Sunday 5 May 2013

Mary Glen

During our last stay at Mary Glen we spent some time down at the waterhole watching a variety of birds, including this Darter. It is hard to gauge its' size if only seen in the water, but when sitting on a stump or in a tree, you can get a better idea; 85-90cm with a wingspan of 1.2m. We also saw a number of Australasian Grebe and Hardhead. 


Australasian Darter (Anhinga melanogaster)(Male)

The Australasian Darter is sometimes called Snake Bird because of the way it holds it long neck while roosting & feeding.

 Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae)

Hardhead (Aythya australis)(Male) 

Kandanga Creek

For more birds visit Wild Bird Wednesday

19 comments:

mick said...

Great photos. There are so many birds up the valley and in the hills that I never have a chance to see! The color of the water is beautiful especially behind the duck.

Hootin Anni said...

Hmmmm, I've been called a hardhead myself. LOL

Love the 'darter'---what we in America call Anhinga. I'll never forget seeing one for the very first time. Love the grebes too.

eileeninmd said...

Your Darter is just like our Anhinga! They also remind me of our Cormorants. Great birds and photos, Neil!

TexWisGirl said...

awesome shots of the 'snake bird!'

Brian King said...

It does look like a snake! Wonderful photos!

Karen said...

It does resemble a snake, amazing.
Lovely shots.

Carole M. said...

that looks like a great spot to visit; lovely photographs. I love the darters too...

Karen said...

That Darter is one cool looking bird!

Indrani said...

Beautiful ones. I see some of them here in a bird sanctuary.

Rajesh said...

Wonderful shots of birds. It is a delight to look at them.

Stewart M said...

I think that the last two Australasian Grebe shots of mine are of birds that are a little more used to people than most. They were taken in a lake in central Perth, next to a freeway and a bike path!!

Cheers and thanks for linking to WBW

Stewart M - Melbourne

Unknown said...

Enjoyed your post. I'll never forget watching a darter moving underwater once. A very accomplished underwater swimmer and predator!

Arija said...

Hi Neil, I finally got a shot of the Australasian Grebe with the elusive green flash on it's wing. It really is deceptive how large the darts are.

Unknown said...

Great series!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Great selection of birds. The darter (snake bird) reminds me of our anhinga. You have to scroll back on my blog to last week to see any birds -- I'm missing in action this week.

Unknown said...

The snake bird is very interesting.

Wally Jones said...

I really liked this post, Neil!
Our local darter, the Anhinga, is very abundant here and I love watching them fish.
The creek looks very inviting to explore!

Have a good weekend. - Wally

HansHB said...

Great post for WBW!

EG CameraGirl said...

The snake bird reminds me a lot of our double-created cormorant. But I have never seen an anhinga mentioned by Anni.