Monday, 13 July 2015

NT Road Trip 2015: Part 29: Newhaven

Newhaven Day 02: still Swan Lake

After the Black-breasted Buzzard had left the scene, I returned to birding the Orange Chats, Hooded RobinsAustralasian Pipit and White-winged Fairy-wrens.

The lake had been dry for a while and vegetation was growing over most of it.





I sat down near this bush and just waited.


Orange Chat Epthianura aurifons 


Australasian Pipit Anthus australis
White-Winged Fairy-wren, female Malurus leucopterus
The fairy-wren males with eclipse plumage and females always pose identification challenges except here in Gippsland where we only have one species, the Superb Fairy-wren. At Newhaven, you could see the Variegated FW and the Splendid FW as well as the WWFW above. I have decided she is a WWFW because, on close inspection of the photos I took, she had no eyeing at all and her outer tail feathers have no blue tinge. The other two species have an eye-ring of the same colour as the lores or beak. Of course, this is easy to see on the computer but I find is impossible in the field with a swift moving family of fairy-wrens.

Then a couple turned up in formal wear. Mr and Mrs H. Robin.

Hooded Robin, female Melanodryas cullatta

Hooded Robin, male Melanodryas cucullata


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