Friday, December 31, 2010

More birds at Lake Gwelup

Today I spotted a few more birds to add to Tuesday's list at Lake Gwelup:

a pair of black fronted plovers
welcome swallows
pink eared ducks
Australian shelduck
Swamp harrier

The pink eared ducks are quite rare on this lake and they were mightily disturbed by the harrier passing overhead.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Lake Gwelup drying out...birds gathering















Lake Gwelup never used to dry out in the summer, but has done now for the last few years. This means that before the dry, birds gather there and the number of species seen is impressive. Over December 28-9 2010 I have spotted 34 species:

Pacific black duck
Grey teal
Wood duck
Australasian shoveler
Eurasian coot
Black swan
Purple swamp hen
Australasian grebe
Yellow spoonbill
Black winged stilt
White ibis
Straw necked ibis
Great egret
White faced heron
Reed warbler
Laughing turtledove
Spotted turtledove
Western gerygone
Twenty eight
Rainbow lorikeet
Galah
Short billed Corella
Rainbow bee-eater
Sacred kingfisher
Red wattlebird
Singing honeyeater
Brown honeyeater
Yellow rumped thornbill
Magpie lark
Grey butcherbird
Willie wagtail
Rufous whistler
Striated pardalote
Silver eye