Hi all
one of my current contracts takes me to the Sydney Olympics site, so I have
been periodically visiting the Triangle Pond (in the angle of the junction
for Bennelong Road, between Bennelong Road and the Waterbird Refuge) to
check out the status of the mud in the hope that the conditions that
attracted Lewins Rails & Spotless Crakes to the site a couple of years ago
(summer 2008/9) would repeat.
The last few visits there has been lots of water, but today the water was
away from the papyrus beds at the north end of the pond and there was much
more mud present, to the extent that it looked, to my eye, similar to how it
did in 2009. I would note that the rushes and papyrus have grown a bit
since 2009 and the view to the foot of the papyrus beds (the Lewins Rails'
favoured spot) is much more obscured than it was 2 years ago. Nonetheless,
an early or late visit may pay dividends, although given the growth the
views probably won't be as good as they were 2 years ago.
It was the middle of the day and I was on my lunch break, so I couldn't hang
around to see if there were any crakes/rails present. There were 2 juvenile
Australasian Grebes on the water (still with stripy heads), several Royal
Spoonbills, a Great Egret, a small flock of Nutmeg Mannikins in the papyrus,
and at that end of the pond an immature Nankeen Night Heron.
The heron had managed to catch a reasonably sized eel (about 70cm long I
should think) and watching the heron deal with its catch was interesting.
The eel was originally caught about 15cm back from the head and the heron
realised that it couldn't drop the prey on the mud and re-secure it, as it
might with a fish, as the eel would be off. Slowly, the eel was juggled
until its head was in the heron's beak and then it was swallowed in a series
of gulps. However, the meal wasn't finished - in either sense - as the
heron then spent a very uncomfortable 5 or so minutes as the eel finally
succumbed to the heron's digestive juices. There was much neck stretching
and standing up straight (not a common posture for night herons), beak
opening and semi-swallowing (like the eel was trying to get out under its
own steam), all with the eyes looking rather startled. Eventually the meal
did settle down, the heron resumed its more standard hunched posture and
stalked off in search of (I expect) less troublesome prey.
Cheers
Tom Wilson
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
