EE, Mr An Onymous and I had made an early morning trip to the Western Treatment Plant.
One of those days that only Melbourne in winter can produce. Out of the box. No wind, crystal clear blue skies and warming sunshine. Brisk, glad to be alive temperatures. Air quality: Still.

We spent an hour or so with a group who were staked out waiting for the “legendary” Orange-bellied Parrot to make an appearance. And of course we’d heard it all before. “Oh, they were on those shrubs about 45 minutes ago…. 😦

Still we did manage to see a couple of them streak over the bushes and hide among some trees.

We ventured on.

Later in the day, (my, how time flies on a blog), we spotted a Brown Falcon zip across a bund and over a pond, to land on what looked like a small mound of stones and earth. This bird was particularly interesting as it had an almost pure white chest. And, as it turned out, was one of a pair, both in light morph. But that is for another story.

We parked near said Falcon, and EE noted, as she does, up the track was a pair of Brolga.
We slowly walked up toward them. They had settled on a small ‘peninsula’ of grasses on the pond so felt safe enough, and after a couple of checks went about their business. We stopped at a repecting distance. They were in no hurry, and neither were we, so it was a great opportunity just to watch.

When on a sudden, one stood up, waved its wings, touched beaks with the other and proceeded to waltz around the grasses and out in to the water.

And for the next five minutes we were spellbound by the performance. Sadly I was much too close with the long lens and missed all of the aerial leaps and bounds.
Fascinating to see such a big bird delicately lift into the air and featherlike return to the water.
Finally there was another round of beak-touching and a small splash in the water to cool down.

They walked up the bank, and crossed the road in front of us without any hesitation. Once across the road, into the next pond, a preening session completed the performance for the day.

With three large grins we walked back to iAmgrey and headed off to Gerry’s for a coffee and chat about the experience. It was one of those days when a short piece of video would have been just the ticket.

Enjoy.