8 Little Black Cormorants

On two consecutive mornings last week I observed six to eight Little Black Cormorants on and around the lakes on my walk to work. The birds took off from one lake and flew to another together, landed on the water surface and proceeded to duck and dive. The birds ducked and dived into the lakes waters in quick succession, coming to the water surface, quickly swallowing what food they caught and diving back under the water. I observed the ‘flock’ duck, dive and swim around the small lake for a few minutes, and in that time the ‘flock’ appeared to circle the lake twice.

After my observation over two days I have looked out for this little ‘flock’ of Little Black Cormorants, but it has not been seen.

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Purple Swamphens

Yesterday, while sitting for a few minutes by the lake before work, two Purple Swamphens, Porphyrio porphyrio seemingly saw me sit down, appeared to purposely walk from the lake shore and across the concrete path in my direction. The two birds walked to within 30cm of me, and walked around the back of me and to my other side. They did not appear to be scared by me. It was a great opportunity to take some photos and to observe these birds up close. One thing I noticed was their long legs and feet – a distinct red colour with obvious large ‘scales’, with elongated toes for wading through marshy areas. The birds lingered for a while around me then moved up the grassy slope near by.

Link – for a description of the species – http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Porphyrio-porphyrio

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Six Black Cormorants (no not ‘six white boomers’ from the Aussie Christmas song)

While writing the title of this post, the Australian Christmas song, “Six White Boomers,” by Rolf Harris came into my head. The first two lines of the chorus goes like this – ‘six white boomers, snow white boomers.’ Boomers are kangaroos. So no, the six birds observed on the lake yesterday morning, ducking and diving and surfacing amongst the lake waters, are definitely not kangaroos. But the tune of the song just seemed to fit with the post title.

Check out the following links for lyrics and a You Tube clip.

Lyrics
http://alldownunder.com/oz-u/songs/six-white-boomers-18.htm

You Tube
http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=six%20white%20boomers&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDQQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fau.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgosGBYU5vIE&ei=FFvAUOX7OOmciAfL6IGICQ&usg=AFQjCNGXLCoYEC3DretYQocjjTCgmE4y9Q

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Water Dragon Photos – late November / early December 2012

A selection of photos of water dragons taken in late November / early December 2012. In two photos dragons (although hard to see) are perched on a rock or tree stump.

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