Another west day! Well the morning was quite wet, but it started to improve in the afternoon, so I headed out. My first stop was at Sydney Park at St Peters.
It was fairly quiet at the Park. The water level was high in the ponds, so that perhaps reduced the chance of spotting at Rail or Crake. Also the vegetation near the ponds was very high due to the recent warm wet weather.
Here are some birds I did see –
Little Black Cormorant
White-faced Heron
In the lower pond, I spotted this Australasian Darter.
Dusky Moorhen with a chick –
The Australasian Darter then vanished. I had entered the pond and was fishing.
It caught a few small fish. As soon as it surfaces, the fish are flicked off its beak and eaten – very quickly. Very hard to photograph. You just see a fish disappearing down the digestive tract of the Darter.
A Turtle was also on the pond –
I waited for the Darter to catch a large fish.
The waiting paid off!
For bigger fish, Darters have to go to the shore to take them off their beak and eat them.
Down it goes –
This Magpie Lark has a more modest meal –
Willie Wagtail
I was surprised to see a Turtle wandering along one of the paths. It was a long way from the ponds.
Grey Butcherbird
I then jumped on a bus and went to Barton Park. Here is a Galah –
The Landing Lights Wetland seemed quiet, so I headed to the old sporting fields to see if any raptors were hunting there. I was in luck – there was a Nankeen Kestrel. I spent almost all the rest of my time watching it.
The Kestrel was often sitting on the lights –
And it would spot a small insect, such as a cricket, often a long way off, dive down and grab it and retain to a light to eat it.
It then started to rain, and the Kestrel left the fields. I took shelter for a while, then headed back to Landing Lights Wetland.
I think this is a juvenile Nankeen Night Heron flying over –
And a few of the Pied Stilts –
When I left home, I did not have high hopes of seeing anything much, but it turned out to be very worthwhile.