Reader Tony Eales send some photos by the seashore in Queensland, Oz:
My most recent trip, this time to Elliot Heads, near the sugar cane town of Bundaberg on the Coral Coast. This was a family type holiday with fewer opportunities to spend the time just wandering around photographing but the wildlife was always there.
In the tidal pools were Sea Hares (Aplysia dactylomela), and poking around the shoreline were Double Banded Plovers and Red Capped Plovers (Charadrius bicinctus and C. ruficapillus) and the ubiquitous Silver Gulls (Chroicephalus novaehollandiae) as seen in Finding Nemo (Mine! Mine! Mine!) I think they’re a beautiful bird that is sadly underappreciated because of their commonness and predilection for scavenging. Also spotted a White Looper Moth (Pingasa chlora) mistaking a whitish sign for a good piece of bark to camouflage on.
Aplysia:
I don’t know from plovers:
Another plover; I’ll count on readers to identify the two:
Silver gull:
White looper moth:
From Stephen Barnard of Idaho, whose supply of good photos is seemingly endless:
I was randomly poking around with my camera when a female Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) exploded off a nest nearly at my feet. I took a quick photo of a nestling and beat a hasty retreat. (Notice how disguised it is in the reeds. I wouldn’t have noticed it except for the female giving it away. I actually had to back up to get focus.) The adults were furious, especially the female who kept dive bombing me all the way back to the truck.
I don’t dare post the photo of the nestling in birding groups. I’d be eviscerated 🙂 :
Eaglets (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). They’re exercising their wings often. I think fledging is imminent.
Also, a male and a female Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) in flight [JAC: notice the sexual dimorphism, also seen above].
Always interesting. Are the harriers in the last photo playing with a twig?
I think what happened is that the male dropped a vole for the female to retrieve (to take back to the nest) and the twig was left floating. I’m not sure because I was looking through the camera, but those handoffs are typical behavior.
All, very nice pictures. The return of birds of prey around the Midwest in the last 20 or 30 years is really something. When I was kid you would see an eagle only once in a while. Now they are every where. Also remember when they banned DDT.
Indeed! We had a lake cabin in northern Minnesota, and when I was very young (1969-early 70s) there were typically an eagle or two and several ospreys visible flying high over the lake on most days.
By the mid-70s, they were all gone.
And now they are back.
We have ospreys returning annually to nest and raise a brood on a platform erected in the park directly behind our house (suburb of St. Paul).
We also frequently see eagles, Cooper’s hawks, redtailed hawks, kestrels, and even the occasional peregrine falcon.
Nice photos, both of you.
Good stuff.
Re:Bundaberg. Try Bundaberg Ginger Beer, It tastes like it should.
+1!
Nice pics,
I think that the first unidentified plover might be a Lesser Sand Plover (Charadrius mongolus) and the second one is definitely a female Red-capped Plover (Charadrius ruficapillus).
The first is a Double Banded Plover in non-breeding colours. They come to Australia from New Zealand to overwinter
Charadrius bicinctus
I really like the sea hare…is that a form of nudibranch? Usually they are flamboyant, I like how this one is well camouflaged (though a little too green compared to the sand).
I was puzzled by the little round balls in front of the seagull. Lovely bird I must say.
Nice shots Stephen…that nestling looks mighty pissed off. It must be inspiring to “own” a piece of earth that births so much new life. Yay!
I have seen those little round balls of sand quite often. They come from things digging in the sand, crabs I think, or maybe pipis.
Yea pretty sure it’s crabs that make those balls
Sand crabs? They are a perplexing breed.
Great shots, Tony and Stephen!