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| Black Falcon (above and below) Peter's Farm, Queensland, Australia January 1, 2016 (click on the pictures for a better view!) |
I enjoyed two magnificent days of wildlife viewing to see out 2015 and welcome 2016.
In the morning of Friday, January 1st 2016, Glenda, Chris, Mick and I visited Peter's Farm. Peter was hard at work on his tractor where he flushed various species of quail including Stubble Quail. Although a couple whizzed by my nose I was far too useless to make the most of the skeet chances. However, it was very exciting to watch a pair of Black Falcons arrive to make the most of the tractor's movements and dart about the place with ease. Within a split second I watched a quail zoom by my nose then I glanced up to see one of these super-hero falcons appear just above where the quail had disappeared. What a way to start the year.
There were many wonderful birds on Peter's Farm including Red-backed Fairy-wrens, a family of Plumed Whistling-Ducks, a family of Pacific Black Ducks, numbers of Ibis, a little Pied Cormorant, pipits etc, etc.
Thank you Peter and family for the invitation, and thank you Mick, Chris and Glenda for taking me.
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| Black-shouldered Kite In front of Peter's Farm, Queensland, Australia |
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| Brown Falcon Up the road from Peter's Farm, Queensland, Australia |
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| Plumed Whistling-Duck On Peter's Farm, Queensland, Australia |
It wasn't necessarily out with the old on Thursday, December 31, 2015.
A very kind Rod Hobson took me out to Goomburra National Park where Rod introduced me to an incredible selection of beautiful wildlife. Rod has an incredible wealth of knowledge of all of Australia's natural treasures and taught me a lot.
Thank you to Rod for getting back to me to correctly identify many of the images.
Thank you to Rod for getting back to me to correctly identify many of the images.
I enjoyed getting about with a couple of different lenses and having a go at some damselflies and dragonflies, birds, marsupials and frogs. And of course there were beautiful landscapes that I'll post later. Sadly, I can only enter 200 characters in the Labels tab and can't input all the species I'd seen in the two days.
Probably the most important encounters of the two days were two Fleay's Barred Frogs. An extremely beautiful upright native frog with a very confined range and now critically endangered.
Rod and I had a big day that lasted well into the night and finished off with the startling falling bomb call of a female Sooty Owl. Ended the year standing in the dark with the hairs on my neck quite ruffled!
Thank you Rod.
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| Whitewater Rockmaster Diphlebia lestoides female Identified by Rod Hobson Goomburra, Queensland, Australia December 31, 2015 |
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| Flame Flatwing Austroargiolestes amabilis Identified by Rod Hobson Goomburra, Queensland, Australia December 31, 2015 |
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Flame Flatwing Austroargiolestes amabilis Identified by Rod Hobson Goomburra, Queensland, Australia December 31, 2015 |
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| Whitewater Rockmaster Diphlebia lestoides male Identified by Rod Hobson Goomburra, Queensland, Australia |
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| Satin Bowerbird male Goomburra, Queensland, Australia |
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| Satin Bowerbird female Goomburra, Queensland, Australia |
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| Southern Vicetail Hemigomphus gouldii Identified by Rod Hobson Goomburra, Queensland, Australia |
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| Red-necked Wallaby Identified by Rod Hobson Goomburra, Queensland, Australia |
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| Eastern Stony Creek Frog Litoria wilcoxii Identified by Rod Hobson Goomburra, Queensland, Australia |
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| Short-eared Brushtail Possum Trichosurus caninus Identified by Rod Hobson Goomburra, Queensland, Australia |
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| Fleay's Barred Frog Mixophyes fleayi Critically Endangered Goomburra, Queensland, Australia December 31, 2015 (above and two below) Identified by Rod Hobson |
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| Austral Cornflower Rhaponticum australe Identified by Rod Hobson |
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| Zebra Finch |
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| Galah Notice the two sexes: Brown eye left = male Pink eye right = female |
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| Superb Fairy-wren male |
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| Bell Miner Goomburra, Queensland, Australia |
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| Superb Fairy-wren Goomburra, Queensland, Australia December 31, 2015 |