New Camera try out

Made a quick visit to Oaklands Wetland earlier this week to try out my new camera.  These are straight from the camera with no post processing apart from cropping for composition.

I'm pretty happy with the results for the first time I have used this camera.

Oaklands Wetland again

As my local wetlands is completely dry now, I decided to head to Oaklands Wetland this morning, before it got too crowded.

All of the usual suspects were there, including Purple Swamphen, Grey Teal, Royal Spoonbill and Noisy Miner.

On one of the bridges was this Little Pied Cormorant who allowed me to slowly creep within a few metres.

The long staying pair of Pink-eared Ducks were still there, and although they are still quite timid, they allowed a reasonable approach with a bit of patience. They are quite stunning little ducks up close.

A favourite of mine is the white-faced Heron, and this one was quite happy to approach to about 3 metres as long as I kept still.

There are quite a few nest boxes here, and this one was full to overflowing!

Short stop at Oaklands Wetland

We had time for a very short visit to Oaklands Wetland yesterday. The first thing we spotted was this turtle spp. happily sunning itself.

There was a very confiding Royal Spoonbill, happy to let people get within a few metres. I love the markings on it's bill.

Other regulars here were Little Pied Cormorant and Australian Little Grebe.

Oaklands Wetlands

There had been reports of a couple of Pink-eared ducks at Oaklands Wetlands, so I popped down there yesterday to see if I could get some photos. 

One of the first birds I saw was a Black-tailed Nativehen. These birds are an irruptive species, normally seen in large flocks, and are usually very wary.  As long as I stayed still, this one was happy to fossick around only a few metres from me.

I found the Pink-eared ducks on a small reed fringed pool, and again, they were quite happy as long as I kept my distance.

There were also plenty of more common species, including Purple Swamphen, Little Grebe, Maned Duck, Coot,  Pacific Black Duck and Little Pied Cormorant.

Oaklands Wetlands

This morning, I had a quick look around Oaklands Wetlands a few kilometers southwest of Adelaide CBD.

It is a nice place, but I imagine it gets very busy at weekends. The birds here are used to people so it was pretty easy to get some nice photos.

There were only common birds there, but I  enjoyed getting up close and personal with some of them.

The only ducks were Pacific Black and Maned ducks

Other waterbirds included Common Coot and Australian Little Grebe

Of course, Pelicans made use of the water, as did a Royal Spoonbill, whilst the Little Pied Cormorants used the not so natural perches

Finally, I was checking the nest boxes for possums etc, but this was the only one that was occupied