Grey Teal, Laratinga Wetlands

Grey Teal

Grey Teal are one of the more numerous ducks found in Australia. They can sometimes number in the thousands on a lake, swamp or reservoir. They are often seen in close association with Pacific Black Ducks, another very common Australian duck.

The photos I am sharing today were taken recently in the Laratinga Wetlands near Mt Barker in the Mt Lofty Ranges of South Australia. These wetlands are about a half hour drive from my home in Murray Bridge, and also a half hour drive from our capital city Adelaide.

The walking tracks around the wetlands are popular with both locals and visitors. Many people visit daily for picnics, walking, running, cycling, photography, birding or just plain relaxing.

For more articles about Australian birds, as well as many more photos of birds, check out my other site, Trevor's Birding.

Grey Teal

Australian Wood Ducks

Australian Wood Duck

On my recent visit to the Laratinga Wetlands in Mt Barker, South Australia I took these photos of several Australian Wood Ducks. In the photo above the male is perched nicely on a tree stump in the water, the stump framing the photo in a pleasant way. On this particular visit I did not see all that many of this species. On other occasions it can be present in large numbers. In some places throughout its distribution one can see this species in large, loose flocks sometimes numbering in the hundreds. They not only frequent wetlands like Laratinga, but can be found in pastures, paddocks, ovals, playing fields and around lakes and dams.

Please note that this is not the same as the Wood Duck found in America, which is quite a different species.

To read more about Australian birds, and to see more photos of them, I invite you to go to my other site Trevor's Birding.

Male Australian Wood Duck

Female Australian Wood Duck (left) and male (right)

Common Bronzewing pigeon

Common Bronzewing pigeon

I am always fascinated by the colours displayed on the feathers of some of our Australian pigeons. When the sunlight catches the feathers at just the correct angle, the feathers come alive with a rainbow of iridescence. The wing feathers of our Common Bronzewing is a classic example of this, as shown in today's photos.

A month or so ago I spent a few hours watching birds and taking photos of them at the Laratinga Wetlands near Mt Barker in South Australia. These wetlands are frequently visited by local and interstate birders because the birdlife is usually prolific. Because the walking tracks around the ponds are used daily by hundreds of walkers, joggers and cyclists as well, the birds are used to human activity and are easy to approach for photography.

You can read more about Australian birds and see more of my photos on my other site - Trevor's Birding here.

Common Bronzewing pigeon

Happy 10th Birthday to this bird site

Australian Ringneck Parrot

This bird site is ten years old today.

Happy 10th birthday to Trevor's Twitching of Australian Birds!

Or should that read: "Happy Bird-day"?

The very first article I published here all those years ago was really just testing the water, but once done I was hooked. I continued over the years, sometimes sporadically here and more often on my other sites which I wrote about here.

In all I have written over 4000 articles on these sites covering birds, animals, travel in various countries, writing, poetry, stories and much more. Many thousands of readers have also made comments on the various sites, and they have a combined tally of over a million pageviews over those ten years. Readers have come from over 200 countries and territories.

So - how did I celebrate this sites significant milestone? In hospital having minor surgery. I hope that this surgery will deal with my back problems and enable me to get out and take more bird photos to share here, and on my other sites, so stay tuned for the next ten years!

In the meantime, please stop by and leave a comment; I'd be mighty pleased.

As a special treat today I am sharing a set of favourite photos, instead of just the usual one or two. For more reading and photos about Australian birds go to Trevor's Birding.

Happy birding.

Trevor

Australian King Parrot

Diamond Firetail Finch

Collared Sparrowhawk

 

Red-capped Robin