22 Darters, Teals and Grebes
About this episode
Waterbirds can look alike until one small detail gives them away. Kathie Thomas shares how to identify common Australian waterbirds, including darters, teals and grebes, and her love of Birdsland Reserve.
Episode illustration: Chestnut Teal
A photo of a Blue Banded Bee that Kathie Thomas took in Spring 2009 led her on a path of discovery. She’s learnt lots of things since that day and can now name almost every bird in the region she lives in, and identify it by its call too. Apart from improving her skills in photography she’s learnt so much more about the environment in which she lives, exploring it constantly. She walks and drives to many places simply for the pleasure of photography and gets excited when she discovers a ‘new’ bird or something she’s not seen before.
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Kirsty: This episode was recorded on the country of the Wurundjeri people of the Eastern Kulin Nation. I would like to pay my respect to Elders, both past and present. Birds are integral to one tree culture. For example, Bunjil is the ancestral Wedge-tailed Eagle, the creator. Waa is the ancestral crow, the protector.
Kirsty: Welcome to Weekend Birder. I'm Kirsty Costa. In this episode, Kathie Thomas is going to share what she knows about darters, teals and grebes, which are three common birds found in rivers, lakes and streams across Australia. Here is how Kathie discovered her love of birds.
Kathie: It was actually because of the Blue Banded Bee. My husband and I shifted here to Selby in the Dandenong Ranges being nearly thirteen years ago now, about mid-Spring, and when I was outside I kept hearing a strange sound. I knew it was a bee, but it was a bit different to a regular bee and it took me a little while to work out where the bee was. Took me even longer to get a serious photo of it with my camera so I could get it identified. And I found out it was a Blue Banded Bee. So of course I started doing a bit of research about bees and all that type of thing, so I was really excited about that. And then I realised if I could get a bee when it's moving, I might be able to get some birds when they're moving. So then I started to focus on birds on our property. We have a two acre property and when we originally shifted here probably only saw about twelve different species of birds. But over the years that's changed because we've done a lot to this property since we've been here. It was pretty much just trees, liquid ambers, oak trees, gum trees and not much else. There was a few young grevilleas here, but we've planted a whole lot of salvia and more grevilleas and callistemon and a whole lot of other plants. And over the years we've seen an increase in the birdlife that's here. So I've documented so far 35 different species of birds on our property, which is great. I'm really gotten into eBird now and registering all the birds that I say I've got much better at bird photography. And of course the more photos you take of birds, the more addictive it becomes because you keep trying to get that shot. And then when you think you've got that shot, you've got another level that you want to work up to. So I guess that's how I got into it.
Kirsty: Kathie's love of taking photos unexpectedly led to her publishing a book about birds.
Kathie: Back in February 2020, which was just before our first lockdown, I was suffering from shingles and at that stage I was running a full time business off a computer based full-time business. I couldn't spend a lot of time on the computer because it was very uncomfortable to sit and I was in a lot of pain but my mind has always got to be busy. I've always thinking on things and I was thinking about conversations I've had with my grandchildren about birds. They're always asking questions, "What bird is that, Nana? What bird is that, Grandma?" and whatever. So I was thinking about it and I was thinking, "Oh, I might have enough photos of birds in this region where I could probably write a book for the grandchildren". So I thought, "I can sit at my computer, I'll start collecting and going through the photos". And I did. And within a fortnight I had compiled a book. I just built it in Word, created all the grids with the photos and in Canva and put it all together and created this book about forty different species of birds in the Dandenong Ranges. And the idea was I was going to give it to my grandchildren. I've written the foreword and I've named all the grandchildren at the front, so they're all going to get a copy each. And my sister-in-law helped me name the book and it's called 'Words on Birds: Feathered Friends of the Dandenongs'. When I got the first copy, I was just so excited. My husband took a photo of me holding the book and I shared it on my Facebook profile with some friends in there. And then people started saying, "Oh, where can I get a copy of that book?". And so I thought, "Oh!". And this was like just immediately before the lockdown, you know, the first lockdown that this is happening, we're starting to go through lockdown. And I shared it on the Hills and Dandenongs Facebook group, over 20,000 people on that group. Half of them live up here and of the remaining half, half of those have lived here and the other half want to live here. So, you know, people passionate about the hills here. So I shared the book with them and suddenly I got all these grandparents and parents buying copies of my Words on Birds book because they were locked down. They happened to be in their own backyard or they could only be in a local park, couldn't be far from home, and people started to get into birding and I'm thinking, "Wow! I had no idea that was going to happen!". It was all just because of a passion and sharing something with my grandchildren. I've since published a second book last year and they sell in local bookstores and gift shops up here in the Dandenong Ranges as well as I've got a stall at a local market. You never know where a passion is going to lead. You just don't know.
