Happy 2023 from Water Rabbits, Possums, Dragon

Couldn't find a 'Water Rabbit' for Chinese New Year 2023 so Possum pair located close to Town Common pool volunteered to wish you all a Happy New Year. And I've looked for first time at my birth dates and I'm a Dragon. Ego-enhancing! Modesty forbids . . . And, yes, I know Chinese New Year comes later on.

Need to look sharper as Kites whistle in

Whistling Kite all set to grab dead Tilapia from Townsville Town Common pool. I caught the action but got caught with slow settings because I'd been after Black Cormorants 'fishing' much closer to me and in shadow. So, after processing with Canon's DPP4 and sharpening to its full extent on 1-10 scale, the images, converted to.JPGs, got more sharpening in Gimp (which I'd use more often if the super freeware only had a worthy Raw converter. Fully sharpened picture above. Partially sharpened below, followed by extra-sharpened in sequence.

Darter stabs and nabs vacant title - Jabberoo!

Australasian Darter comes up from Freshwater pool in Townsville Town Common Park this week with Tilapia securely impaled. Taking no chances, bird took fish out of water (and out of my sight) to swallow the catch. Since Black-necked Storks are no longer Jabirus the name, or something like it, seems a good fit.

Same morning and not far away, Australian Pelican makes a diving splash and grab. Another Tilapia down the hatch. First time I've seen a Pelican make such a nonstop move and perhaps creating a risk of the bird somersaulting over a bill full of water. That would be a picture to treasure!

There's Bushlarks and there's bush larks

Here's a Horsfield's Bushlark. Often seen these days on the bund between Freshwater and Bald Rock in the Townsville Town Common Conservation Park. Note it's a Bushlark, not bush-lark, nor bush lark. There are eight other subspecies but Horsfield's is nominate (first classified). It wasn't always thus: for years it was a Singing Bushlark. But taxonomy rules. Anyway, onwards. 

Many visitors to the park, probably in truth most, don't seek Bushlarks so much as bush larks. These include hoonish driving on the much potholed corrugated metal road and predictable damage to vehicles and trees. Fast-food container and other rubbish disposal along the road. Guy in utes with dogs (forbidden), looking for pigs to hunt (forbidden). Multiple visits for no apparent reason (if not forbidden, maybe unsavoury). Explains big collection of X-rated old vids found under a prickly pandanus a while back. 

But carrying larks to a real carry-on began last Saturday night (I believe: following is my guess at start of events). Bloke and young lady enter park late (automatic front gate out of action lately). Ignore parking bay and drive down walking track to Payets Tower bird hide. Good time up in tower. Comes downfall. Buckets of rain. 4WD on flooded grass. Gets bogged. Call help. Sit out night. Help arrives in morning. Older bloke with 4WD and big dog (forbidden). Mother of young lady in small car. Tow-out begins. Tight angles. Tension between mum and bogged bloke. Newly arrived birders watch on. Tree loses bit of bark. Blokes bark a bit. Dog silent. Young lady silent. Mum not. Nor bogged bloke. Finally, tow success. Another bush lark gone wrong.

Better sticking to Bushlarks, I say.

Breeding and bathing boom for Brown-backeds

Breeding and bathing is booming for Brown-backed Honeyeaters in Townsville Town Common Conservation Park this year and no more so than in the past three months. Seems conditions throughout the year - particularly those relating to the present high water levels - have suited them above major honeyeater rivals, Browns, and lesser competition from such as Yellow, White-throated, Rufous and Black-chinned species.

Brown-backeds have barely built, bred, raised and farewelled one set of young before they're building again nearby and beginning over again. Which effort calls for great amounts of foraging - almost entirely for insects - and, perhaps somehow related, much more time bathing than rival species. 

Interestingly in 12 years of birding in Tyto Wetlands at Ingham I never saw such a breeding boom and its consequent surge in numbers and reduction in sightings of other honeyeaters. Rather, the species would vanish at times, returning, usually, when paperbarks burst into flower. 2023? We must wait and see.

    

  

Feet-first attacker finally can't foot it, is fairly defeated

Feet-first attack kicks off fighting flurry between Intermediate Egrets in Townsville Town Common Conservation Park.

But aggressor ended up getting the boot. Couldn't foot it with aggrieved defender.

Hanging out with Salty and hanging out of Kookaburra

Decided last post didn't do local Salty justice. Closer shot does the trick, I reckon. Can't imagine anyone silly enough to want to get much closer. Long, long lens put to good, safe use.

Another reptile in the park not so daunting. Caught Blue-winged Kookaburra with Common Tree Snake the other morning. Bird proceeded to tell two companions all about the catch. Then all three flew off. The snake most likely ended up inside its captor.

Grey and black, white and fishy, green and seen

Rare wet and grey Townsville October day just the thing to highlight black-tipped feather tips of juvenile Royal Spoonbill on bund between Freshwater area and Bald Rock on Thursday. Plenty of other young spoonbills near same spot today but no black-tipped birds standing out.

 

But Great Egret stood out under perfect blue sky near the bund, juggling dripping Tilapia. Quick few flicks and fish was down the throat. Nearby, no chance for worthwhile pictures as some distance away White Ibis struggled to down similar sized fish. Technique and natural tools not really up to the task. Lost track of it in longish para grass. Probable outcome: dead fish in grass, not in ibis.

