Masthash

#Ngurrungurrudjba

Peter Barnes
7 months ago

“Your feet’s too big”
Juvenile comb-crested Jacana
Ngurrungurrudjba

#photography #birds #BirdsOfMastodon #Ngurrungurrudjba #jacana #nature #billabong #art #AYearForArt #PhotographyIsArt

A juvenile comb-crested Jacana, standing improbably on a lily-pad, seen in profile facing left. The bird’s toes are huge, relative to the size of the bird, almost as long overall as its body. Otherwise it’s normally proportioned, with adult brown fledging nearly complete on its back and head, while the black band across its chest not yet complete. Its neck, throat and belly are white. Its distinctive red wattle is still growing and pale.
Peter Barnes
8 months ago

Pair of white-bellied sea eagles

Haliaeetus leucogaster, Ngurrungurrudjba

#photography #birds #wildlife #nature #eagles #Ngurrungurrudjba #ArtMatters #AYearForArt #BirdsOfMastodon

A pair of white-bellied sea eagles, perched on neighboring top limbs of a dead tree, outlined against a hazy blue sky. The birds are imposing and regal in appearance, dark brown back and wings, yellow, deeply hooked beak, and white head, belly and under tail. Their talons are wrapped around the thin branches. The bird on the left is side-on, facing right, but its head is turned towards the camera. The bird on the right, slightly lower, has its white chest facing the camera, but its head is turned in profile, looking at the other bird. They are a picture of power and menace.
Peter Barnes
8 months ago

Eastern great egret, landing

#MarshMadness
Ngurrungurrudjba

#photography #birds #BirdsOfMastodon #egret #Ngurrungurrudjba #nature #wildlife #art #ArtMatters #AYearForArt

An Eastern great egret with wings raised and outspread, and feet dangling just above the surface of the water and reeds near the billabong bank. The bird is in mid-ground; the foreground is water-lilies and green reeds, and behind the egret is a bank thick with tree roots from a fairly dense stand of trees. Only the bottoms of their trunks are visible, and the light underneath them is dim. The egret is a startling white against this background, white all over with a long pointed yellow beak, and dark, long wading legs, just suspended over the reeds and water.
Peter Barnes
8 months ago

Dabbling

#MarshMadness
Three Radjah shelducks, Ngurrungurrudjba

#photography #wildlife #birds #BirdsOfMastodon #nature #Ngurrungurrudjba #shelduck #ducks #art #ArtMatters #AYearForArt

Three Radjah shelducks dabbling among the waterlilies and weed in shallow water at the edge of a muddy billabong. All three birds have just their beaks and feet in the water in almost identical poses, and all three are in profile, facing right, their bodies imperfectly reflected in the calm but weedy water. Radjah shelducks are elegant, with white heads, necks and bellies, and light pink legs. Their wings are a dark chocolate brown, shading to black, and there is a thin brown collar extending around their chest just below the neck. Their eyes are pale, with a striking black pupil set in their white face.
Peter Barnes
9 months ago

#MarshMadness Ngurrungurrudjba billabong

Shots from moments later. The adult continues its advance, and the juvenile begins to regret its posture and starts sliding back into the water, preparing for a dash for freedom. Next frame, swoosh, it’s gone, the adult diving after it and the only sign of the juvenile a churn in the water. It escaped...

#photography #wildlife #crocodiles #behaviour #action #Ngurrungurrudjba #nature #ArtMatters

Shots from moments later. The adult continues its advance, and the juvenile begins to regret its posture and starts sliding back into the water, preparing for a dash for freedom. Next frame, swoosh, it’s gone, the adult diving after it and the only sign of the juvenile a churn in the water.
Shots from moments later. The adult continues its advance, and the juvenile begins to regret its posture and starts sliding back into the water, preparing for a dash for freedom. Next frame, swoosh, it’s gone, the adult diving after it and the only sign of the juvenile a churn in the water. It escaped...
Peter Barnes
9 months ago

Pecking order…

#MarshMadness Ngurrungurrudjba billabong

One of adult crocodiles’ food sources is juvenile crocodiles, so this encounter is potentially a life-or-death moment for the juvenile, who has entered an adult’s territory. It’s trying to placate the adult by displaying a crocodile’s submissive posture, which is literally baring your unprotected throat to the aggressor. So, not so much pecking order as biting order…
Spoiler: the adult wasn’t appeased, and lunged for the juvenile, who escapes in a swirl of brown water, as seen in the thread
🧵 ...