Kirsty: One of Kathie's favourite places to take photos and go birdwatching is the Reserve in Belgrave Heights, on Wurundjeri Country east of Melbourne. She discovered it while exploring walks in the area with her daughter.
Kathie: There's an outer car park or if you drive the one kilometre in through their driveway, there's an inner car park. So if you do the full circuit of the two lakes back to the car park, it's roughly three kilometres or if you do the outer car park then it's roughly a five kilometre walk fairly flat. So people can ride bikes or push prams or kids can ride on their little bikes and trikes and things like that, and you can even push wheelchairs around. It's friendly enough for that as well. And it's got a picnic area and barbecues and toilets and everything. There's two lakes, there's a small lake and a bigger lake. And I've documented, oh, I don't know how many birds in that region, at least fifty. I always get excited when I something I haven't heard before or see a color I haven't seen before. And I walk there regularly. I'm usually there at least three or four times a week, always with camera in hand. Never go without my camera. And I just love being able to shoot the birds and in the nicest possible way and get photos that I can share online. And I do. I'm constantly sharing online. And when I share online and particularly on Facebook, I don't just share photos. I actually explain what each photo is. So the names of the bird, whether they're a male or a female, if it's obvious to be able to tell that just little bits about them. And even in the Hills and Dandenongs Facebook group. Now an interesting thing about Birdsland, it's not named for the birds. It was actually a family by the name of 'Bird' that owned it. It was a farm, it was their paddocks and the people that have been around here for a long, long time referred to the area as birds paddocks. Quite some time ago they actually donated the property for public use and there's kangaroos and wallabies that hang around there as well and a huge amount of birdlife. Some of the birdlife is there all year round and some of it is seasonal.
Kirsty: There are lots of water birds living in the two lakes at Birdsland Reserve, including the Australasian Darter. This species of bird can be found in rivers, lakes, wetlands and estuaries. The Darter is sometimes called the 'snake bird' because it has a really long neck that stretches out. When it is swimming, it has a yellow beak and a white mark that runs below the eye and then down the neck. Males are mainly black and females are also black, but have a white underbelly, a white neck and a white chin. Kathie regularly sees Darters when birdwatching at Birdsland Reserve.
Kathie: A lot of people think that they're cormorants, but they're not. And I tell them a quick way to be able to tell whether a cormorant or a bird is look at the color of their fate. Darter birds have pink fake, cormorants have black feet, and they'll go, "Oh, I didn't notice that!". And of course, the Darter birds have got longer neck, but often they might have them sort of scrunched up. So people don't always notice the long neck. So we have Darter birds and cormorants. We have the Noisy Miners, kookaburras, we get Sacred Kingfishers and Azure Kingfishers sometimes during the year. I saw my first Olive-backed Oriole there last summer. I was just so excited to see that, which was awesome. Yeah, it's just amazing. Absolutely amazing seeing all the different types of birds that are there.
Kirsty: There are other water birds living at Birdsland Reserve, including teals. A teal is a type of duck and there are 15 species of teal found around the world. Two species are native to Australia, the Grey Teal and the Chestnut Teal. The Grey Teal is super common and it's found in every state and territory in Australia. So if you live in Australia, there's a good chance you've seen one. The Chestnut Teal is found from Cairns down to Tasmania and across to Western Australia.
