Small birds at Tallow Creek

Some days the small birds turn up in force and today was one of those days. The best area to see them was around the old sewerage treatment ponds, between the camping ground and the bridge across Tallow Creek (at Byron Bay, New South Wales).

Male Red-backed Fairy-wren at Tallow Creek, Byron Bay in New South Wales. There were several large families, some fifteen birds seen, of Red-backed Fairy-wrens moving through the area.

The female Red-backed Fairy-wren lacks any colours of the male and in fact with its brown tail is the plainest of the Fairy-wrens.

A non-breeding male on its way to adulthood.

Numerous Red-browed Finches were present. Two Double-banded Finches moved too quickly for a photo.

The Superb Fairy-wren is always a popular subject for a photo.

A small flock of White-browed Scrubwren was feeding in the lower tree branches..

Why do Masked Lapwings cross the creek?

It is puzzling why this Masked Lapwing family cross the creek so often. Each crossing involves considerable effort and risk, firstly to make sure that the route is secure, then to encourage the young to make the move.

This Masked Lapwing family has three chicks having lost the fourth the previous day. The parents crisscrossed the creek some dozen times before allowing the chicks to cross, check for danger on each side. Eels, foxes, lizards, rats and birds of prey are some of the challenges of Lapwing child rearing

Before proceeding with the crossing, this lizard, sitting on a garden ornament, was sent on its way.

A safe crossing this time for all three chicks.

Birds cooperating at Tallow Creek

Tallow Creek in Byron Bay, New South Wales forms what is known as an Intermittently Closed and Open Lagoon (ICOLL). The creek and lagoon’s connection to the ocean is closed periodically by an accumulation of sand up to fifty metres wide. Every few months, after very heavy rain fills the lagoon, it overflows and washes away sand to form a channel to the sea and then the lagoon quickly empties.

Over the days following this outflow a procession of water birds search the newly exposed banks for food. Ducks, Egrets, Dusky Moorhens, Ibis, Spoonbills and Swamphen. What can be quite frantic feeding sees some bird odd couples seemingly working together.

A regular visitor after the lagoon empties; the Royal Spoonbill systematically works its way up and down the banks of the lagoon feeding on newly exposed prey: fish, insects, invertebrates, crustacean. On this journey photographed it was accompanied by two Little Black Cormorants, no doubt benefiting from food exposed by the energetic searching of the Spoonbill.

Not in the picture here was a Dusky Moorhen which was following along on the bank. At one stage a Water Dragon lizard joined the birds in the water and the whole party made its way together.

The next day it was a Little Pied Cormorant working with the Royal Spoonbill. On a previous emptying of the lagoon, unfortunately also not photographed, an Azure Kingfisher was seen shadowing an Australasian Grebe along the river bank.

Leaden Flycatcher's nest washed away

At the start of last week we saw this pair of Leaden Flycatchers putting the finishing touches to a nest, about three metres above the waters of Tallow Creek in Byron Bay New South Wales. Later it looked like the birds were taking turns sitting on the nest.

Today, after two day of storms and torrential rain there is sadly no sign of the nest, presumably washed off its perch.

Male Leaden Flycatchers

Female Leaden Flycatcher

Peregrine Falcon makes unexpected visit

This unexpected visitor arrived after dusk at Tallow Creek in the Northern Rivers, New South Wales. It took a few moments to identify the bird landing for a drink in the dark. The pictures were taken at ISO 6,500 and are only usable thanks to the new AI assisted Denoise feature in Adobe Lightroom, which does a remarkable job of noise reduction.

A Peregrine Falcon lands on the shore of Tallow Creek Lagoon near Byron Bay in New South Wales Northern Rivers region.

After a wary five minutes checking for any danger the falcon enters the water to drink.

After a quick drink it is off again, then perching on top of a log “teepee” built at the high tide mark on Tallow Beach.

Birds on the Back Fence

There have been a number of interesting birds turn up in our Byron Bay back yard the last few weeks, two of them shown here.

An early morning visitor, the Fan-tailed Cuckoo.

A more frequent visitor, the Australian Brush-turkey.

Back to Tallow Creek

I decided to return to Tallow Creek at Suffolk Park in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. A previous visit of a couple of hours photographing around sunset resulted in a number of close ups of interesting birds and some very good evening lighting (Link to “Tallow Creek at Suffolk Park “). The walkway to the bridge that crosses the creek takes you through creek-side reed beds for close ups of reed birds and finches. The sporadic trees provide for close ups with clear space behind that give a nice blur to the background of the photo. This latest trip proved equally fruitful with the photos below.

The Beach Stone-curlew is seen in New South Wales from the Manning River northwards. However sightings are rare and the species is now regarded as critically endangered.

Photographed from the Tallow Creek bridge, a Little Pied Cormorant attests to the food available in the “Intermittently Closed and Open Lagoon” that the creek flows into. The category “Intermittently Closed and Open Lagoon” refers to the outlet to the sea which at times is closed for months.

Welcome Swallows and Tree Martins flutter constantly across the water of the lagoon. They often rest in a small tree at the end of the bridge; this provides a convenient place to photograph them.

A Tree Martin, possible a younger bird?

A small bird in another tree turned out to be a Striated Pardalote, another bird seen regularly at the lagoon. The heavy black marking across the eye and red spot on the wing indicates it could be of the northern Striated Pardalote race, the so called Black-headed Pardalote.

It was a surprise to see this young Mistletoebird, evidently another bird frequently seen at this site.

This Brown Thornbill was feeding in the middle branches of a medium sized tree.

I was pleased to see that the White-breasted Woodswallows sighted on the previous visit were still around. I counted fifteen birds present in total, similar to previous.

This Golden-headed Cisticola chose a helpful tree branch to pose for this photo.

The White-cheeked Honeyeater is common in the area, supplanting the New Holland Honeyeaters seen further south.

A Darter stretches out over a re-habilitated sewerage treatment pond close to Tallow Creek.

Tallow Creek at Suffolk Park

Suffolk Park is a suburb of Byron Bay on the North Coast of NSW. The Tallow Creek estuary forms the southern border of the Arakwal National Park and it is home to a wide variety of bird-life.

The Chestnut-breasted Mannikin is rarely seen in Sydney but becomes more common as you head northwards to northern NSW. This single bird was feeding, snipping away at seed-heads in the reeds that line Tallow Creek.

A Golden-headed Cisticola, lit up by the last rays of sunlight for the day.

The were some twenty White-breasted Woodswallows on the western side of the creek; some solitary like this bird, and others were gathering along tree branches in close packed groups of three or four.

The Red-backed Fairy-wren is Birdlife’s current bird of the month; another species that can be seen more often as you travel north along the NSW coast.

It is a pleasure to see many Australasian Figbirds, along with a surprising number of Olive-backed Orioles - controlling territory that might more often belong to Noisy Miners further south?

The sun sets over Tallow Creek, this photo taken from the bridge on the walking path and cycle-way that runs through the reserve.