Scruffy visitor from the Far North

Scruffy image of scruffy Eastern Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla tschutschensis), one of three among some cattle near wetlands yesterday on Mungalla Station, a private historic property just east of Ingham. The Wagtails migrate south to escape far Northern Hemisphere winters. 

Also showing out near the cattle, Australian Pratincole (Stiltia isabella), trying to lure me away from ...

... Prat Junior, trying not to show out after a brief sprint.  

Some time with Australian Little Bittern

Long chat today with male Australian Little Bittern (Ixobrychus dubius) near Tyto hide.

Some flights.

Some calling.

Some sitting.

Some preying

Some camouflage.

Some morning!

Tyto longing long time coming

Took eight years, but last night my time in Ingham finally produced a living Eastern Grass Owl (Tyto longimembris). Very little of it was my own work, though I did manage on my ownsome to spook the Mungalla Station bird (which luckily was refound). Special thanks to Ian Boyd for ace spotting. And to others for their tolerance! Go, Boca! 

Today, among an interesting list at the station, Oriental Pratincole (Glareola maldivarum) stood still under a barrage of drive-by cameras. Hoping for better pictures of Little Curlew and Stubble Quail  soon. 

 

Three looks at two of my favourites

Golden-headed Cisticola (Cisticola exilis) ...

... and Mangrove Robin (Peneonanthe pulverulenta).

Knot what it seems

Wood flowers are rare, but how much rarer would a wood frog be? Litoria stumpus maybe. Then again, perhaps an echo of the Elephant Man on old trunk at Jourama Falls? 

Scruffy Snipe does a runner

Latham's Snipe (Gallinago hardwickii) usually quick to fly when flushed but this week's bird mostly wanted to run and hide.

Because it's missing lot of outer plumage: infection or moult?

But at least there's enough scruffy tail to confirm identity as Latham's.    

Eagle's dead duck comes with strings . . .

White-bellied Sea-Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) crosses sky the other day trailing a dead duck and long string of creeper. Catch looks less than fresh, a problem because ducks may dabble in death as ponds shrink and oxygen-depleted water carries toxic blooms and nasties such as botulism in the mud. Even the strongest of scavenger stomachs succumbs to Clostridia botulinum.

So, fresh is best, as Silver Gulls (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae) at Dungeness boat ramp today will attest. Unsuccessful fisherman rewarded waiting locals with leftover bait fish. 

Striated Heron (Butorides striata) misses out against gulls (but dined well with later boldness at the fisherman's feet).       

Young king Koel is a whingey little soul

But this immature Eastern Koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus) finally stopped freeloading this week and took to feeding itself.

High ISO Azure is so quiet - how so?

Azure Kingfisher (Ceyx azureus) at Jourama Falls today. Image so-so, but much quieter than would usually be expected, given ISO of 3200 (f8 1/500 Canon 7D 300L f4+1.4x). High ISO means noise. But tip doing rounds has it that Canon auto ISO produces less noise than same ISO manually selected.

Here's the unaltered full frame

Full frame denoised, sharpened and overcurved

Cropped, denoised lightly and sharpened

Cropped, more denoised and sharpened

And second look at quiet (for ISO 3200) Azure. Seems a good tip.  

Noisy Pitta and noisy others

Lots of noise from the bush, too much noise in pictures ... Noisy Pitta (Pitta versicolor) near Jourama Falls

Green Catbird (Ailuroedus crassirostris) near Wallaman Falls

Tooth-billed Catbird (Scenopoeetes dentirostris) near Birthday Creek Falls

Pale-vented Bush-hen (Amaurornis moluccana) near fallen forest, Ingham.