Kathie: Chestnut Teals, particularly the male, have a vibrant deep green head and beautiful bronze-coloured or brown-coloured feathers on their backs and everything. Whereas the females are plain of colour, they don't have that bright colour that the males have. And then the Grey Teals are just that (they are grey) but they all have a very similar speckled or fleck through their feathers. And it's really interesting to see.
Kirsty: As a beginner birdwatcher, I often get teals confused because the female Chestnut Teal looks really similar to the male and female Grey Teal. They both have brown feathers and a red eye, and they are often found hanging out together. So here's a tip - one way to tell the difference is by looking at their throats. The female Chestnut Teals throat feathers are pale brown, however, the Grey Teal throat feathers are white. I hope that helps you when you're birdwatching. Kathie also sees grebes at Birdsland Reserve, which people often think are baby ducks.
Kathie: Oh, they do! I get that all the time. I'll get people saying, "Oh, I didn't think it was duckling season yet. Look at that little duck over there!". And I'll go, "Oh no, that's grebe". They'll go, "What?!". And then I've got to spell it to them and then I tell them to look it up on their phone so they can Google it. And most of the time at Birdsland we have Australasian Grebes, but just recently we've had hoary headed grebes turning up as well and of course they've got different markings on their head. The Hoary-headed Grebes, it's more like a striped marking and a grey, feathery look on their head, whereas the Australasian Grebes have got more that ginger tone to them. But I've been finding that the Hoary-headed has been hanging around with the Australasian, so it was quite interesting to see that happening. And of course when they're in breeding season then it's a lot more obvious about their changes to a bat. But with the Australasian Grebe you can see that really dark stripe at the side of their faces and the hoary headed grebe. It just seems like they've got their feathers have gotten more messy and more pronounced on their heads. One of the fantastic things about grebes is they actually carry their babies on their backs. They hide them under their feathers and it's just an amazing, amazing, amazing thing to see. I've seen lots of photos of grebes like that. And then as they get older, they're able to come off the back and go into the water themselves. What an amazing way for a bird to be able to carry its young around instead of just having them follow around like you see with ducks.
Kirsty: There are three main types of grebes in Australia, the Australasian Grebe and the Hoary-headed Grebe that Kathie was just talking about, along with the Greater Crested Grebe. These birds are fantastic swimmers and will disappear for what feels like minutes at a time. Refer to your bird book or app to discover how to identify them during different seasons because, as Kathie said, the feathers can change during breeding season. In particular, Kathie loves taking photos of lots of different types of water birds.
Kathie: You can get amazing shots of birds when they're in water and when they're taking off, and you can see the water dropping off from their wings. I've got this magic photograph of a Pacific Black Duck as it's skimming across the water because it's got its wings down. It's got the green iridescence showing in its wings. And sometimes their wings will have a purple iridescence. And sometimes green depends on how the sunlight falls on their wings. So it's just skimming across the top of this water with its wings down the green showing, and then a reflection of the bird underneath it on the water. It was just it was just one of those was in the right place at the right time, saw the bird moving and the camera and just panned and followed and got that shot. I was just amazed.
Kirsty: I'll share Kathie's photo on social media and you can find us by searching Weekend Birder or @birderpod on your favourite app. Speaking of social media, Kathie has actually been instrumental in bringing the birdwatching community together in Australia in different online forums and websites.
