Lake Cathie

[wread17]

I have been staying around Lake Cathie for the Christmas break and got to play with my new lens, a Tamron 150-600mm, and had some fun with it. Not many reptiles but this thread may be added to.

Eastern Water Dragon (Intellagama lesueurii)


Lace Monitor (Varanus varius)
I have found two of these guys so far, both around 1.2m. They both had light blue colouration around the throat which was particularly obvious on the first one, is this normal?





Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus)



Eastern Osprey (Pandion cristatus)



Red-capped Plover (Charadrius ruficapillus)

 

[Herpo]

Love the Wrens. Contact Bird life Australia, I reckon they'd put that first photo of the wren in a calendar or something. Never seen them in such detail, so keep having fun with that toy of yours!

 

[cement]

Yes the pale blue on the lacies is normal
Great photos!

 

[mikey_mike]

Love the Wrens. Contact Bird life Australia, I reckon they'd put that first photo of the wren in a calendar or something. Never seen them in such detail, so keep having fun with that toy of yours!

The osprey was pretty special as well.

 

[wread17]

Thanks for the kind words everyone, it's funny I just never noticed the blue before cement.

 

[ronhalling]

[MENTION=42079]wread17[/MENTION], If you go down the road to the "Perch hole" at Lake Cathie you will find some huge "Lacies" of 2m or more especially around the lake itself, in the same location we have seen RBB's Browns, Blueys and all the usual water skinks and if you go down there at night there is a very good chance at this time of the year that you will find a pretty reasonable amount of Coastals, Intergrades and high Yellow Port Macquarie Diamonds, at various times around December January and February you will find a plethora of Reptiles, Birds and Amphibians at the Lake and in the Limeburners Creek area over on the north side (over the ferry) in Port Mac, just be careful at night over there as we have seen quite a few Death Adders around Sand Fly Alley whilst fishing, I don't know when you are going home but i hope you get the opportunity to herp these other location i have mentioned. .....................Ron

 

[wread17]

I'll definitely check out the perch hole Ron, would be great to see a carpet and might go fishing there as well as we just caught 11 flathead, 5 whiting and a bream today.

 

[Shotta]

like that osprey shot,Like how you can see the flathead in it's talons

 

[BredliFreak]

Great shots mate, you certainly are a talented photographer. Those wren shots are fantastic!

 

[centrallian11]

really impressed with your pics mate . i am a artist who mainly paints birds and those wrens would be a fantastic pic .

 

[wread17]

I know it's not quite what this forum is for but can someone who knows their terns well help me please?
As can bee seen by the above pictures I thought that the smaller ones were little terns. That was until I found these even smaller ones who were obviously adults as shown by this one feeding a juvenile. I think these ones are actually Little Terns but if that is true I don't know what the medium sized non-breeding terns are.

The adults of the smallest species also seemed to have been ringed for research?


And some other pictures.
Eastern Water Dragon (Intellagama lesueurii)


Little Egret (Egretta carzetta)

 

[pythoninfinite]

Wonderful photos! Did anyone notice the huge tick on the neck of the male EWD, photo 2, and the smaller tick on its flank?

Jamie

 

[wread17]

Thanks Jamie, every Water Dragon around here seems to have ticks, the bush just seems to be teeming with them.

 

[Performa]

Awesome photos. You sure nailed them with your new camera lense.

- - - Updated - - -

Very impressed with the attention to detail jamie!

 

[pythoninfinite]

The Osprey with the flattie is a cracker photo!

J

 

[cement]

The Osprey with the flattie is a cracker photo!

J

Its interesting because flatties are bottom dwellers and osprey are surface fishers. Must have pulled it from very shallow water!

 

[wread17]

Yeah he dived into about a foot of water and stayed under for a couple of seconds to grab it.

 

[wildbne]

The medium-sized terns are most likely common terns (Sterna hirundo), the name being somewhat of a misnomer, as they are not all that common in Australia. The little tern is feeding a fledgling in that photo too and breeding populations along the east coast are somewhat fragile (a lot of our little terns are non-breeding Asian migrants), so that is a very special location you've found!

Agree with everyone about your photos, they are wonderful! I loved the little egret myself, and that very special osprey pic.

 

[wread17]

Thanks wildbne, the non-breeding common tern definitely seems to be the closest to these ones which would make them fairly uncommon as from what I've read they are more often seen a fair way offshore.