Saturday 16 August 2014

The Birds of Rottnest Island

A few weeks ago I showed you some photos of our all too brief visit to Rottnest Island in Western Australia. Another reason Rottnest was so special is that I saw many really cool birds, many new to me.

Australian Shelduck (Tadorna tadornoides)
The female has a white eye ring and is sitting here

They have such beautiful burnished colours

Darting in and about the rocks on the shore of the salt lakes was a
White-fronted chat (Epithanura albifrons)

Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus)

Juvenile black-winged stilts

This one was very far away, I believe it is a
Red-capped Plover (Charadrius ruficapillus)

The eagle eyes of Master Wicker spotted this amazing robin for me
Red-capped Robin (Petroica goodenovii)

But he couldn't see the Osprey nest!
Even with a sign….

An Osprey in action (Pandion cristatus)

Crested terns (Thalasseus bergii)

Some more familiar ducks
Grey teal (Anas gracilis)

And one of my favourite birds
Our Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)
I bought a copy of the local bird guide so I can check
the ones that got away
and why I need to go back soon.
Saturday Snapshot is a wonderful weekly meme
 now hosted by 
WestMetroMommy

9 comments:

Sheila (Bookjourney) said...

The long legs crack me up!

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

The colors of the first two birds make me think of fall...awesome! Thanks for sharing...and for visiting my blog.

Anonymous said...

What an amazing collection you'd taken, Louise! I particularly love the first one, the colours are gorgeous. While I haven't even heard of some of these birds, there's one I've seen in my neck of the woods and that's the Osprey. Your Pelican is very different from mine. And, I'd exchange my Robin with yours any day. So beautiful and delicate a bird than our 'wild' looking ones. Wonderful post!

Sandra Nachlinger said...

Beautiful photos. I'm learning a lot about birds through your posts. I like the photo where a couple of the ducks are "tails up!" The colors in the first photo are gorgeous. You definitely need to go back there.
I'm getting a late start today, but my photos of pianos are up.

Ginx Craft said...

What a variety of birds. The osprey is very impressive.

Paulita said...

Impressive that you could identify all those birds. Great shots.

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

We have a lot of water birds where I live. It's close to the Gulf of Mexico. We see a water bird that looks a little like your stilt every morning when we walk. And there are lots and lots of brown pelicans in Galveston.

I wish I knew more about birds.

Esme said...

The birds are beautiful. I never heard of Rottnest Island. I must confess I do not really remember the birds from my time in Australia-except the ones I saw in the Blue Mountains and of course the penguins from off the coast of Adelaide. I love watching birds-we have some hummingbirds around the garden.

Anonymous said...

When I moved to the United States, I developed my first attraction to birds. Birds and squirrels were what I could most easily see within the city limits. That was many years ago and since then my dad has given me bird books and my husband has taken me on bird hikes.

I have seen tilts, plovers, terns, and our American pelican. As for the osprey, so far I've seen only a nest. The Australian Shelduck has gorgeous colors. Thanks for sharing your sightings!