Many birds can swivel their heads across a much greater arc than we humans can.
This is good news for bird photographers; a “from behind” image does not always lack the relevant bird’s watchful gaze…
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Long before Europeans reached Australia, what is now “Perth’s Pelican Point” was already a place of considerable significance to both humans and birds.
Given its inner urban location – as a bird flies, a couple of minutes or less from the CBD of a metropolis – it is no small achievement that the bipeds who effectively “own” Pelican Point’s actual point are avian, not human.
In the featured image: white-headed stilts, black swans, and a little pied cormorant.
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As you can see, on 18 April 2023, Perth and its big estuary – the Swan River – were bathed in bright sunlight.
It was a perfect day to enjoy good things which are not so readily available – all, within just part of a single day – to most urban humans.
Where else would convenient, uncommonly cheap public transport (free, to “seniors”, outside “rush” hours) deliver you to one of Australia’s better pub lunches, after which the nearby riverside presents you with kilometres of glorious, publicly-accessible, uncrowded foreshore?
Even if you simply zip down to-fro the nearby jetty, you will enjoy a splendid vista and – almost certainly – a close encounter of the pelican kind.
And if you bother to walk along the foreshore….
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You can see this post’s species in Australia too, but not with such a spectacular, snow-capped backdrop.
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The birds pictured above were formerly known as “pied stilts”, and considered an Australasian subspecies of Himantopus himantopus, “yesterday’s heroes” – see #10 in this series.
This post’s heroes are now generally considered members of their own species, Himantopus leucocephalus.
Their “preferred” common name: white-headed stilts.
Each of these three individuals has the full complement of two legs.
Stilts, however, often prefer to stand on one leg, with the other one neatly folded and tucked into their lower feathers.
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Two questions arise when considering all three birds in today’s featured image.
The obvious one: “clearly, their wings are not black, so how do they merit their name?”
The other one: “why is Himantopus himantopus in the Guinness Book of Records?”
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If you confine your “nature walks” to places easily-reached without a car, and within 15 kilometres of Perth’s GPO, your worthwhile menu options are still surprisingly numerous.
Among them are the largest remaining river flats within the metropolitan area; Ashfield Flats’ nearer side is less than 10 kilometres from the GPO.
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Terns are particularly lovely in flight… or when hovering, intently.
The pictured individual is a Caspian tern, I think; s/he was our post-lunch highlight at Cottesloe yesterday.
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During last Saturday afternoon’s “golden hour” at Lake Monger, both were very apparent.
Above: a Great Crested Grebe, newly in “breeding” mode/plumage.
Below: a very territorial Dusky Moorhen, in hot pursuit of a rival/“intruder”.
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Over the relevant eight minutes I remained seated, as the sole pelican’s feet stayed still, several metres away, ”planted” in shallow water near Lake Monger’s western shore.
S/he reminded me of several Irish button accordion masters I have viewed from a similar distance – their feet moving not at all, but their body’s upper half highly mobile, its many movements oft-unpredictable.
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