I enjoy being beside a slow-moving river, there is something relaxing in the sound of the water leisurely flowing past. I enjoy it even more when there is birdlife going about its business while I watch the events unfold. That is probably why I again found myself sitting beside the Murrumbidgee River on a cold, foggy Sunday morning at Uriarra Crossing thoroughly engrossed in the moment without worrying about the frigid temperature. There were some lovely birds down near the river, including a Little Pied Cormorant and a White-faced Heron sharing the convenience of a toppled-over tree. This post also includes some photographs at the bottom that I took at home later that morning, when I was supposed to be cleaning up the backyard. In moving some wood I came across some fascinating creatures I just had to photograph, before I returned to cleaning up the garden.
Galahs (Eolophus roseicapillus) are very common birds but are still nice to see with their distinct plumage colours. I saw a couple of groups of Galahs sitting in different dead tress beside the river. They were stationary in the trees, preening themselves or occasionally calling out.
When I was standing at the river bank I noticed a Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos) emerge from the water, whereupon it climbed a low branch. Cormorants are skittish birds, with this one proving no exception. As I was moving around the curving bank to get a better view, further away along the bank but more obvious to the bird, the cormorant flew off down the river. It landed on a dead tree that had long ago toppled into the river. The bird turned its back to the rising sun, while extending its wings to dry. To be honest, I was so focussed on the cormorant, both my attention and my lens, I completely missed the White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae) on the same tree until I was processing my photographs later that day. The heron was staying still, with its back also towards the sun.
Across the river I notices two Masked Lapwings (Vanellus miles) in the shallow water near the far bank. It was a cold morning so I was surprised to see them stationary in the river. One had its leg bent up to its body. I understand this is way to help stay warm as they loose heat from their exposed legs so keeping them closer to their body reduces heat loss. I only observed them for a few minutes, from across the river, yet they did not move from that spot. I could see them moving their heads from side to side but they stayed in that one location the whole time.
There were at least three Brown Thornbills (Acanthiza pusilla) moving between bits of vegetation. The bird in the photograph was in this tree with the ants for a little while, although it was not clear if it was eating the ants, or possibly another insect the ants were “harvesting”. This species of thornbill is easily distinguished by its red irises, which the photograph below really caught the sunlight.
There was also a group of at least three Superb Fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus) moving in the same area as the Brown Thornbills. There was at least one non-breeding male in the group but my photos of the male were not great. The birds were moving through the undergrowth while also preening when they stayed still long enough. I really liked the photograph below, which looks like the female fairy-wren is peering at me through the twigs.
As I was heading back to the car I could hear a Satin Bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus). I was tempted to try to track down the call in the light bush on the opposite side of the road. Then I looked up to see the bird perched in a dead tree. I did not hear any other bowerbird calls.
Later on that morning I was in the backyard clearing up some fallen tree branches we had piled up to one side. When I lifted up a thick one I discovered three Bark Cockroaches on the underside. I thought they looked like such prehistoric animals that I had to take some photographs. Once I brought the camera outside I kept finding things to photograph. Sorry, these photographs are not the best as I was having trouble steadying the camera. I did eventually get back to tidying up the garden.
While I was in the backyard two, possibly immature, Pied Currawongs (Strepera graculina) decided to use our bird bath. One of them washed itself in it while the other just enjoyed a few drinks. I was photographing almost into the sun with a kit lens so there is significant chromatic aberration in the photograph despite trying to remove it.
The creatures that prompted me to get my camera were a group of three Bark Cockroaches (Laxta granicollis). As you can see with the picture of the female, they have a trilobite-like appearance so are sometimes called Trilobite or Flat Cockroaches. They are normally found in groups as they are communal insects. When I moved the branch to a better location for photographing they remained motionless. I almost thought I had found egg or pupa cases as they stayed so firmly flattened against the log. Once the sun began to warm them they started to move, although just to the underside of the branch out of the direct sun. They then flattened themselves against the bark again, to once again resume being motionless. After a few goes of rolling the branch over to get a better shot, all three of them, at different times, fell off the branch to the wooden deck where they crawled through the cracks to disappear. The adult females are like the nymphs with a trilobite-style body while the males have wings.
This Wingless Earwig was crawling quickly across the now exposed soil trying to get to cover. The pincers at the end are used for fighting or copulating with other earwigs. These insects mainly feed on living or decaying plant matter.
This type of Woodlouse is common across Australia. They are sometimes called roly-poly because of their defensive technique of rolling their body into a ball with only their body armour exposed. They are crustaceans so less well-adapted for living on land than insects so need to stay in moist environments as they do not have a skin that is good for retaining water.
The Golden-tailed Sugar Ant (Camponotus aeneopilosus) is a small ant that nests on the ground or in logs. They have only been recorded in NSW and the ACT according to the CSIRO.