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)
Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae)
Hardhead (Aythya australis)(Male)
Kandanga Creek
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19 comments:
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.
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.
Your Darter is just like our Anhinga! They also remind me of our Cormorants. Great birds and photos, Neil!
awesome shots of the 'snake bird!'
It does look like a snake! Wonderful photos!
It does resemble a snake, amazing.
Lovely shots.
that looks like a great spot to visit; lovely photographs. I love the darters too...
That Darter is one cool looking bird!
Beautiful ones. I see some of them here in a bird sanctuary.
Wonderful shots of birds. It is a delight to look at them.
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
Enjoyed your post. I'll never forget watching a darter moving underwater once. A very accomplished underwater swimmer and predator!
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.
Great series!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
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.
The snake bird is very interesting.
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
Great post for WBW!
The snake bird reminds me a lot of our double-created cormorant. But I have never seen an anhinga mentioned by Anni.
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