A couple of posts back I mentioned we may take a break from our travels, so the decision was made to stay at the little beach town of Horrocks, about 600km north of Perth, WA. We both have some casual work at the caravan park here:
http://www.horrocksbeachcaravanpark.com.au/ , with plenty of time for exploring.
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| Horrocks Beach |
These Osprey nests have been erected at various sites along the coastline for the local population to utilize, and they sure make the most of them.
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| Eastern Osprey |
At nearby Bowes River the pelicans were lining up to feed in the calm waters of the enclosed estuary.
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| Australian Pelican |
A new bird for us was a small group of Sanderlings (the larger two birds below) that were foraging beside the river along with a some Red-necked Stints. It made for an ideal situation to compare these two feisty little shore-bird species.
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| Sanderling and Red-necked Stint |
The variety and movement of terns kept our heads turning and the camera clicking, as I tried to get some decent shots of these efficient fishers.
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Crested Tern
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The worlds largest tern species gave us a fly by.
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| Caspian Tern |
As well as one of the smallest.
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| Fairy Tern |
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| Fairy Tern |
A lone Gull-billed Tern made an appearance, a much less common species in these parts.
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| Gull-billed Tern and Red-capped Plover |
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| Little Bay |
Besides the ubiquitous Silver Gulls, a pair of Pacific Gulls also patrolled the beach at Horrocks, quite often perched atop the piles of sea wrack that comes and goes with the tides and wind.
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| Pacific Gull |
Up the road at Port Gregory various waders were using the salt marsh and ponds near town for feeding and roosting. Besides the birds pictured, there were Red-necked Avocets and Black-winged Stilts making the most of the ideal conditions.
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| Wood Sandpiper |
A very distant shot of four different waders.
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| L to R: Common Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Curlew Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper |
The salt granules, in the Pink Lakes near Port Gregory, trap a type of bacteria that give them their colourful hue.
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| Pink Lake |
Cheers and Happy Birding
Hi John; it is a great advance in our society that some councils choose to erect those nesting sites for the Osprey. I've only seen the platforms but this one you photographed with the wonderful woven basket certainly looks sturdy to contain their woven twig constructions. Also great to capture four waders in the same photo. I loved the pink lake - a photo with a sunrise or sunset over that could be something special too. Cheers from East coast, N.S.W.
ReplyDeleteHi Carole, thanks for your kind comments. I will have to try your suggestion for the pink lakes.
DeleteWhat a fantastic post and such a breath of marine air!!
ReplyDeleteEsthetically my favorite pics are 3, 10 & 12!
But your panos are fabulous and very......... attractive, especially to me since we are waiting for a buyer for our place and intend to settle in N.S.W. with our son and grand-chlidren.
The 2 last pics are amazing, this color indeed is beautiful, I wonder what is the proportion of wild life living in around the lake.
Cheers John!
Thanks for your kind comments Noushka. NSW is a great state with plenty of magnificent scenery and wildlife, I'm sure you and your family will love it. The lake is very saline (part of it is mined for commercial salt production) and we saw no birds there, but there would be plenty of bush birds around it.
DeleteThese are amazing photos! We visited Pink Lake last September - but I didn't get any photos like the one you took - it's great! The birds are beautiful and I am sad that we didn't see all of the ones you have seen! Love the Ospreys Nest and the Pacific Gull's! Looks like a great place to work - i'd love that! I have visited their website and like their facebook page also - tell them they need a direct like plug-in for their website to link the facebook page - and to put more photos like yours on their facebook page to entice visitors like us! I can't wait to visit WA again!
ReplyDeleteThanks Judith for your lovely comments. It is a great place to stay (and work), especially for fishing, and the birding is pretty good too, with 76 species within a 5 km radius so far. I will mention your suggestion too. Cheers.
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