And just down the bund a little, Saltwater Crocodile stands out in Duck Weed, being too far clear of the water for the green camouflage.

Seeing the light about washing out Fairywren image

Every now and then I get an image nagging at me: 'Hey, have another go, mate. I deserve a bit more time and effort.' So, here's a Red-backed Fairywren first time around - used with eBird listing a few days back. Too light and washed out in an effort to show detail in the blacks. 

Slightly less lightening and bit more tweaking of colours and saturation and the nagging becomes: 'Better, mate. But could be better still!' So, I'll think about it for a while.

Crimson Finch feed of seed fills need to breed

Female Crimson Finch feeds on roadside grass in Townsville Town Common Conservation Park. One of a few pairs lately showing signs  of impending breeding.

 

Elsewhere, White-throated Honeyeater offers happily uncluttered pose.

And Comb-crested Jacana pauses during brief time away from usual wet surrounds.

 

Luck catches up with Darter and Tilapia

Rarely, but every now and then, a moment of magic emerges from an amalgam of luck and readiness. The readiness is all, they say. Not so. Without luck the readiness  - vital though it is - comes to nothing. Or maybe nothing much. So, Australian Darter snatches Tilapia from duckweed-coated pool on sun-filled, still morning in Townsville Town Common Conservation Park.

Lucky to be carrying 800mm lens and camera set for fast in-flight action. Lucky to catch bird and fish lit so happily. 

But luck is fickle. Not so lucky to have bird miss head-first catch after tossing fish in air. Suddenly action too fast for auto focus and eye-capture and blurry fish is plunging to lucky longer life. 

Half your luck, some might say. Probably rightly. And perhaps the Darter was even luckier and could afford a seeming smile. The Tilapia's size may have proved an unlucky swallow. On balance, lucky me, lucky fish, lucky bird maybe.

Grabbing, tearing, probing - unmoving

Three ways of catching some protein and wee portions of other nutrients, seen in the Townsville Town Common lately. Nankeen Kestrel flew from low perch, grabbed grasshopper or locust on the ground and carried it into the sky to feed on the wing (on not off, because insect wings are often discarded).

Australian Raven has torn spider nest from Corymbia tessellaris and followed or carried it down to roadside. The birds use road because spiders inside are easier to find on or hiding under road metal. I believe Torresian Crows, supplanted by the ravens in recent years, don't share the passion for such fare.

Spangled Drongo tears into gumtree bark that has split apart after last year's hot fires through the park. Lost track as it flew off but probably a caterpillar went with it and would not have lasted long.

Meantime Brahminy Kite disdained any such grabbing, tearing and probing, unmoving above the Silver Gulls grabbing slivers of discarded bait as beach fisher at Pallarenda refreshed his hooks. Though the kite is much more a scavanger than, say, the Osprey.

Will burnoff, warning sign brown off croc in the Common

Saltwater Crocodile making itself at home on the freshwater side of the earth and gravel bund for walkers and cyclists in Townsville Town Common Conservation Park has sparked permanent warning sign 6km away just inside the entry gate.

Possibly slight overreaction for an animal estimated at a bit under two metres but there is some suspicion of a larger saltie in the same general 300-400m stretch - the deepest water on the north side of the bund.

Neither was likely to have been visible from midmorning today because a pre-saltie-planned burnoff of grasses on bother sides of the bund brought crackling red flames, billowing smoke and hungry kites. No threat to the croc's favoured sunning spots, half in flooded para grass and mud on norther side of the long curving pool. Even the threat of being caught unawares has greatly reduced through the burnoff of much cover on the bund. But we'll take a sneaky look tomorrow - see if the croc's browned off.  

Fruit, seeds, nuts and mystery bag for breakfast

Long ago, as with many smokers, I'd wheeze, 'Breakfast's for the birds', gulp my coffee and head out to get my teeth into work. Toast and no nicotine or caffeine these days, then out and into the healthier by far world of birds. So, what are they eating these days? Above, Great Bowerbird with ripe Dodder Vine fruit.

Chestnut-breasted Mannikin using woody weed to reach and fill up with tiny seeds from Natal Grass.

Trio of Double-barred Finches during long stint moving slowly from patch to patch of (I think) Paspalum species.

Chunkier stuff for Red-tailed Black Cockatoo with resounding crunches as powerful bill cracks Eucalyptus nuts. 

Mystery bag for Rufous Shrikethrush, an insectivore, so something smaller loses out.
 

There's something fishy about descriptions of Ospreys

Three Eastern Ospreys with a fish each. No sharing now, after months of the male keeping female and and advanced juvenile fed in their nest close to the road barely 500m into the Town Common Conservation Park. One of the three should have  slightly brighter eyes, just a wee bit golden say. And one, the male, should have lighter, less darkly streaked and shallower breast banding or bib. The juvenile should have feathers fringed with white. Says so in the books.  But in the real world things not so clearcut. So, three with fish each, two on nest, one flying off, as will they all - likely not too far. Take your pick for the ID task I've left to you.  Or not. Just enjoy another of nature's little puzzles.