The Cyd Cherrise of the bird world

Simon described them as the avian equivalent of Cyd Charrisse. Only such a writer as he could come up with a turn of phrase that equated a Black winged Stilt to the female dancer in the 1952 production of ‘Singing in the Rain’. If you take a look at a few pictures of her and see the length of her legs you’ll see what he meant.

We were having a wander along the North Norfolk Coast taking in a few spring and passage migrants. By chance news reached us of two Black winged Stilts that had made landfall close to Well-next-the-Sea a few minutes earlier. Given we were so close it would have been rude not to pop in and see them; so we did. They were a pair. Male and female birds – the male is jet black on the back the female is slightly browner. They did a bit of wandering after we left but have since been seen back near Wells. I guess we’re in for another Norfolk breeding record. One of the (few) plus points of climate change is that we get to experience some of the Mediterranean species as they move north following the temperature contours.

 

In the pink

The main arterial that punctures its way into Melbourne from the west is the Westgate Freeway. It crosses the Yara River by way of the magnificent 2.5km long Westgate Bridge. Beneath the busy roadway is a small recreational area; Westgate Park.

Throughout the world there are a small number of rare lakes. The salinity, algal and bacterial content of these lakes, when the temperature is right, turn the water pink for a while. One such ‘Pink Lake’ occasionally occurs in Westgate Park and in mid March was at its ‘pinkest’ for a long time. Tania and dropped down from the bridge to take a look. I’m not sure what was going through the mind of the the White-headed Stilt I photographed feeding in what appeared to be a vast quantity of Strawberry Nesquik … but it certainly made a pretty picture.