Fauna film-clips
Recently I was privileged to be invited to spend a couple of hours studying returned wading-birds at the Manly Marina Roost-site. The Broad-billed Sandpiper (Calidris falcinellus) is an uncommon summer-migrant to our area and I’ve struggled to get any imagery in the past. The pics and clips were recorded with a Swarovski STS85 scope and Sony A6400 camera.
Clearwing Swallowtails (Cressida cressida)
It’s rather unusual to get footage of this butterfly as they never seem ‘stationary’ for long. The female is the larger of the two and the older name of ‘Big Greasy’ comes from the transparent appearance of their wings, appearing to be similar to greaseproof paper.
They are fairly-common butterflies in Southeast Queensland, seen mating in mid-September 2020. I’ve ‘slowed’ the clip down by 50% to improve the views.
Whilst we were near Timber Creek, NT recently Mike Eaton and I stopped at a waterhole (…around lunch-time) and saw a variety of finches drinking, there were Long-tailed, Star, Zebra, Pictorella Mannikin but can anyone identify the two immature Mannikin? (I believe they are either Chestnut-breasted or Yellow-rumped but would welcome others views. Please note that there are Long-tailed and Star Finch (immature with red tail) also in the video, plus Diamond and Peaceful Doves.
Video-clips of the male filmed on a stony-ridge at Kilcowera Station SW Qld in June 2020.
Can’t believe how simple but how ‘melodic’ this bird-call is (..minutes after a ‘brat’ on a ‘trail-bike’ spoilt it all), Little Shrike-thrushes near Dayboro SE Qld
Have been ‘self-isolation birding’ early-mornings (…and very-locally) but am ‘surprised‘ at the quality of the media that I’ve been able to capture before the ‘sound of civilisation‘ begins every week-day recently.
Recorded some ‘bird-audio’ today and captured a 30-second clip of a Leaden Flycatcher, however I can also hear at least 9 other species….can you name them all (…or hear any more?)
This grey-crowned babbler was ‘foraging’ with 5 friends, within a metre of the front door this morning, why do they always seem to be ‘enjoying’ life so much?
Saved a Tawny Grassbird family from ‘disaster’ today, the paddock was going to be ‘slashed’ to remove the rampant ‘cobblers-pegs’ weed (Bidens pilosa) ….that which he is ‘perched’ on!
In early-March I received the opportunity to assist in a count of wading-birds at high-tide at Manly Marina in South-east Queensland. The birds will soon be heading northwards to their ‘breeding-grounds’ in Siberia and north-east Asia and many are starting to moult into their ‘breeding-plumage’. I was asked to help find and photograph ‘flagged’ birds to assist the ongoing-migration analysis with Arthur and Sheryl Keates of the Queensland Wader Study Group (QWSG) (…please note that Manly Marina roost is a ‘restricted area’ and is only accessible by ‘invite’)
Hope this post has given you ‘inspiration’ to assist further with the conservation of the many ‘globally-threatened’ wader-species, they face many issues and need our help………..please investigate Birdlife Australia (Wader Study Group) , Birds Queensland or Wader Quest amongst others.
