Look sharp at Sharpies but beware wild goose chase

Look sharp! Look, Sharpies! Sharp-tailed Sandpipers that is. But wait, look sharpish! What am I looking for? Uncommon Pectoral Sandpiper. Sharp cutoff in breast streaking. Touch of yellow at base of bill. Look hard. Nothing. And thus fail to notice uncommon Curlew Sandpiper right under my nose. Broad white rump, black downcurved bill. There for all to see. Or all those not on narrow focus wild goose chase. See how you go.

Elsewhere lately, finally caught up with a Latham's Snipe a month or two after the first migratory arrivals from the Northern Hemisphere.

It was mixing with a few Sharpies, which are always more obliging when it comes to hanging about for bird photographers. If only Pectorals were as obliging . . .

Bowerbird finds females hard to impress

Great Bowerbird busy showing off crest and various bower treasures to passing females at Rowes Bay site in Townsville on a recent sunny morning.

But they proved impervious to both his charm and his motley charms. Hard to please some birds!

 

Left him moping about, probably wondering what else he needs to win them over.

 

How to take daytime pictures of an Eastern Barn Owl

Buy a retirement village studio unit close to right habitat, let's say the Townsville Town Common Conservation Park,  Queensland, Australia.

Bird in the park often each week for, say, about eight years. Don't stick to the road and formed tracks. Overcome fear of long grass.  Take care to make friends of snakes and other threats.

Finally, stumble upon and flush sleepy owl from low in shrubby tree in untrodden area of the park. Watch where owl flies. Check camera settings are right for owl's probable further flight.

Guess right and grab about 12 frames with Canon R5 and 200-800 lens. Pray for and later find a few sharp images. Easy peasy, as they say. 

    

Magpie-larks busy mud-nest builders

Caught pair of Magpie-larks busy building mud nest in rain tree beside Rowes Bay Wetlands in Townsville this morning. 

Not every burst of images of the birds coming and going brought sharp captures but auto focus worked well enough to enable me to string together a reasonable sequence of shots.

By late morning the nest appeared close to completion, though probably some fussing about with  bowl lining still to come. 

Raspy result for nest-ripping raven

Australian Ravens love ripping into leaf spider nests and taking them to gravel road or open ground to mop up all the youngsters running for cover.

This week in Townsville Town Common, a surprising change of diet. From nest near identical to that of the silk-weaving spiders bigger prey, Raspy Cricket. Species? With 220 in Australia alone I'll stick with common name. The crickets are also silk spinners.

 

But mostly, in my experience, it's spiders and more spiders most of the time.

  

Calm cormorant tolerates clumsy clamberer

Clambered clumsily over clammy mid-tide rocks to rock up close to tolerant Pied Cormorant near my near-to-seaside retirement unit the other morning. Just the two of us, both waiting for some signs of passing fish. No luck. So, Cormorant took off gracefully, having caught nothing. I bumbled back to coastal walkway, thankfully having caught a few decent frames. Nothing venture . . .

Jewels under rainforest canopy

Jewels under rainforest canopy, spider and web caught in serendipitous beam of sunlight: Townsville Palmetum yesterday (10/07/24)

Two-storey tall story about Cockies' avian Air B&B

Here's a two-storey story from two Sulphur-crested Cockatoos after they triggered false fire alarm in Townsville's Town Common Conservation Park this week.

Birds were so busy cleaning out hollows in recently burned out dead tree the clouds of fine white ash particles issuing forth looked from a distance like smoke, as if fire was still smouldering within.

Cessation of the work and emergence of the somewhat dusty pair from the connected hollows told the true story. The birds may have previously bred in another tree hollow about 200 metres away. It also offered two hollows, but they appeared less closely connected. 

Makes one wonder if such a notably clever species might be getting into multiple mansions. Maybe even thinking about avian Air B&B?

Dusty pickings for magpies on dunes

Dry and dusty pickings for Black-backed Magpies on the dunes at Cape Pallarenda Conservation Park, Townsville, these recent blue-sky days.

But nearby neighbouring Sacred Kingfisher shows off probable Asian House Gecko, though perhaps the missing tail became part of a magpie's dried diet.  

Looking down is looking up with 200-800 lens

On the road with my new 200-800 lens in semi-macro mode: hairy caterpillar curled up; curl grub also curled up, naturally; processionary caterpillars; velvet slug. While birds are in low numbers this year, looking down is looking up - but looking up binomials isn't my thing.