When I visit Nurragingy Reserve I always look out for the resident Azure Kingfishers. I don’t always spot them. On this visit I as lucky, spotting one of the Azure Kingfishers perched above one of the pools and also a Sacred Kingfisher made a brief appearance.
When I arrived I looked around the main duckpond, and then headed to the ponds in the bush areas. I dint see too many birds of interest. Here is a Little Pied Cormorant.
On my way back to the main duckpond area. I came across a lot of fungi in the wood chips. A lot of it was the very common flowerpot parasol – Leucocoprinus birnbaumii
But there was also some Birds Nest Fungi – Cyathus stercoreus
An also some Parasola plicatilis
Back at the pond near the Chinese Gardens I spotted a pair of Australasian Grebes. One was sitting on a nest – a floating island of reeds they had made.
And the Little Pied Cormorant was now hunting for fish.
I then set off for a walk around the perimeter fire road. It was relatively quiet. I did see a Sacred Kingfisher. It had landed a fair way away, and flew away as I approached.
There was also a Red-browed Finch with a bit of grass. They use this during courtship –
And there was a Grey Fantail –
And some Superb Fairy-wrens –
And a Brown Thornbill.
Back at the bush ponds, I caught a glimpse of something blue flashing across the water. I looked carefully along likely perches on the bank and spotted an Azure Kingfisher.
In the background you can also see a Superb Fairy-wren. These Kingfishers always seem hard to photograph – often perching on branches obscured by trees and bushes, and in the darkest spots. You often need to wait and see if they fly to another perch at a better location. They often do. But they also often fly away out of sight. These were the best I could do –
Also near the pool was a Turtle –
The Kingfisher was now away from the pool, so I headed back to where the Grebe’s floating island nest was. The bird had left the nest, and I could see two eggs. The Grebe was collecting more nest material and then covered up the eggs. It was a warm day, so perhaps it was covering the eggs to stop them getting too hot.
I then headed to the frog boardwalks. Nearby I could here a kerfuffle amongst the Noisy Miners. It does not take much to get Noisy Miners going, but this time they had a good reason. A Lace Monitor was climbing up a tree.
I looked away for a few seconds, and then I noticed the Monitor had turned around –
Back at the duckpond, the Grebes were still attending their nest –
So I went back to where I had seen the Azure Kingfisher. It was back at the pool –
And it had two Cormorants for company.
I was able to get a few more photos –
It was now getting quite warm, so I decided to head home before it got too hot. It mad been a nice visit.