It was time for a change so for the past two weeks I have shifted my early morning activities to a local lake. It started at lunchtime two weeks ago when a random decision to visit resulted in the discovery of Great Crested Grebes swimming around with tiny stripey babies on their backs. I was mesmerized, I had to go back and for a while I forgot all about the Osprey I have been photographing for months. On the same day at the lake a kind walker told me about a Brown Goshawk nest nearby with three newly fledged babies. The Goshawk nest was in a paperbark swamp and that is where I have spent nearly every morning for the last two weeks. The swamp is overgrown, dark and eerie, old paperbark trees peel into the black water and the air is alive with the the sound of frogs, insects and strange bird calls. Random shafts of light pierce the swamp, which along with the overgrown sticks and branches make it very difficult to photograph anything. The Goshawk family is voracious, the babies are constantly calling to be fed and and the parents bring a steady stream of dead baby birds. In the last week the baby Goshawks have started attacking anything that moves as they learn to hunt for themselves. Photographs of the Goshawk parents and babies catching or eating their prey have eluded me and I have only managed to get a few good ones of the babies sitting on a branch or rail.
Nearby were several coot nests with tiny babies. Last week I photographed Mamma coot sitting while Dad dived nearby for tiny scraps of food which he brought over to the fuzzy yellow babies. This week the nests are abandoned and I think this new life has come to a sad end as Goshawk food.
In the depths of the swamp are several Nankeen Night Heron. They are an extremely beautiful bird with intense eyes and a rich cinnamon coloring which blends with the paperbark trunks Usually you catch a glimpse of movement as they take off before you have properly seen them.
In the shallows close to the shore nearby are several nests of Great Crested Grebes. Some have tiny babies while others are still sitting on eggs waiting.
In the open water hyperactive little Blue Billed Ducks chase each other and the more serene Pink Eared ducks survey the situation with wise sleepy eyes, while one of my favourites, the elegant Great Egret lurks in the reeds.
It is an intriguing new scene and I think I will be spending quite a few mornings here working out the best spots and angles.