Wednesday 23 October 2019

Once more to Herdsman in the rain


Herdsman is a fabulous place to visit if you have half a day to kill in Perth as I did today, and just like two weeks ago I finally managed to photograph a hard to get species. I was walking back to the car park and spotted a buff-banded rail walking amongst the long grass. At first I could only see its head and even that would disappear for periods, so I just stood still and waited. Eventually the bird emerged fully from the long stuff and started walking around on the shorter grass, and to my disbelief given how hard they can be to see at times, it seemed quite unconcerned by my presence and allowed me to take some reasonable photos. About 10 minutes later I then spotted a second bird, this one with a chick, and they were walking around the front garden of one of the nearby houses!



Given the weather I'm very pleased with the way these photos have turned out. I must say I've visited Herdsman on three separate occasions now stretching back to July 2018 and on each occasion the weather has been shocking. On the first visit it rained so hard that large areas were flooded and the boardwalk was closed. Two weeks ago it was raining all of the time I was there and today, after travelling from further north in shorts and unbroken warm sunshine, by the time I got to Perth and Herdsman the sky was black, there were periods of heavy rain and it was cool enough for me to to have my fleece and coat on. So much for Perth being a warm sunny place, in my experience it consistently has the worst weather in Aus! Still better weather than back home though!



Little Corellas


Willie wagtail on its nest.

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