#photography #wildlife #crocodiles #behaviour #action #Ngurrungurrudjba #nature #ArtMatters

A billabong scene with a near water-level close-up of two swimming crocodiles, a large adult and a smaller juvenile, amidst lily-pads and pond-weed. The adult is swimming almost directly towards the camera to the right of frame, while the juvenile is a little closer still, at right-angles and in profile on the left. While the adult is mostly submerged, with only the long rows of spikes on its back and tail visible, the juvenile’s body is completely underwater but its head is uncharacteristically raised out of the water with its throat towards the adult, water dripping from its jaw, in a submissive posture. Its many teeth are clearly visible.
Peter Barnes
9 months ago

Washing day

#MarshMadness
White-bellied sea eagle drying its wings, Ngurrungurrudjba.

#photography #birds #BirdsOfMastodon #nature #wildlife #eagle #raptors #Ngurrungurrudjba #ArtMatters

A white-bellied sea eagle is perched atop a dead tree, facing the sun, its wings open but not fully raised, for drying. The bird’s head is turned in profile, and it looks more like a heraldic crest than a live animal. Its head, chest and forewings are white, as advertised, while the outer wings and tail are a dark, dusky grey. Behind the eagle is bright blue sky, while immediately behind and below are the green tips of live trees. It’s an imposing sight
Peter Barnes
9 months ago

Azure kingfisher, Ceyx azureus
Ngurrungurrudjba

#MarshMadness

#photography #birds #BirdsOfMastodon #Ngurrungurrudjba #nature #kingfisher #ArtMatters #AYearForArt

An azure kingfisher, a deep, bright blue, sits with its back to us at the low point of a gently curving branch running across the middle of the frame. The bird’s head is turned to the right, so we can see its face and long, spearlike black beak in profile, and one red leg. The tree and green foliage behind is out of focus and indistinct
Peter Barnes
9 months ago

Busy morning at the billabong

#MarshMadness
Ngurrungurrudjba

#photography #birds #trees #marsh #BirdsOfMastodon #egret #MagpieGoose #RadjahShelduck #wildlife #art #ArtMatters #AYearForArt #landscape #Ngurrungurrudjba

Billabong scene with abundant birdlife, wading and flying. In the foreground is a shallow pool, liberally filled but not covered in water-lily flowers. In it are wading groups of magpie geese (large, bulky, black and white), a few Eastern Great egrets (large, elegant, white) and some Radjah Shelducks (smaller, elegant black and white). Behind the pool is flat, swampy grassland, and in it a two dense thickets of spindly melaleucas crowded together, tall white trunks, dirty at the base from flooding, and topped with dense bushy foliage. Further back again, forming a backdrop, is a continuous screen of lower bushy trees. Flying low across the billabong are two Radjah Shelducks, very natty with their black wing-tips and stripes, white wings and bodies, and an Eastern Great egret, wings raised high. Higher up at the top left is another trio of shelducks, gliding aloft against a hazy blue sky.
Peter Barnes
9 months ago

Nankeen Night Heron

Juvenile Nycticorax caledonicus in late afternoon light, Ngurrungurrudjba

#photography #nature #birds #BirdsOfMastodon #heron #Ngurrungurrudjba #ArtMatters #GoldenHour

A Nankeen Night Heron roosting in scrubby foliage, lit by strong late-afternoon light. It’s a juvenile, so it still has its protective colouration, which is a medium bark-brown heavily flecked with white. The bird is in profile, and its most eye-catching feature is, literally, its eye, which has a bright gold iris and black pupil.
Peter Barnes
10 months ago

Brolga

Ngurrungurrudjba

#photography #birds #BirdsOfMastodon #native #wildlife #flock #flying #art #AYearForArt #ArtMatters #brolga #Ngurrungurrudjba

A flock of seven brolgas is flying away from the camera, making a line from the centre of frame towards the bottom right. Above them is blue sky with traces of white cloud. Anchoring the shot to the ground is the tops of a clump of bamboo, rising up at the bottom right of the frame. The thin, bending lines of the bamboo echo the very long, graceful wings and bodies of the birds.
Peter Barnes
10 months ago

Duck!

