20201001-MMPI0064
Thursday 1st October 2020 saw me take a day off work and doa bit of birding either side of some aviation photography at RAAF Base Amberley. Prior to going to the Air Force Base I dropped in to the entrance road to Hardings Paddock at Purga to see if there were any birds on the stock yard fences and shoot from my car. I found a pair of Willie Wagtails hanging about and eventually one of them went to their small cup nest to feed their pair of nestlings that would have been only a week old. These little birds are fiesty, aggressive to anything that enters their territory even when not nesting, I noticed no other birds came near them while I was there. I found a good spot near the nest and waited for the parent bird to return a couple of times with insects to stuff down their babie's throat - a wonderful encounter that I haven't seen before with this species. After my time photographin aircraft was cut short by a lightning storm passing through I decided to have a look around the waterways at nearby Springfield Lakes. There I got a Welcome Swallow on a pole, and found one of the birds I hoped would be there - the Cotton Pygmy Goose. A single female Cotton Pygmy Goose was cruising on the lagoon in nice light, the surroundings reflecting lovely golden light onto the water surface. Later I got some nice shots of the ubiquitous Pacific Black Duck, Maned Duck and a Great Egret that scratched its head for about a minute while I snapped away. I was very happy to get down to water level with the Cotton Pygmy Goose, a pretty little waterfowl that are normally found a long way north of Brisbane but there appears to be a small resident population in Springfield Lakes for the past few years. A nice day off work, as I always say "it beats working!"
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