perhaps also a piece of fish if they could. But they had no luck. The Darter managed to stretch open its neck and swallow the fish.
It then shook itself a bit to get the fish down and wandered over to the river for a drink. It then swam off.
I continued to Cup and Saucer Creek Wetlands and photographed some of the Purple Swamphens and their chicks.
Back at the Boat Harbour, I saw the Darter drying its wings on the boom.
And the usual Pelicans –
There were also some young Magpie Larks flying around –