Plumed whistling ducks, Dendrocygna eytoni, Intermediate egret, Ardea intermedia.
Ngurrungurrudjba.

I love the chaos energy of this shot, the apparently awkward yet highly skilled maneuvering, the explosion of shapes after the elegant symmetry of a flying formation, and under it all, unmoved, the intermediate egret, not ducking.

[Can't believe I forgot the hashtags. Sigh]
#photography #landscape #action #birds #art #BirdsOfMastodon #nature #Ngurrungurrudjba #AYearForArt #ArtMatters #ducks #egret #CompulsoryEgretPun

A flock of plumed whistling ducks in the last stages of alighting on the bank of the Ngurrungurrudjba billabong at dawn. It's aerial chaos, with ten or so ducks in shot, each in a different landing pose, wings back, wings out, wings forward, head forward, head up, yet none of them is in any danger of collision. Already on the bank, apparently unmoved, is a white intermediate egret. Only the edge of the bank is visible; behind the ducks is a wide, grassy floodplain, still softly covered in morning mist, and in the distance a dense melaleuca treeline. Overhead the clouds are still glowing from the sunrise.
Peter Barnes
11 months ago

Time for something uplifting.

White-bellied sea eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) over Ngurrungurrudjba billabong, NT.

#photography #wildlife #birds #BirdsOfMastodon #nature #Ngurrungurrudjba #billabong #flying #eagles

A white-bellied sea eagle in flight towards us at a slight angle, very low over the waters of a billabong and not far from the photographer. Behind it is the grassy, variable shoreline, and further back still a dense line of melaleucas signaling the permanent edge of the billabong. The eagle's wings are spread wide, the dark wingtips lower than its white body. It's a powerful and imposing sight.
Peter Barnes
11 months ago

A moment’s reflection

Eastern Great egret, Ngurrungurrudjba

(Portrait orientation)
#photography #birds #BirdsOfMastodon #nature #egret #kakadu #ngurrungurrudjba #billabong #reflection

An Eastern Great egret, white with yellow beak, stands in profile with neck extended, looking into the distance. It’s standing in shallow water on the shore of the billabong. Behind it are rocks and tree trunks and roots, while in the foreground its white reflection is broken up by gentle ripples into a series of lessening white sigils.
Peter Barnes
11 months ago

Little Pied Cormorant drying its wings, Ngurrungurrudjba

#photography #birds #nature #cormorant #ngurrungurrudjba

A shiny black cormorant is perched with its back to us on the end of a dead branch, its head turned in profile and its wings outstretched to dry.
Peter Barnes
1 year ago

Some more Jacana shots:
1. In flight, demonstrating how its ridiculous feet fold up neatly for flying
2. Strolling over a water lily leaf without sinking
3. A bright red combed individual standing on a clump of water plants
4. A nervous Jacana endeavoring not to feature on today's menu (highly unlikely, in reality, the crocodile generally wouldn't bother, and the jacana could fly away unless it was ridiculously close)

#photography #birds #waterbirds #NorthernTerritory #Ngurrungurrudjba #jacana #crocodile

A comb-crested Jacana in flight over Ngurrungurrudjba billabong. Despite the apparent impossibility of flying with its enormously elongated toes, in flight they fold back very neatly, and it looks like the bird has very long legs with two knees.
An insouciant comb-crested Jacana strolling over a lily pad, its toes barely getting wet.
A comb-crested Jacana standing on a clump of water plants
In the foreground is a comb-crested Jacana, walking over a lily pad. Not far away, further back in the picture, is a floating crocodile, luckily facing away from the Jacana.
Peter Barnes
1 year ago

Comb-crested Jacana, pouncing
Ngurrungurrujba, Northern Territory
(Irediparra gallinacea)

#photography #birds #waterbirds #NorthernTerritory #Ngurrungurrudjba #jacana

A comb-crested jacana is pictured in the act of pouncing on some underwater prey. The jacana, a bit smaller than a chicken, is standing on water plants with the aid of its extraordinarily large feet, with toes extending both back and forward for more than the length of its body. One foot is raised from the water, water dripping, and its body is stretched out with its beak not far from the surface.