Wildlife early 2009

[Paul T]

Some wildlife pics I took at the ANBG in February.....

3 pics of some sort of skink that I haven't come across before.  Total length around 25cm or so.

2 pics of a possum peering from it's daytime hidey-hole

[Paul T]

Some more from Feb.....

These are all pics of East Gippsland Water Dragons.  The first is a male in full breeding colours (he tends to live in a particular drain and often sits halfway out).  Then some pics of babies, one of which I came across which may have been very recently hatched.  I handled it carefully and photographed it, then set it loose back into the areas I found it.  It sat for a bit longer in the sun then scuttled off into the undergrowth.  Rather cute, but in an oversized head sort-of-ugly way. 

[ranunculus]

Wonderful shots, Paul.

[Ragged Robin]

Paul, Easter Sunday Morning and I'm looking at you handling water dragons!!!  You have captured fabulous photos with your new camera of real characters, thanks for those Australian moments. and Happy Easter!

[Paul T]

Robin,

Actually, only the Wren pic was taken with my new camera.  The others were taken with my old camera.  I will not take my new camera to work with me while the old one still works well enough to take the pictures it currently is.  I don't want to get dust and stuff inside the new camera just yet.    I cannot zoom at all any more with the old camera without spots appearing in the photos, but it still works for basic shots, plus for macros thankfully.  So anything taken at the ANBG, unless otherwise noted, will still be on my old camera.

That said, here are a few more pics, this time of the Maned Ducks and their ducklings..... 

These 8 pics are a sequential coverage of the life and times of the Maned Ducks that frequent the lawns of the ANBG in Canberra.  The parents first appeared on the 2nd of Feb with their 10 ducklings, then on the 4th of Feb they had 17, which means that they appropriated another 7 from someone else's brood.  Normally that would be awful, but in this case they were great parents.  They managed to get 15 of the 17 through to maturity, which is no mean feat!!  In spring we had parents that started with 8 and only managed to get 1 of them through, so I am suitably enamoured of this set of parents!!

The dates are the last set of numbers at the end of each file name..... day-month ..... the first pic was taken on the 3rd of Feb, and the last couple taken on the 6th April.  I have more in between these, but this just gives you a basic runthrough of their appearances as they grew up.  They can fly well now and at times a few disappear off by themselves to other ponds etc, so I don't think they'll be together for much longer now.

Enjoy.

[Ragged Robin]

The story of the fostering and survival of so many ducklings is remarkable!  The Maned duck is really attractive I have never seen it before and love the spotted breast of the female, I assume, the male very handsome too and the ducklings adorable.  In England we visit a river each year where the mallard ducklings have to really paddle to keep up with their parents in a strong current.  sometimes they are swept downstream trying the catch the eddies round roots of willows.  Inevitably, once separated, they are easy pickings but I am always amazed at their resilience - when they can't keep up they run on top of the water!

[mark smyth]

Today by the shores of Lough Neagh there were many spring migrants seen and singing - swallows, house martins, sand martins, sedge warblers, blackcaps, willow warblers, chiffchaffs

[Maggi Young]

The parents of the year award .... and foster parents of the year, too,  goes to....... the Maned Ducks from ANBG!! What a success rate.... remarkable indeed And a real Easter treat! Thanks Paul

[mark smyth]

Did you see the starlings at the start of "Skellig"?

[Lesley Cox]

You have given up superb bird images Paul. I think your swamphen is the same as our Pukeko, a beautiful bird with rather disgusting sexual habits. Once when driving to Christchurch, a pukeko flew out of a marshy bit of ground and splattered across my windscreen which virtually exploded in a mess of blood and feathers. My small daughter screamed, I practically had a heart attack and was fortunate to be able to stop on the side of the road without further mishap. I cleaned it up with some newspaper in the boot then went on for a wash down at the nearest service station. Sorry for the pukeko but not my fault.

[Paul T]

Ewwww, Lesley.  Too much information.    And I'm not even going to ask about the disgusting sexual habits. 

 

[David Nicholson]

Did you see the starlings at the start of "Skellig"?

What's 'Skellig'??

[David Shaw]

Whilst one swallow might not a summer make, we've just seen TWO! Therefore it must now be summer.
We don't keep a wildlife diary but thiis seems very early?

[mark smyth]

David, swallows and martins arrived here at the end of march which was very early. It's a normal time for sand martins but definitely not the other two.

Lesley, could you not see the swamphen coming?

Paul, I read they breed in a pack similar to wolves a with dominant breeding pair

[mark smyth]

David Skellig was a movie on Sky last night
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skellig