I spent an interesting afternoon at the local wetlands. I was mainly photographing birds.
When I arrived, I was saddened to see a large Blue Tongue Lizard. It was dead and was starting to be eaten by ants. I am not sure what kills the lizard. It had no visible signs that showed how it died. Perhaps it was trodden on (people do walk through at night) or rode over by a bike or trail bike?
Quite a few skinks were out. Here are a few –
And some of the birds I saw –
Reed Warblers
I think the pair below were courting.
Silvereyes
Spotted Pardalotes
This male was bring food back to its nest hole. Every five minutes or so, it would return. It would always perch on a small bush before and look around before entering the hole. This provided plenty of photographic opportunities.
In the photo above, the male is taking something out of the hole. This is probably a fecal sac, containing faeces from the chicks, which the parent encase with mucous membrane and take out of the nest.
Its hard to get a good photo of them as they leave their hole. They suddenly appear and fly out with no warning.
I wonder how the birds defend their nest holes from predators? There are a lot of lizards that live nearby.
The incubation time for the eggs is about 19 days, both parents share duty sitting on the eggs, and then the chicks when hatched stay in the nest about 21 days.
Others –
Superb Fairy-wren
Australasian Grebe
White-plumed Honeyeater
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
And some insects –
