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Tag: Lake Monger

Teals, Lake Monger

 

The pictured birds are teals.

These very common dabbling ducks are no less lovely for being “common”.

Probably, this post’s heroines are grey teals, but they just might be chestnut teals, or hybrids.

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“Bin Chicken” makes a splash

 

 

Our local lake never disappoints.

That said, bird-wise, the least interesting time is during Perth’s cooler, rainier months.

Then, migratory birds have all flown north –  some of them, to far-off places in Eurasia.

Other birds spread out across southwestern WA; with water and food generally-available,  they do not need to congregate around “permanent” bodies of water such as Lake Monger.

Still, as today’s & tomorrow’s posts illustrate, at Lake Monger there is always some avian activity to enjoy…

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Stolid feet, dancing bill…and a bit of “pelican yoga”

 

 

 

Over the relevant eight minutes I remained seated, as the sole pelican’s feet stayed still, several metres away, ”planted” in shallow water near Lake Monger’s western shore.

S/he reminded me of several Irish button accordion masters I have viewed from a similar distance – their feet moving not at all, but their body’s upper half highly mobile, its many movements oft-unpredictable.

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Teal, dependents…

 

Perth’s Lake Monger sits within the Federal electorate of Curtin.

It was named after a Labor Prime Minister, but until 2022 Curtin was generally regarded as a perpetually-“safe” Liberal seat.

Curtin’s mostly-affluent electors include the adult residents of Australia’s wealthiest postcode.

In 2022, however, Curtin “fell” to “Teal independent” candidate Kate Chaney.

Apolitically speaking, Teals have thrived here for at least many thousands of years.

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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #23 in series (Australasian grebe, Lake Monger)

 

As is often true of Tachybaptus novaehollandiae, our hero/ine was repeatedly disappearing and re-emerging.

Every time s/he resurfaced, the excellence of his/her feathers’ water-repellence was readily apparent.

Incidentally, as highly responsible parents, Australasian grebes sometimes eat their own feathers; click here to discover precisely why they do so.

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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: # 8 in series (second of three “strangers in paradise”)

 

 

 

Lion’s teeth, wind-riders, and a bad reputation….

I am referring to members of Taraxacum – a large genus of flowering plants. which most Australians regard as weeds and/or as highly invasive pests.

They are generally known as dandelions; Australian has some native species, but the ones so very familiar to most of us are indeed “alien invaders”.

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