A real life dragon

Splash! I quickly turn knowing that I have just missed my chance of seeing a water dragon. These little reptiles generally don’t stick around, especially when I have Bundy with me but I got lucky walking around a local wildlife reserve one afternoon. The lake in the reserve has been on the receiving end of a lot of regeneration activity in the past 12-18 months with native trees and grasses being planted all around the foreshore. Piles of branches stacked around tree stumps are yet to be cleared away and these make great little hiding holes for all sorts of creatures. Wary of snakes I steered clear of one pile and kept Bundy close as I inched towards the water’s edge in order to photograph the pelicans on the lake. It wasn’t until I looked away from the pelicans that I noticed a lizard sitting on the pile of wood, an Easter Water Dragon to be precise.

Easter Water Dragons can be found in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. They can live for up to twenty years and will eat insects, small reptiles and frogs as well as fruit and other vegetation. Some people keep them as pets but I think you need a permit to do so and I would much rather see them in their natural habitat. Occasionally I see them lying on the side of the road, it is nice and warm for them and they will scamper off when they see you coming however they’re not always that lucky at escaping traffic.

The water dragon barely moved, his eyes watching every step Bundy and I took. I was grateful to have my camera and 70-200mm lens with me rather than my phone, allowing me to get close-up photos without disturbing him too much. You might be wondering why I’m referring to the water dragon as a male, if you look closely at the photo you can see that the water dragon has a reddish chest, apparently the chest of a male water dragon goes bright red during mating season so I’m thinking that this boy is on the prowl. After mating the female lays up to 25 eggs in the soft soil or sand and then she does a runner, playing no part in the parenting. Thankfully the kids are independent once they hatch, I just hope they stay off the road.

Easter Water Dragon

Watching every move

I can still see you

Advertisement

Taking pleasure in the simple things

On a recent stroll around the lake I noticed a plethora of spider webs dripping in dew and sparkling in the sunlight. The delicate webs were clinging to trees, long grass and anything else that would hold those sticky strands. Each creation varied greatly in shape and size and I couldn’t help but admire them although had I walked through one I may have felt differently.

It is mornings like this that make me realise how much I love being close to nature and how the simplest things can put a smile on my face.

“Do you understand how there could be any writing in a spider’s web?”
“Oh, no,” said Dr. Dorian. “I don’t understand it. But for that matter I don’t understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle.”
“What’s miraculous about a spider’s web?” said Mrs. Arable. “I don’t see why you say a web is a miracle – it’s just a web.”
“Ever try to spin one?” asked Dr. Dorian.

― E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

Wordless Wednesday: Winter beauty

Seasonal colour

Clear blue skies

Frosty morning

Wordless Wednesday: calm waters and no sign of Nessie

Winter morning walk

The chill of winter is here. It was a beautiful morning for a walk by the lake.

Winter hues

A flock of cockatoos, before most of them flew off.

Winter reflections

A lone cockatoo – deserted by his friends

Waterlily blossom

Even the waterlily pads are changing colour. Makes me think of a Monet painting.

The last of Autumn colour

Something new to play with

For a while I have wanted to get a new lens, to be more specific I wanted the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens loved by Nikon photographers (amateur and professional) and perfect for low light photography. After many months of saving my dream was obtained and I picked up the lens a couple of days ago. We’ve had some spectacular sunsets here of late, but sadly they’ve been pretty ordinary since getting the lens so I’ve been testing it out in the backyard and at a nearby lake. Technically I cannot tell you much, what I can tell you is that I love that I can take photographs in low light without having to ramp up the ISO to a ridiculous number or drag out the tripod. Wish it had image stabilisation, my hands can be a little shaky at times however that could be minimised by drinking less coffee 🙂

These few shots aren’t fantastic and the one of the pelicans could be sharper, it was taken from across a body of water so I had to crop the image dramatically to see them properly. Getting closer is going to be essential with this lens, especially when comparing it to the 28-300mm lens I’ve been using.

What bird is that?

Lately I’ve been seeing this little fellow wading through the mud at a nearby lake, so today I took my camera with me on our afternoon walk and was lucky enough to get a couple of photographs. Thanks to Google images I’ve been able to identify the bird as a Black-fronted Dotterel (Elseyornis melanops). The afternoon light and a ‘shady’ white balance setting makes the bird’s plumage appear more golden, but I think it is a good match 🙂

Wordless Wednesday: the golden hour

Golden hour

A beautiful foggy morning

Sunlight on a foggy morning

Beautiful and cold foggy morning

Pukeko (red billed swamp hen) by the lake

One of these things is not like the others…

On a memory card filled with photos of birds I discovered a forgotten image, captured from within the boundaries of our yard. As you can see it is the odd one out.

Baby Lace Monitor – Goanna

Geese keeping a watchful eye on visitors to the lake

Black Swan and duck

I call him Donald

Majestic and friendly Black Swan

A sunset swim for a local flock of geese

Black and white Magpie Geese