Argyle - Flora & Fauna - Thursday 24 June

Grant, the Triple J guide, really knew his river, and when he cut the engine, each time you knew that he had a treasure for you.

We stopped for some considerable time at this bat colony as his told us of their habits. There were a couple of hundred of them still hanging around readying themselves for their usual evening migration.Unfortunately, we have so many of them around the city of Sydney that we have become blase, I am afraid.

The first smaller image was the nest of a Whistling Kite. Quite big and looking very much like a teenager's bedroom. The second smaller image shows a crocodile - a freshie - with his mouth open because he has a teenie brain and it gets overheated very quickly and needs all the cooling breeze it can get.


This Cormorant, however, was very unteenager-ish. He worked like the dickens to get a fish out of the water and down his own gullet. He never quite managed it, and lost it back to the water, which is where we left him trying to get it up the bank again. I was quite chuffed to capture the fish mid-throw!


This pair of Sea Eagles had the most prominent eyrie along the entire river and Grant knew exactly which bend to slow down as we came around. Lucky I have such a powerful zoom.

The next two smaller shots show a crane waiting for fish to surface, and then a pelican perching in a tree, which I gather is most unusual. My guess is that he was up-to-here with crocodiles trying to get uber-friendly.

Now to the final shot which is, I am embarrassed to say, pretty poor technically. However, I have included it out of hubris rather than desperation. We were just heading into the sunset on the lower Ord. Across our bow flew a flock of what appeared to be black birds. However, this crook image convinces me that these were actually Red-tailed Black Cockatoos. I have never seen one of these before that alone photographed one. So, here it is for posterity!