Tucker Swamp _ Pied Cormorant

Tucker Swamp is on the northern edge of Dutson Downs and is only accessible by boat. Last Thursday Pete took Deb Sullivan, Abigail Barenblitt and me there to check out the Pied Cormorant breeding platform. We had last visited three months ago and it looked like things were starting to get "active". Well, things have certainly been active. We counted at least 70 juvenile Pied Cormorants chicks and about 200 in total.

Here is an image of the platform from about 300 metres.

We were able to get a bit closer without disturbing the residents unnecessarily and I took plenty of shots including several bursts of images from one end of the platform to the other using a 300mm lens plus 2X teleconverter. At home utilising the computing power of a Mac using Lightroom, I was able to create two panoramic images using 15 images each time.

Pied Cormorant Phalacrocorax varius

Here are some closeups using the crop tool in Lightroom. Note the breeding flush of the skin at the commissure of the jaws in the first two images and the drab juvenile plumage of 17 or so young in the last image.

Bird Nerd visits Queensland 08

A return visit, solo, to Fearnley Bird Hide at Lake Macdonald yielded a great crop of birds.

There were plenty of Darters around, all drying themselves in the newly-risen sun. Here is one example.

Darter Anhinga melanogaster

This Little Pied Cormorant is one of the dirtier examples to be seen. Not sure why as the water was nice and clear.

Little Pied Cormorant Phalacrocorax melanoleucos

Magpie Geese Anseranas semipalmata a-landing

This is a Wandering Whistling-Duck. At first I thought it was a Plumed Whistling-Duck looking a bit strange [perhaps a juvenile] but a check of the apps showed it was to be a WW-D.  Life tick with this single bird although looking through pictures I had taken at our previous visit showed a pair in the air -- called PW-D at the time. The dappled back and the dark line down the back of the neck are diagnostic.

Wandering Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna arcuata

Hardheads are always nice clean, snappy ducks. They were quite unconcerned at my presence about 10 metres away.

male Hardhead Aythya australis

female Hardhead Aythya australis

There were plenty of Cromb-crested Jacanas Irediparra gallinacea about, thirteen or fourteen. Their feet are HUGE. Two image crops to show just how BIG. No wonder they can walk on water.

Then suddenly, I spotted a chick with one of the CCJs. In this first image you can see the chick, can't you. No? Check out the next image - a crop and magnification.

How many chicks do you think?

Here is another image of the parent walking away. How many now?

Well, there were four. Pretty exciting.

The highlight of the visit was a White-bellied Sea-eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster which flew in and landed in a tree opposite the bird hide. After a bit of jiggling, it seemed to settle in with an occasional preen. After a few minutes I "lost interest" in it [ I recall the Jacana chicks came along] and after about twenty minutes I heard a splash and looking over aw that the eagle had dropped straight down into the water about two feet from the edge. It had something in its talons. It was a large, at-least-25cm-across, freshwater tortoise. The age pulled its breakfast out of the water, had a good look around to see if anyone had noticed [they hadn't] then set about hoeing in to a back leg with the tortoise on its back. Of course, it was only a few minutes since caught so the tortoise was still well alive and as the eagle feasted, I could see legs and head waving about! Nature at its rawest. Anything for a feed and get stuck in.