London Heathrow

I recently had to make a quick trip back to the UK for a family funeral, and on my way back I had a few hours to kill, so I watched the planes arriving at Heathrow.  As a kid I used to spend almost every weekend at Heathrow watching the planes so it a real trip down memory lane.  Following 9/11. security has increased so much that there are hardly any places  you can stop near the airport and I ended watching from a small residential street close to the end of Runway 27L. 

Heathrow is the main base for British Airways, and their planes made up the majority of arrivals.  They included planes of all sizes, from the small Airbus A319, through the A320, Boeing 777, Boeing 787 to the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet.

 

There are planes from all over the world arriving at Heathrow's 5 terminals. European airlines included Lufthansa, flying their newest addition the Airbus A320 Neo, Swiss using a Bombardier CS100, and Finnair flying an Airbus A350.

South African Airways Airbus A330 and Ethiopian Airlines Airbus A350 represented Africa.

Qatar and Air India with an Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 respectively from Asia,

and  Delta airlines with their Boeing 767, American Airlines Boeing 777 and Air Canada with a Boeing 737 Max representing the Americas.

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!

Adelaide International Kite Festival

This weekend the Adelaide International Kite Festival takes place on the Semaphore foreshore and beach.

One of the best spots to view from is Semaphore Jetty.

There are kites of all different shapes, sizes and colours.

Some big,

Some small.

This year there was a group of kite flyers from Queensland who performed close formation kite flying to music. 

Another Visitor

On the way back from walking Kobe this morning we saw "our" Bearded Dragon sunning itself on the driveway.  It is very tame and I could approach within a couple of metres and it didn't move.

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.