Oriental Cuckoo in flight at Tyto

Want to see bad pictures of an Oriental Cuckoo? No? Well another Tony does, so here we have distant flight at Tyto the other morning. Only the two in-flight images, so lucky to have contrasting wing positions. No Orientals seen last year: 3-4 late-season birds last few weeks.

Sticking with less than perfect, Black-necked Stork with wriggling  eel. Had to stop on Cattle Creek bridge on main (Bruce) highway for quick shots with Troopy's diesel motor pounding but got lucky  break in traffic.

Better shot of Budgerigar along Orient Road recently. Not so lucky with the barbed wire (rusty's better: natural material better yet).

Oriental too fast for Cuckoo chaser

Quest for in-flight pictures of Oriental Cuckoo (Cuculus optatus) got a wee lift yesterday when the above bird flew into view and sat briefly high in a tree some 30 metres away. But it took off so suddenly I was caught out  changing camera settings. The species' hawklike shape in flight makes it unmistakable. At rest it offers hints of several other cuckoos, though mainly smaller species.     

This immature Fan-tailed Cuckoo (Cacomantis flabelliformis) showed out last week amid the many Brush Cuckoos (Cacomantis variolosus) seen in numbers for several weeks. 

Here's an immature Brush showing some tail spread in a somewhat messy setting at Tyto today. Pity the Oriental is never so obliging!

Buttonquail vanishes with a zip

Red-backed Buttonquail (Turnix maculosus) takes a rare few steps away from cover before realising error and zipping back into the long stuff at Tyto yesterday. Have flushed a few lately, but the birds show no preference for any particular area so sightings are a matter of luck.

Lucky to see a Dusky Moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa). This maturing bird dropped in for a few days and just as randomly disappeared. Unlike the only other Dusky sighted in the wetlands the bird stayed well away from the edges of the main lagoon.

Sticking close to the edges of the new lagoons under the even newer walkway from the info centre to the near completed cafe/civic centre/lookout tower, the two Muscovy Ducks that turned up earlier in the week. New species for Tyto, but a potential challenge to native birds.

Also turning up from out of the blue, an Oriental Cuckoo (Cuculus optatus). Spotted the bird flying from the west toward Rain Trees near the carpark two days ago. No sign since. Seldom seen in Tyto and last seen early in 2008.