Blackswans And Cygnets And Cape Barren Geese

[Baccus]

A photo I took years ago while on holidays in Tasmania.

A pair of Cape Barren Geese also taken in Tasmania, these could be just as aggressive as the black swans.


Ooops think I accidentally posted in the wrong section

 

[Paradise3]

Could you get some recent photo's of the black swans near you please? For me?

 

[Baccus]

I can try with all the recent flooding over here the swans have heaps of extra water holes to hang out at. I can also try to get some pics of magpie geese, whistling ducks and maned wood ducks as there are a few flocks hanging around close to my house. If I am REALLY lucky I'll find the Jabiru again the only Australian stork and beautiful with their irridesent head and neck.
Hopefully I'll be able to get close enough to some balck swans to show off the fantastic frilling of thier wing feathers, it looks almost like a ballerinas tutu, you can sort of see it in the above pic.

 

[mattbleasby]

I have never seen (Black) Swans in my life. Traveled all over the world with work, But never seen any There are lots of white ones near me (UK) So there everywhere but black ones look strange to me, but look beautiful

 

[Baccus]

They are lovely but have the same temperment as the white swans, so going near their cygnets is generally a bad idea. Black swans are only native to Australia (like so many odd critters down here) as are Cape Barren Geese.
I remember seeing (I think in lakes enterance down south) a huge area of water that looked like somebody had thrown hundreds of car tyres in, it was all black swans hunkered down ready to sleep for the night, an amazing sight and I wish I had been able to get some pics of it.
While I'm here any other species of birds anyone would particualrly like to see pics of? Australian pelicans (lovely black and white), Australian magpies? (again black and white so are peewees, willy wag tails and butcher birds). Rainbow lorrikets? Sulpher Crested cockatoos? Red wing or crimson wing parrots? Almost any of these I can easily get good pics of as most of them are often around my yard- barring the water birds although I do get the odd ibis and a Sacred Kingfisher knows all about my ponds of fish.

 

[Paradise3]

Any Australian birds are good for me as I'm stuck in the UK so they are all exotic to me.

 

[Carlovel1]

There is a small population of Black Swans here in London. I see them regularly

 

[Paradise3]

There is a small population of Black Swans here in London. I see them regularly

Lucky Barstool! I've never seen anything but pictures of black swans!

 

[Carlovel1]

In some ponds in london, there are loads of rare waterfowl such as Shelduck, Shovelers, Red Breasted Goose, Whooper Swan, Berwick Swan, Egyptian Goose, Mandarin Duck, Wood Duck, Ruddy Duck... And some pesky Pelicans
London Wetland Centre has even more amazing waterfowl, worth going if you're in London and interested in Ducks

EDIT:not trying to make you jealous or anything...

 

[Paradise3]

In some ponds in london, there are loads of rare waterfowl such as Shelduck, Shovelers, Red Breasted Goose, Whooper Swan, Berwick Swan, Egyptian Goose, Mandarin Duck, Wood Duck, Ruddy Duck... And some pesky Pelicans
London Wetland Centre has even more amazing waterfowl, worth going if you're in London and interested in Ducks

EDIT:not trying to make you jealous or anything...

*Gives evil eyes*
Mandarins aren't all that rare... I have a pair of them living in the woods next to me. I would love to see some of the ones you mentioned though. Unfortunately I don't live in London. I've also seen tufted ducks so if there are any of them on there I don't really care. Have you ever seen any red breasted mergansers on there? Or some crested grebes? I've seen crested grebes before but they are so beautiful I like watching them.

 

[Carlovel1]

I'll have to look for some old photos, there are loads of ducks in London. My favourite has to be the Nēnē, a rare goose from Hawaii. Yes there are many Great Crested Grebes. And there were a few Red Breasted Mergansers in the Wetlands centre last time we were there

 

[Carlovel1]

Sorry to spam with so many photos

Here are a few:
Barnacle Goose

Whooper Swan

G.C.Grebe

Bar Headed Goose

Cheeky Heron I feed

Cormorant by the Thames

Egyptian Goose

Herons getting fed

Shelduck

More shelduck

Whooper Swan

Mandarin pair

Mummy Egyptian goose

Female Shovler?

Male Shovler

Angry Egyptians

Nēnē taking off

Some sort of Pintail?

Widgeon

Elder Duck?

There are too many photos to show

 

[woody88]

Never really been interested in ducks, geese etc but have to say there are some really beautiful species there. Will defo be looking out for them in the future!

 

[Paradise3]

The last photo is a common male Eider in eclipse plumage and the 18th picture is a pair of male pintails, probably a colour variation of the northern pintail since that's a visitor of the British Isles.
Also that's not a female shoveler it's another male with a different colouration, females are the same as female mallards.
On a lake where I go fishing with my Grandad there's a pair of tufted ducks and some other waterfowl that's not seen very often like goldeneyes and red breasted mergansers.
I'll list the ones I've seen on there.
Tufted duck(male and female, pair)
Goldeneye(2 males)
Grey heron(1)
Mallard(3 females, 1 male)
Great crested grebe(male and female, seen them courting)
Red breasted merganser(1)
Eider(3)
Canada Geese(a big group of 7)
Greylag geese(a pair)
Great northern diver
Dark bellied brent(a small group of 5)
Northern Pintail(2)
Goosander(3)

I think that's it. Oh and there's an oddly coloured pair of ducks on there as well. The female is all dark brown but with a white breast and the male has a green head, dark brown body and a white breast. Can't find them anywhere.

 

[Baccus]

Well I haven't been able to get any pics of black swans yet, but I did have a couple of Rainbow lorikeets on the feeder yesterday, that were very obliging and let me get close to them.

They shouldn't be eating bird seed as it stuffs up the brush on their tongues which enables them to lick up nectar and pollen.

I also got a photo of a male red wing parrot, sorry it's not the greatest but they are so timid and I had to stay on the back varandah while the feeder was about 18m away.

And even though these next shots aren't birds I was really proud of them, of a male moth I found just as I was leaving work. He was really beautiful with lovely blushes of pink on his wings and also huge he was nearly the size of my hand.

I will keep trying to get more pics of my local birds to add.