Kathie: When I was first really starting to take a lot of notice of birds... of course, you start to look online and see what there was. And I joined the Birds in Backyards Forum quite a long time ago. It must have been back in 2002 when I started to get involved with the forum on there. And one of the guys on there and I were often chatting to each other and I discovered he was in Melbourne, same as me. We wanted to organise a meet-up and the woman who ran the Backyard Birds thing, she didn't really want us using the forum for that purpose. She said, "You know, go and sort out your own meet ups and things". So then I discovered a website called Meetup. Graham and I started to use Meetup as a way to connect other birders here in Melbourne so we can go on regular outings. And we used to meet up two, three, four times a month (mostly on weekends because most of us were working at that stage) sometimes during the week, if we're on holidays or whatever. And after a couple of years after using the Meetup system we decided that members really wanted to be able to chat more and share photos, not just attend events. So then we created Birds of Australia, which is a Facebook group. And that group is grown quite large now, which has been wonderful and it's got members from all over Australia plus people overseas who are interested in birds here in Australia. And then I started to get involved in other other groups. There's one called Women Birders of Australia, which is actually run I think from a Melbourne based woman called Sonia Ross. That's a great group as well. And then they started telling me about eBird, so I use the eBird app now to checklists and track all the different species of birds I've seen. And then I really started wanting to get involved with the Western Treatment Plant, go down and have a look at that. I've been hearing so much about it from different photography groups that I belong to. It's not just bird groups I belong to, I belong to quite a few photography groups as well. And so I went along to the Western Treatment Plant with someone who is in my Birds of Australia group. And then as soon as I saw it I thought, "Oh my God, what have I been missing out on? Why have I waited so long to come to this place?!" I've been already four times this year but what amazed me was that there wasn't a Facebook group for it. I checked the Melbourne Water website. I checked to see what else there was. I just couldn't find any groups, discussion groups. And I thought, hang on for a moment. You know, people need to know about this place and to be able to share their photos. So I started up a Birds of the Western Treatment Plant. We've got nearly three hundred members now and the group has only been going for about three months. So many people are sharing their photos and sharing what they've seen. It's just a wonderful opportunity to be able to share and learn from each other and I guess encourage one another. And I'm passionate about birds and passionate about photography and I tend to draw people up in that passion I guess.
Kirsty: Links to the groups that Kathie just mentioned can be found in the episode notes. A tool that Kathie discovered through her chats with other birdwatchers is iNaturalist.
Kathie: If you don't have the books, or even if you've got the books or the bird apps, you've got to sort of have some idea of what you know that you've been looking at to be able to look it up. iNaturalist.org is absolutely fantastic for being able to upload a photo to and someone else can idea you put the location and it automatically picks up from your photo the date that you took. and then it will start to suggest, from the body shape, what type of bird and what genus it might be. And then someone will come along and confirm and somebody else will come along and confirm for you as well. That's a great tool if you've got no idea what you've taken a photograph of and you want to get it assessed or looked at. Of course, in the birding groups that I've mentioned people can always let you know as well when you upload a photo. If you're going out to take photos of birds, don't move too fast, don't talk too loudly. I would tell them to dress down, don't wear loud colours, dress colours that naturally blend in with your environment and you tread carefully. There's four things you need to look out for. It's change of shape. So you might be looking in a tray and you might see a blob or a knob or something on a branch of a tree. So change of shape, change of colour, sound and movement. Those four things are what will alert you to something being around when you're doing photography. So hence you don't want to have a lot of chatter happening and especially not loud chatter and people do love to come and walk with me. And I don't mind that because I can teach them and show them a few things, but I do need a bit of quiet as well so we can hear things. And one of the things that people often say to me when I share photographs online is, "How did you see that? I walk around there all the time and I never see it". And I'm thinking, "Yeah, but you've probably got something in your ears or you're looking at your phone or you're busy chatting to someone, so you're not really taking in your environment. You're just there on a mission. Get your walk down and get back home". But I'm there to go and see and notice. And funnily enough, I got told once those four things that I mentioned (change of shape, change of colour, sound and movement) also are the things that guerrilla warfare soldiers look for as well. So I'm just shooting with a different tool!
Kirsty: Kathie is now working with her local council to create posters to help people identify birds and enjoy birdwatching in their local area. What a legend! If you would like to find out more about what we explored in this episode, check out the notes or visit weekendbirder.com and stay tuned for some upcoming episodes on bird photography if this is something that you would like to include in your birdwatching practice.
