Day 97: ...you just might bump into ornithological royalty
With so much fuss about a certain royal prince soldier at the moment, I think some of the birds were taking their cue today down by the lake. We had thunder, lightning, rain, wind, blown out IT systems at work today...sometimes, dear reader, I wonder why I bother. But I do.
[too many pix ahead for just one day...]
On the way to the office this morning, I just missed getting the babiest of baby moorhens balancing on a lilypad. That'll teach me to walk around without the camera at the ready.
On the way back to the car park on the way to tai chi, I thought, uh-oh, dear reader, here we go again, more birds by the lake...apologies in advance. Except when I got there.
First, some aerial combat in the car park...
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| Who is winning here? |
(...more of them later); and then, low and behold, there was a bit of a fuss being made over a pair of spoonbills. Not that I've become an expert in ornithological behaviour around the lake but I have been watching closely for about six weeks now...so that qualifies me for being...observant?
Anyway, plenty of ibis on the bank (as opposed to their usual perches on the trees on the island). The spoonbills were causing quite the kerfuffle until they took to the wing.
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| Hello there... |
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| Is that an ibis mooning? |
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| A Spoonbill groove? |
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| Ha! |
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| Take that! |
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| Pffft! |
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| Haha! |
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| And... |
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| ...lift off |
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| Away... |
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| Away... |
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| Well then...what was all the fuss about? |
I don't recall seeing a spoonbill before, let alone two. Most exciting really (or is that just a sad comment on my life dear reader?)
Then, back to the Welcome Swallows who welcomed a little respite, briefly.
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| 'Ello, 'ello... |
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| En masse... |
So much action. Who'd ever get bored here, really. Right royally exciting really.
[Camera : Canon EOS 60D, 75-300mm, 5.10pm-5.23pm; 84 shots in all, oops]
